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Water Pollution and its Control – Definition, Types, Causes, Effects

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Water pollution is a major concern of the modern society. Water Pollution is considered one of the most dangerous forms of pollution as water is the basis of all the forms of life on earth. Most of the deadly forms of water pollution are caused by man-made activities that result in death and diseases of many organisms. It is very important to understand how water pollution occurs and then devise strategies to check the same.

What is Water Pollution?

Water pollution is defined as the contamination of water bodies by pollutants. This makes the water unfit for drinking, cooking, washing, bathing, and other essential activities. Pollutants or contaminants include chemicals, microorganisms, plastic, parasites, etc. All types of pollution in the environment gradually take their route to water in one way or another causing water pollution.

Contamination of water bodies is responsible for the devastating effects on aquatic life as well as terrestrial life and can contain harmful disease-causing elements such as bacteria and viruses. Toxic waste dumped into water bodies increase water pollution level, gradually kill animals and plant life, destroy biodiversity, and decrease the quality of oxygen in the water, leading to the death of living organisms.

Water-pollution

Types of Water Pollution

Different types of water pollution are:

Groundwater

When rain falls some amount of water seeps through the pores of the earth and fills the crevices, cracks, and pores that become groundwater. This groundwater is the main source of freshwater for the majority of the population. But when contaminants from landfill, sewage tanks, septic tanks, fertilizer, pesticides, etc. seeps through the soil to contaminate the water body, it makes the water unsafe and unsuitable for utilization.

Removal of contamination from groundwater becomes very hard, challenging, and expensive making the process slow and the water source unusable for many years. Polluted water contaminate other sources of water like streams, lakes, and oceans.

Types-of-water-pollution

Surface Water

Covering around 70% of the earth, surface water fills our seas, lakes, streams, lakes, and so on. Excessive use of fertilizer that adds nitrates and phosphates, is one of the main sources of water pollution in these freshwater sources along with industrial, and rural wastes. It is estimated that currently almost 50% of river systems and 33% of lakes have become unsuitable for any form of use.

Ocean Water

Ocean bodies are the largest form of water bodies on the planet that house a huge number of marine organisms. The pollutants like organic and inorganic chemicals, rural wastes, agricultural fertilizers, and heavy metals that originate from coastal areas or inland water pollute water bodies. Debris, plastic, fishing nets, etc. keep on floating in the water body harming the aquatic organisms. The ocean bodies are also affected by occasional oil spills and the absorption of carbon emission that causes the acidification of ocean water.

Point and Non-point source

A point source is when the contaminants of water pollution originate from a single source like wastewater from factories, oil refineries, chemical spills, oil spills, septic system, urban dumping points, etc., non-point source is when the contaminants of water pollution originate from multiple sources like agricultural runoff, rainwater runoff, wastes blown into water bodies from land areas.

Sources of Water Pollution

Human activities and their wastage account for the major cause of water pollution. Some of the major pollutant sources of contamination are as follows: 

  • Industrial Waste: Industries discharge huge amounts of harmful chemicals like lead, mercury, and petroleum products.
  • Sewage Waste: Tons of sewage is unloaded into water bodies. This causes contamination as well increase in loads of disease-causing microorganisms.
  • Mining: Mining releases dust and different forms of chemical contaminants that can cause significant lake and stream contamination
  • Marine waste: Waste produced by communities living in coastal areas along with ships that sail in seas, and oceans contributes to the pollution of marine bodies.
  • Horticultural Activities: The fertilizers and pesticides that runoff into the water system stream into the water bodies causing eutrophication and degradation of water bodies in a very short amount of time.
  • Radioactive Wastes: All the radioactive materials that are utilized for nuclear tests or as an energy source are generally dumped into water bodies or into glaciers that will promptly mix in with water bodies when the temperature elevates.

Effects of Water Pollution

Some of the most common effects of water pollution are;

  1. Destruction of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.
  2. Eutrophication of water bodies degrades the quality of water for aquatic organisms as well as other organisms that use that source of water for survival.
  3. Human health is affected by the degraded quality of water.
  4. The water cycle that maintains the environmental conditions of the planet gets disturbed.
  5. The major contributor to global warming.
  6. Effect on groundwater system causing a shortage of drinking and other essential purposes of water.
  7. Destruction of many forms of food chains in ecosystems.
  8. Spread of many types of transmissible and non-transmissible diseases like hepatitis, typhoid, arsenic poisoning, cancer, etc.
  9. Biomagnification and accumulation of different types of chemical substances in the bodies of different organisms.
  10. Loss of many forms of life.

Diseases of Water Pollution

Water pollutants can cause infections or act as toxins. Microorganisms from untreated sewage can easily enter the drinking water supplies and result in digestive issues like cholera, diarrhea, etc. diseases. Harmful bacteria like Salmonella typhii, Shigella sp., hepatitis virus, etc. can survive within the chemicals in the water system, and when used for drinking, can make people sick, leading to harmful side effects.

Control Measures of Water Pollution

Water pollution can be controlled in many ways and methods by taking proper actions and introducing new technologies.

Water Treatments Methods

We must avoid dumping waste into water bodies, Water treatment plants should be used for sewage water, effluent removal plants for effluent removal, industrial wastes should have a different dumping site or they should be properly treated before getting released into water bodies, removal pollutants by various physical, chemical, and organic processes should be done so that water bodies remain free from pollutants.

Chemical Methods

Chemical processes such as coagulation, ion exchange method, reverse osmosis, etc. will help to reduce the level of water pollution. Use chlorine for disinfection, add lime to adjust pH, and use bleaching powder and alum for arsenic removal.

New technologies to Control Water Pollution

  • Bioremediation: Bioremediation is the utilization of microorganisms to debase the natural contamination into a less poisonous form. Microorganisms can be explicitly intended for bioremediation utilizing genetic engineering technologies.
  • Phytoremediation: Phytoremediation is the utilization of plants to eliminate impurities from soil and water. Normal phytoremediation is completed by mangroves, estuarine vegetation, and other wetland vegetation.
  • Riparian buffers: A riparian buffer is a vegetated region, a buffer strip close to a stream, typically forested, which helps as shade and acts as a shield to the stream from the effect of neighboring area uses.

Avoiding the usage of Chemical Fertilizers

Chemical fertilizers and pesticides must be banned and instead organic or eco-friendly fertilizers should be used. The better option is to switch to organic farming methods and use animal-based manure. These will keep the harmful chemicals away from water bodies.

Utilization of Less Water

We must save water as much as possible as only about 1% of the earth’s total water is available for the use of most aquatic and terrestrial organisms. It can be easily achieved by installing water-saving equipment like sinks, toilets, and showers. In our daily lives, we can help save water by taking short baths, and not keeping the tap running during brushing, shaving, etc.

Keeping water checks for Lead Contamination

When water pipelines made of lead or containing lead bring water into homes can cause lead poisoning resulting in severe health problems. So, it is required to do regular checks to determine if any lead is present in the water, and if found then either the pipeline can be changed or a lead filter should be installed.

Avoid Polluting Open-Air Water Sources

Littering of water bodies and their surroundings, oil spills, chemical disposal, dumping in drains, dumping of fertilizers, pesticides, etc. that occurs due to open-air pollution causes harm to both humans and other organisms directly and indirectly connected to contaminated water bodies. So, it is required to stop littering and dumping wastes near the water sources or around them to avoid seeping the wastes into the water sources.

Use Environmentally Friendly Products

Water contamination can be reduced by using more and more organic, natural, and environmentally friendly products domestically as well as commercially. The fundamentals of reduction, reuse, and recycling will also go a long way to overcoming the impacts of water pollution.

Water Pollution: A Modern Epidemic

It is estimated that around 6 billion kilograms of waste materials are dumped in the water bodies every year, especially in oceans. Water bodies are mainly contaminated by toxic chemicals, industrial effluents, untreated sewage, domestic wastes, bottles, tin cans, plastic bags, etc. resulting in severe water pollution that affects not only human health but also other organisms and the whole ecosystem.

FAQs on Water Pollution

1. List five Causes of Water Pollution.

Answer:

Some of the most common causes of water pollution are global warming, fuel spillage, use of water ways, waste and sewage dumping, industrial waste dumping, etc.

2. What are the most common Effects of Water Pollution?

Answer:

The most common effects of water pollution are; increased rates of water borne diseases, increased risk of respiratory infections, increased rates of digestive tract problems, increased rates of heart diseases, increased incidence of lungs cancer, etc.

3. What is Water Pollution?

Answer:

Water pollution can be defined as the contamination of water and degradation of its quality making its less desirable and unsuitable for living system due to various reasons.

4. List some ways to Control Water Pollution.

Answer:

Water pollution can be controlled by effluent sewage treatment, check in the use of chemicals, reducing the use of fertilizers, reuse of water, removal of non-biodegradable wastes, etc.

5. Why should we control Water Pollution?

Answer:

Water pollution should be controlled as water is the basis of all life forms present in earth. All living organisms including humans need continuous source of clean and usable form of water for their survival.



Last Updated : 12 Jan, 2024
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