Water Pollution

Definition of Water pollution 

Water pollution is broad term that includes contamination of different water bodies such as lakes, rivers, oceans, and groundwater.Water pollution is caused by pollutants, mostly in form of different chemicals that are discharged either directly or indirectly into the water bodies without the adequate treatment to remove their harmful effects.Water pollution is not only huge ecological problem but also huge health problem. It is believed that water pollution is the leading worldwide cause of deaths and diseases responsible for around 15,000 deaths each day.Water pollution is especially serious issue in two fast growing economies, China and India. Some latest reports suggest that more than 500 million Chinese lack access to safe drinking water while in India 700 million people have no access to proper toilet.The two main causes of water pollution are waste water and sewage waste. Each year the world generates around 400 billion tons of industrial waste, and lot of this waste gets discharged into different water bodies causing serious water pollution problem.To determine the level of water pollution science usually takes samples that are afterwards analyzed by different chemical, biological and physical testing.Several studies have confirmed the link between the water pollution and high miscarriage rates. Water pollution is also connected with the lower IQ rates among affected population.Diarrhea, caused by water pollution, is worldwide
responsible for 1,5 million deaths of children each year.Recent studies have showed that close to one billion people lack access to safe drinking water while more than 2,5 billion people live without adequate sanitation systems.Water pollution is one of the main reasons why freshwater resources are constantly in decline (despite being renewable resource), and since only 3% of water on our planet is freshwater world could experience global water shortage much sooner than expected.We all need clean water. People need it to grow crops and to operate factories, and for drinking and recreation. Fish and wildlife depend on it to survive.Many different pollutants can harm our rivers, streams, lakes and oceans. The three most common are soil, nutrients and bacteria. Rain washes soil into streams and rivers. The soil can kill tiny animals and fish eggs. It can clog the gills of fish and block light so plants die. Nutrients, often from fertilizers, cause problems in lakes, ponds and reservoirs. Nitrogen and phosphorus make algae grow and can turn water green. Bacteria, often from sewage spills, can pollute fresh or salt water.

Causes of Water Pollution

Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of lithological formations. This water forms as the part of the natural water cycle present in aquifers (layer of porous substrate that contains and transmits groundwater). Groundwater has many very important functions in agricultural, municipal and industrial use. It is of vital importance to maintain the appropriate level of quantity and quality of discharging groundwater as this has significant impact on surface-water quality.The simplest groundwater pollution definition would be an introduction of certain pollutant(s) into the groundwater which reduces the quality of groundwater making its use very limited, or in some cases impossible. Many different chemicals, and various synthetic products we use today are usually the main causes of groundwater pollution.Love Canal was one of the most famous examples of groundwater pollution. In 1978, residents of the Love Canal neighbourhood in upstate New York noticed high rates of cancer and an alarming number of birth defects. The reason for this? Organic solvents and dioxins from an industrial landfill, which had been infiltrated into the water supply and evaporated in basements to further contaminate the air. Eight hundred families were reimbursed for their homes and moved, after extensive legal battles and huge media coverage.It is of vital importance to preserve groundwater because groundwater that is not polluted presents the
clearest water on our planet that unlike other other open water sources like rivers and streams hasn't been contaminated but was in fact purified by the cleanest process of them all, namely the natural filtration.In the future, freshwater resources will become extremely precious, and groundwater could play one of the most important roles in world's global water supply. Therefore we have to do our best not to release pollutants into the ground because they can work their way down into groundwater, and the end result could be the interaction of groundwater contamination with surface waters that often makes the water supplies unsafe for use.

Storm water runoff – carrying various oils, petroleum products and other contaminants from urban and rural areas (ditches). These usually forms sheens on the water surface.

Leaking sewer lines – may add trihalomethanes (such as chloroform) as well as other contaminants into groundwater ending up contaminating surface water, too. Discharges of chlorinated solvents from Dry Cleaners to sewer lines are also a recognized source of water pollution with these persistent and harmful solvents.
Mining activities – mining activities involve crushing the rock that usually contains many trace metals and sulfides. The left material may easily generate sulfuric acid in the presence of precipitation water. Please, read more at Mining Sites.

Foundries – have direct emissions of metals (including Hg, Pb, Mn, Fe, Cr and other metals) and other particulate matter into the air. Please, read more at Foundry.

Industrial discharges – may add significant pollution to water bodies, but are usually regulated today. Please, read more at Industrial Sites.

Accidental leaks and spills – associated with handling and storage of chemicals may happen anytime and, although they are usually contained soon after they occur, the risk of polluting surface and groundwater exist. An example are ship accidents such as Exxon Valdez disaster which spilled large amounts of petroleum products into the ocean; 

Intended/illegal discharges of waste – while such occurrences are less common today, they may still happen due to the high cost of proper waste disposal; illegal waste discharges into water bodies were recorded all over the world. Burning of fossil fuels – the emitted ash particles usually contain toxic metals (such as As or Pb). Burning will also add a series of oxides including carbon dioxide to air and respectively water bodies.Transportation – even though Pb has been banned in gasoline in the U.S. and many other countries, vehicle emissions pollute the air with various tailpipe compounds (including sulfur and nitrogen compounds, as well as carbon oxides) that may end up in water bodies via deposition with precipitation water.

Construction activities – introduce a series of contaminants into the ground that may eventually end up in groundwater. Please, read more at Construction Sites.Plastic materials/wastes in contact with water – may degrade slowly releasing harmful compounds for both human health and ecosystem.
Disposal of personal care products and household chemicals (including detergents and various cleaning solutions) – this is a serious problem since the releases to water are unpredictable and hard if not impossible to control. It is up to each of us to minimize this contribution to water pollution by controlling our consumption and disposal of such products as well as trying to recycle as much as we can!Improper disposal of car batteries and other batteries – may add metalsLeaking landfills – may pollute the groundwater below the landfill with a large variety of contaminants (whatever is stored by the landfill). 




Solutions Of Water Pollution 

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• Ban Deforestation-Most of the environmental pollution is inter-related. A suitable example is the forest that primarily absorbs the runoff. But, deforestation has a negative impact on the natural cycle. The top soil, which is highly fertile, is washed off. Hence, it is imperative to plant more trees. 
  Minimize Oil Spills-Oil spills have a negative impact on the marine ecosystem. So, strict and stringent laws and regulations should be implemented. This is again one of the important solutions to water pollution. 
  Enforce Laws-One of the most important points is to enforce the existing water pollution laws and make them more stringent. Immediately penalize anyone who tries to break them. This is one of the best measures to prevent water pollution.