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Water Pollution: Everything You Need to Know

Our rivers, reservoirs, lakes, and seas are drowning in chemicals, waste, plastic, and other pollutants. Here’s why―and what you can do to help.

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What is water pollution?

What are the causes of water pollution, categories of water pollution, what are the effects of water pollution, what can you do to prevent water pollution.

Water pollution occurs when harmful substances—often chemicals or microorganisms—contaminate a stream, river, lake, ocean, aquifer, or other body of water, degrading water quality and rendering it toxic to humans or the environment.

This widespread problem of water pollution is jeopardizing our health. Unsafe water kills more people each year than war and all other forms of violence combined. Meanwhile, our drinkable water sources are finite: Less than 1 percent of the earth’s freshwater is actually accessible to us. Without action, the challenges will only increase by 2050, when global demand for freshwater is expected to be one-third greater than it is now.

Water is uniquely vulnerable to pollution. Known as a “universal solvent,” water is able to dissolve more substances than any other liquid on earth. It’s the reason we have Kool-Aid and brilliant blue waterfalls. It’s also why water is so easily polluted. Toxic substances from farms, towns, and factories readily dissolve into and mix with it, causing water pollution.

Here are some of the major sources of water pollution worldwide:

Agricultural

Toxic green algae in Copco Reservoir, northern California

Aurora Photos/Alamy

Not only is the agricultural sector the biggest consumer of global freshwater resources, with farming and livestock production using about 70 percent of the earth’s surface water supplies , but it’s also a serious water polluter. Around the world, agriculture is the leading cause of water degradation. In the United States, agricultural pollution is the top source of contamination in rivers and streams, the second-biggest source in wetlands, and the third main source in lakes. It’s also a major contributor of contamination to estuaries and groundwater. Every time it rains, fertilizers, pesticides, and animal waste from farms and livestock operations wash nutrients and pathogens—such bacteria and viruses—into our waterways. Nutrient pollution , caused by excess nitrogen and phosphorus in water or air, is the number-one threat to water quality worldwide and can cause algal blooms , a toxic soup of blue-green algae that can be harmful to people and wildlife.

Sewage and wastewater

Used water is wastewater. It comes from our sinks, showers, and toilets (think sewage) and from commercial, industrial, and agricultural activities (think metals, solvents, and toxic sludge). The term also includes stormwater runoff , which occurs when rainfall carries road salts, oil, grease, chemicals, and debris from impermeable surfaces into our waterways

More than 80 percent of the world’s wastewater flows back into the environment without being treated or reused, according to the United Nations; in some least-developed countries, the figure tops 95 percent. In the United States, wastewater treatment facilities process about 34 billion gallons of wastewater per day . These facilities reduce the amount of pollutants such as pathogens, phosphorus, and nitrogen in sewage, as well as heavy metals and toxic chemicals in industrial waste, before discharging the treated waters back into waterways. That’s when all goes well. But according to EPA estimates, our nation’s aging and easily overwhelmed sewage treatment systems also release more than 850 billion gallons of untreated wastewater each year.

Oil pollution

Big spills may dominate headlines, but consumers account for the vast majority of oil pollution in our seas, including oil and gasoline that drips from millions of cars and trucks every day. Moreover, nearly half of the estimated 1 million tons of oil that makes its way into marine environments each year comes not from tanker spills but from land-based sources such as factories, farms, and cities. At sea, tanker spills account for about 10 percent of the oil in waters around the world, while regular operations of the shipping industry—through both legal and illegal discharges—contribute about one-third. Oil is also naturally released from under the ocean floor through fractures known as seeps.

Radioactive substances

Radioactive waste is any pollution that emits radiation beyond what is naturally released by the environment. It’s generated by uranium mining, nuclear power plants, and the production and testing of military weapons, as well as by universities and hospitals that use radioactive materials for research and medicine. Radioactive waste can persist in the environment for thousands of years, making disposal a major challenge. Consider the decommissioned Hanford nuclear weapons production site in Washington, where the cleanup of 56 million gallons of radioactive waste is expected to cost more than $100 billion and last through 2060. Accidentally released or improperly disposed of contaminants threaten groundwater, surface water, and marine resources.

To address pollution and protect water we need to understand where the pollution is coming from (point source or nonpoint source) and the type of water body its impacting (groundwater, surface water, or ocean water).

Where is the pollution coming from?

Point source pollution.

When contamination originates from a single source, it’s called point source pollution. Examples include wastewater (also called effluent) discharged legally or illegally by a manufacturer, oil refinery, or wastewater treatment facility, as well as contamination from leaking septic systems, chemical and oil spills, and illegal dumping. The EPA regulates point source pollution by establishing limits on what can be discharged by a facility directly into a body of water. While point source pollution originates from a specific place, it can affect miles of waterways and ocean.

Nonpoint source

Nonpoint source pollution is contamination derived from diffuse sources. These may include agricultural or stormwater runoff or debris blown into waterways from land. Nonpoint source pollution is the leading cause of water pollution in U.S. waters, but it’s difficult to regulate, since there’s no single, identifiable culprit.

Transboundary

It goes without saying that water pollution can’t be contained by a line on a map. Transboundary pollution is the result of contaminated water from one country spilling into the waters of another. Contamination can result from a disaster—like an oil spill—or the slow, downriver creep of industrial, agricultural, or municipal discharge.

What type of water is being impacted?

Groundwater pollution.

When rain falls and seeps deep into the earth, filling the cracks, crevices, and porous spaces of an aquifer (basically an underground storehouse of water), it becomes groundwater—one of our least visible but most important natural resources. Nearly 40 percent of Americans rely on groundwater, pumped to the earth’s surface, for drinking water. For some folks in rural areas, it’s their only freshwater source. Groundwater gets polluted when contaminants—from pesticides and fertilizers to waste leached from landfills and septic systems—make their way into an aquifer, rendering it unsafe for human use. Ridding groundwater of contaminants can be difficult to impossible, as well as costly. Once polluted, an aquifer may be unusable for decades, or even thousands of years. Groundwater can also spread contamination far from the original polluting source as it seeps into streams, lakes, and oceans.

Surface water pollution

Covering about 70 percent of the earth, surface water is what fills our oceans, lakes, rivers, and all those other blue bits on the world map. Surface water from freshwater sources (that is, from sources other than the ocean) accounts for more than 60 percent of the water delivered to American homes. But a significant pool of that water is in peril. According to the most recent surveys on national water quality from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, nearly half of our rivers and streams and more than one-third of our lakes are polluted and unfit for swimming, fishing, and drinking. Nutrient pollution, which includes nitrates and phosphates, is the leading type of contamination in these freshwater sources. While plants and animals need these nutrients to grow, they have become a major pollutant due to farm waste and fertilizer runoff. Municipal and industrial waste discharges contribute their fair share of toxins as well. There’s also all the random junk that industry and individuals dump directly into waterways.

Ocean water pollution

Eighty percent of ocean pollution (also called marine pollution) originates on land—whether along the coast or far inland. Contaminants such as chemicals, nutrients, and heavy metals are carried from farms, factories, and cities by streams and rivers into our bays and estuaries; from there they travel out to sea. Meanwhile, marine debris— particularly plastic —is blown in by the wind or washed in via storm drains and sewers. Our seas are also sometimes spoiled by oil spills and leaks—big and small—and are consistently soaking up carbon pollution from the air. The ocean absorbs as much as a quarter of man-made carbon emissions .

On human health

To put it bluntly: Water pollution kills. In fact, it caused 1.8 million deaths in 2015, according to a study published in The Lancet . Contaminated water can also make you ill. Every year, unsafe water sickens about 1 billion people. And low-income communities are disproportionately at risk because their homes are often closest to the most polluting industries.

Waterborne pathogens, in the form of disease-causing bacteria and viruses from human and animal waste, are a major cause of illness from contaminated drinking water . Diseases spread by unsafe water include cholera, giardia, and typhoid. Even in wealthy nations, accidental or illegal releases from sewage treatment facilities, as well as runoff from farms and urban areas, contribute harmful pathogens to waterways. Thousands of people across the United States are sickened every year by Legionnaires’ disease (a severe form of pneumonia contracted from water sources like cooling towers and piped water), with cases cropping up from California’s Disneyland to Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

A woman using bottled water to wash her three-week-old son at their home in Flint, Michigan

Todd McInturf/The Detroit News/AP

Meanwhile, the plight of residents in Flint, Michigan —where cost-cutting measures and aging water infrastructure created a lead contamination crisis—offers a stark look at how dangerous chemical and other industrial pollutants in our water can be. The problem goes far beyond Flint and involves much more than lead, as a wide range of chemical pollutants—from heavy metals such as arsenic and mercury to pesticides and nitrate fertilizers —are getting into our water supplies. Once they’re ingested, these toxins can cause a host of health issues, from cancer to hormone disruption to altered brain function. Children and pregnant women are particularly at risk.

Even swimming can pose a risk. Every year, 3.5 million Americans contract health issues such as skin rashes, pinkeye, respiratory infections, and hepatitis from sewage-laden coastal waters, according to EPA estimates.

On the environment

In order to thrive, healthy ecosystems rely on a complex web of animals, plants, bacteria, and fungi—all of which interact, directly or indirectly, with each other. Harm to any of these organisms can create a chain effect, imperiling entire aquatic environments.

When water pollution causes an algal bloom in a lake or marine environment, the proliferation of newly introduced nutrients stimulates plant and algae growth, which in turn reduces oxygen levels in the water. This dearth of oxygen, known as eutrophication , suffocates plants and animals and can create “dead zones,” where waters are essentially devoid of life. In certain cases, these harmful algal blooms can also produce neurotoxins that affect wildlife, from whales to sea turtles.

Chemicals and heavy metals from industrial and municipal wastewater contaminate waterways as well. These contaminants are toxic to aquatic life—most often reducing an organism’s life span and ability to reproduce—and make their way up the food chain as predator eats prey. That’s how tuna and other big fish accumulate high quantities of toxins, such as mercury.

Marine ecosystems are also threatened by marine debris , which can strangle, suffocate, and starve animals. Much of this solid debris, such as plastic bags and soda cans, gets swept into sewers and storm drains and eventually out to sea, turning our oceans into trash soup and sometimes consolidating to form floating garbage patches. Discarded fishing gear and other types of debris are responsible for harming more than 200 different species of marine life.

Meanwhile, ocean acidification is making it tougher for shellfish and coral to survive. Though they absorb about a quarter of the carbon pollution created each year by burning fossil fuels, oceans are becoming more acidic. This process makes it harder for shellfish and other species to build shells and may impact the nervous systems of sharks, clownfish, and other marine life.

With your actions

We’re all accountable to some degree for today’s water pollution problem. Fortunately, there are some simple ways you can prevent water contamination or at least limit your contribution to it:

• Learn about the unique qualities of water where you live . Where does your water come from? Is the wastewater from your home treated? Where does stormwater flow to? Is your area in a drought? Start building a picture of the situation so you can discover where your actions will have the most impact—and see if your neighbors would be interested in joining in!
• Reduce your plastic consumption and reuse or recycle plastic when you can.
• Properly dispose of chemical cleaners, oils, and nonbiodegradable items to keep them from going down the drain.
• Maintain your car so it doesn’t leak oil, antifreeze, or coolant.
• If you have a yard, consider landscaping that reduces runoff and avoid applying pesticides and herbicides .
• Don’t flush your old medications! Dispose of them in the trash to prevent them from entering local waterways.
• Be mindful of anything you pour into storm sewers, since that waste often won’t be treated before being released into local waterways. If you notice a storm sewer blocked by litter, clean it up to keep that trash out of the water. (You’ll also help prevent troublesome street floods in a heavy storm.)
• If you have a pup, be sure to pick up its poop .

With your voice

One of the most effective ways to stand up for our waters is to speak out in support of the Clean Water Act, which has helped hold polluters accountable for five decades—despite attempts by destructive industries to gut its authority. But we also need regulations that keep pace with modern-day challenges, including microplastics, PFAS , pharmaceuticals, and other contaminants our wastewater treatment plants weren’t built to handle, not to mention polluted water that’s dumped untreated.

Tell the federal government, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and your local elected officials that you support water protections and investments in infrastructure, like wastewater treatment, lead-pipe removal programs, and stormwater-abating green infrastructure. Also, learn how you and those around you can get involved in the policymaking process . Our public waterways serve every one of us. We should all have a say in how they’re protected.

This story was originally published on May 14, 2018, and has been updated with new information and links.

This NRDC.org story is available for online republication by news media outlets or nonprofits under these conditions: The writer(s) must be credited with a byline; you must note prominently that the story was originally published by NRDC.org and link to the original; the story cannot be edited (beyond simple things such as grammar); you can’t resell the story in any form or grant republishing rights to other outlets; you can’t republish our material wholesale or automatically—you need to select stories individually; you can’t republish the photos or graphics on our site without specific permission; you should drop us a note to let us know when you’ve used one of our stories.

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Water pollution: an introduction

by Chris Woodford . Last updated: October 1, 2023.

O ver two thirds of Earth's surface is covered by water ; less than a third is taken up by land. As Earth's population continues to grow, people are putting ever-increasing pressure on the planet's water resources. In a sense, our oceans, rivers , and other inland waters are being "squeezed" by human activities—not so they take up less room, but so their quality is reduced. Poorer water quality means water pollution .

We know that pollution is a human problem because it is a relatively recent development in the planet's history: before the 19th century Industrial Revolution, people lived more in harmony with their immediate environment. As industrialization has spread around the globe, so the problem of pollution has spread with it. When Earth's population was much smaller, no one believed pollution would ever present a serious problem. It was once popularly believed that the oceans were far too big to pollute. Today, with around 7 billion people on the planet, it has become apparent that there are limits. Pollution is one of the signs that humans have exceeded those limits.

Photo: Stormwater pollution entering a river from a drain. Photo by Peter C Van Metre courtesy of US Geological Survey .

What is water pollution?

Water pollution can be defined in many ways. Usually, it means one or more substances have built up in water to such an extent that they cause problems for animals or people. Oceans, lakes, rivers, and other inland waters can naturally clean up a certain amount of pollution by dispersing it harmlessly. If you poured a cup of black ink into a river, the ink would quickly disappear into the river's much larger volume of clean water. The ink would still be there in the river, but in such a low concentration that you would not be able to see it. At such low levels, the chemicals in the ink probably would not present any real problem. However, if you poured gallons of ink into a river every few seconds through a pipe, the river would quickly turn black. The chemicals in the ink could very quickly have an effect on the quality of the water. This, in turn, could affect the health of all the plants, animals, and humans whose lives depend on the river.

Photo: Pollution means adding substances to the environment that don't belong there—like the air pollution from this smokestack. Pollution is not always as obvious as this, however.

Thus, water pollution is all about quantities : how much of a polluting substance is released and how big a volume of water it is released into. A small quantity of a toxic chemical may have little impact if it is spilled into the ocean from a ship. But the same amount of the same chemical can have a much bigger impact pumped into a lake or river, where there is less clean water to disperse it.

"The introduction by man, directly or indirectly, of substances or energy into the marine environment (including estuaries) resulting in such deleterious effects as harm to living resources, hazards to human health, hindrance to marine activities, including fishing, impairment of quality for use of sea water and reduction of amenities." [1]

What are the main types of water pollution?

When we think of Earth's water resources, we think of huge oceans, lakes, and rivers. Water resources like these are called surface waters . The most obvious type of water pollution affects surface waters. For example, a spill from an oil tanker creates an oil slick that can affect a vast area of the ocean.

Photo: Detergent pollution entering a river—an example of surface water pollution. Photo courtesy of US Fish & Wildlife Service Photo Library.

Not all of Earth's water sits on its surface, however. A great deal of water is held in underground rock structures known as aquifers, which we cannot see and seldom think about. Water stored underground in aquifers is known as groundwater . Aquifers feed our rivers and supply much of our drinking water. They too can become polluted, for example, when weed killers used in people's gardens drain into the ground. Groundwater pollution is much less obvious than surface-water pollution, but is no less of a problem. In 1996, a study in Iowa in the United States found that over half the state's groundwater wells were contaminated with weed killers. You might think things would have improved since then, but, two decades on, all that's really changed is the name of the chemicals we're using. Today, numerous scientific studies are still finding weed killers in groundwater in worrying quantities: a 2012 study discovered glyphosate in 41 percent of 140 groundwater samples from Catalonia, Spain; scientific opinion differs on whether this is safe or not. [2]

Surface waters and groundwater are the two types of water resources that pollution affects. There are also two different ways in which pollution can occur. If pollution comes from a single location, such as a discharge pipe attached to a factory, it is known as point-source pollution . Other examples of point source pollution include an oil spill from a tanker, a discharge from a smoke stack (factory chimney), or someone pouring oil from their car down a drain. A great deal of water pollution happens not from one single source but from many different scattered sources. This is called nonpoint-source pollution .

When point-source pollution enters the environment, the place most affected is usually the area immediately around the source. For example, when a tanker accident occurs, the oil slick is concentrated around the tanker itself and, in the right ocean conditions, the pollution disperses the further away from the tanker you go. This is less likely to happen with nonpoint source pollution which, by definition, enters the environment from many different places at once.

Sometimes pollution that enters the environment in one place has an effect hundreds or even thousands of miles away. This is known as transboundary pollution . One example is the way radioactive waste travels through the oceans from nuclear reprocessing plants in England and France to nearby countries such as Ireland and Norway.

How do we know when water is polluted?

Some forms of water pollution are very obvious: everyone has seen TV news footage of oil slicks filmed from helicopters flying overhead. Water pollution is usually less obvious and much harder to detect than this. But how can we measure water pollution when we cannot see it? How do we even know it's there?

There are two main ways of measuring the quality of water. One is to take samples of the water and measure the concentrations of different chemicals that it contains. If the chemicals are dangerous or the concentrations are too great, we can regard the water as polluted. Measurements like this are known as chemical indicators of water quality. Another way to measure water quality involves examining the fish, insects, and other invertebrates that the water will support. If many different types of creatures can live in a river, the quality is likely to be very good; if the river supports no fish life at all, the quality is obviously much poorer. Measurements like this are called biological indicators of water quality.

What are the causes of water pollution?

Most water pollution doesn't begin in the water itself. Take the oceans: around 80 percent of ocean pollution enters our seas from the land. [16] Virtually any human activity can have an effect on the quality of our water environment. When farmers fertilize the fields, the chemicals they use are gradually washed by rain into the groundwater or surface waters nearby. Sometimes the causes of water pollution are quite surprising. Chemicals released by smokestacks (chimneys) can enter the atmosphere and then fall back to earth as rain, entering seas, rivers, and lakes and causing water pollution. That's called atmospheric deposition . Water pollution has many different causes and this is one of the reasons why it is such a difficult problem to solve.

With billions of people on the planet, disposing of sewage waste is a major problem. According to 2017 figures from the World Health Organization, some 2 billion people (about a quarter of the world's population) don't have access to safe drinking water or the most basic sanitation, 3.4 billion (60 people of the population) lack "safely managed" sanitation (unshared, with waste properly treated). Although there have been great improvements in securing access to clean water, relatively little, genuine progress has been made on improving global sanitation in the last decade. [20] Sewage disposal affects people's immediate environments and leads to water-related illnesses such as diarrhea that kills 525,000 children under five each year. [3] (Back in 2002, the World Health Organization estimated that water-related diseases could kill as many as 135 million people by 2020; in 2019, the WHO was still estimating the annual death toll from poor water and sanitation at over 800,000 people a year.) In developed countries, most people have flush toilets that take sewage waste quickly and hygienically away from their homes.

Yet the problem of sewage disposal does not end there. When you flush the toilet, the waste has to go somewhere and, even after it leaves the sewage treatment works, there is still waste to dispose of. Sometimes sewage waste is pumped untreated into the sea. Until the early 1990s, around 5 million tons of sewage was dumped by barge from New York City each year. [4] According to 2002 figures from the UK government's Department for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the sewers of Britain collect around 11 billion liters of waste water every day; there are still 31,000 sewage overflow pipes through which, in certain circumstances, such as heavy storms, raw sewage is pumped untreated into the sea. [5] The New River that crosses the border from Mexico into California once carried with it 20–25 million gallons (76–95 million liters) of raw sewage each day; a new waste water plant on the US-Mexico border, completed in 2007, substantially solved that problem. [6] Unfortunately, even in some of the richest nations, the practice of dumping sewage into the sea continues. In early 2012, it was reported that the tiny island of Guernsey (between Britain and France) has decided to continue dumping 16,000 tons of raw sewage into the sea each day.

In theory, sewage is a completely natural substance that should be broken down harmlessly in the environment: 90 percent of sewage is water. [7] In practice, sewage contains all kinds of other chemicals, from the pharmaceutical drugs people take to the paper , plastic , and other wastes they flush down their toilets. When people are sick with viruses, the sewage they produce carries those viruses into the environment. It is possible to catch illnesses such as hepatitis, typhoid, and cholera from river and sea water.

Photo: Nutrients make crops grow, but cause pollution when they seep into rivers and other watercourses. Photo courtesy of US Department of Agriculture (Flickr) .

Suitably treated and used in moderate quantities, sewage can be a fertilizer: it returns important nutrients to the environment, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, which plants and animals need for growth. The trouble is, sewage is often released in much greater quantities than the natural environment can cope with. Chemical fertilizers used by farmers also add nutrients to the soil, which drain into rivers and seas and add to the fertilizing effect of the sewage. Together, sewage and fertilizers can cause a massive increase in the growth of algae or plankton that overwhelms huge areas of oceans, lakes, or rivers. This is known as a harmful algal bloom (also known as an HAB or red tide, because it can turn the water red). It is harmful because it removes oxygen from the water that kills other forms of life, leading to what is known as a dead zone . The Gulf of Mexico has one of the world's most spectacular dead zones. Each summer, according to studies by the NOAA , it typically grows to an area of around 5500–6500 square miles (14,000–16,800 square kilometers), which is about the same size as the state of Connecticut. [21]

Waste water

A few statistics illustrate the scale of the problem that waste water (chemicals washed down drains and discharged from factories) can cause. Around half of all ocean pollution is caused by sewage and waste water. Each year, the world generates perhaps 5–10 billion tons of industrial waste, much of which is pumped untreated into rivers, oceans, and other waterways. [8] In the United States alone, around 400,000 factories take clean water from rivers, and many pump polluted waters back in their place. However, there have been major improvements in waste water treatment recently. Since 1970, in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has invested about $70 billion in improving water treatment plants that, as of 2021, serve around 90 percent of the US population (compared to just 69 percent in 1972). However, another $271 billion is still needed to update and upgrade the system. [15]

Factories are point sources of water pollution, but quite a lot of water is polluted by ordinary people from nonpoint sources; this is how ordinary water becomes waste water in the first place. Virtually everyone pours chemicals of one sort or another down their drains or toilets. Even detergents used in washing machines and dishwashers eventually end up in our rivers and oceans. So do the pesticides we use on our gardens. A lot of toxic pollution also enters waste water from highway runoff . Highways are typically covered with a cocktail of toxic chemicals—everything from spilled fuel and brake fluids to bits of worn tires (themselves made from chemical additives) and exhaust emissions. When it rains, these chemicals wash into drains and rivers. It is not unusual for heavy summer rainstorms to wash toxic chemicals into rivers in such concentrations that they kill large numbers of fish overnight. It has been estimated that, in one year, the highway runoff from a single large city leaks as much oil into our water environment as a typical tanker spill. Some highway runoff runs away into drains; others can pollute groundwater or accumulate in the land next to a road, making it increasingly toxic as the years go by.

Chemical waste

Detergents are relatively mild substances. At the opposite end of the spectrum are highly toxic chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) . They were once widely used to manufacture electronic circuit boards , but their harmful effects have now been recognized and their use is highly restricted in many countries. Nevertheless, an estimated half million tons of PCBs were discharged into the environment during the 20th century. [9] In a classic example of transboundary pollution, traces of PCBs have even been found in birds and fish in the Arctic. They were carried there through the oceans, thousands of miles from where they originally entered the environment. Although PCBs are widely banned, their effects will be felt for many decades because they last a long time in the environment without breaking down.

Another kind of toxic pollution comes from heavy metals , such as lead, cadmium, and mercury. Lead was once commonly used in gasoline (petrol), though its use is now restricted in some countries. Mercury and cadmium are still used in batteries (though some brands now use other metals instead). Until recently, a highly toxic chemical called tributyltin (TBT) was used in paints to protect boats from the ravaging effects of the oceans. Ironically, however, TBT was gradually recognized as a pollutant: boats painted with it were doing as much damage to the oceans as the oceans were doing to the boats.

The best known example of heavy metal pollution in the oceans took place in 1938 when a Japanese factory discharged a significant amount of mercury metal into Minamata Bay, contaminating the fish stocks there. It took a decade for the problem to come to light. By that time, many local people had eaten the fish and around 2000 were poisoned. Hundreds of people were left dead or disabled. [10]

Radioactive waste

People view radioactive waste with great alarm—and for good reason. At high enough concentrations it can kill; in lower concentrations it can cause cancers and other illnesses. The biggest sources of radioactive pollution in Europe are two factories that reprocess waste fuel from nuclear power plants : Sellafield on the north-west coast of Britain and Cap La Hague on the north coast of France. Both discharge radioactive waste water into the sea, which ocean currents then carry around the world. Countries such as Norway, which lie downstream from Britain, receive significant doses of radioactive pollution from Sellafield. [19] The Norwegian government has repeatedly complained that Sellafield has increased radiation levels along its coast by 6–10 times. Both the Irish and Norwegian governments continue to press for the plant's closure. [11]

Oil pollution

Photo: Oil-tanker spills are the most spectacular forms of pollution and the ones that catch public attention, but only a fraction of all water pollution happens this way. Photo by Lamar Gore courtesy of US Fish & Wildlife Service Photo Library and US National Archive .

When we think of ocean pollution, huge black oil slicks often spring to mind, yet these spectacular accidents represent only a tiny fraction of all the pollution entering our oceans. Even considering oil by itself, tanker spills are not as significant as they might seem: only 12 percent of the oil that enters the oceans comes from tanker accidents; over 70 percent of oil pollution at sea comes from routine shipping and from the oil people pour down drains on land. [12] However, what makes tanker spills so destructive is the sheer quantity of oil they release at once — in other words, the concentration of oil they produce in one very localized part of the marine environment. The biggest oil spill in recent years (and the biggest ever spill in US waters) occurred when the tanker Exxon Valdez broke up in Prince William Sound in Alaska in 1989. Around 12 million gallons (44 million liters) of oil were released into the pristine wilderness—enough to fill your living room 800 times over! Estimates of the marine animals killed in the spill vary from approximately 1000 sea otters and 34,000 birds to as many as 2800 sea otters and 250,000 sea birds. Several billion salmon and herring eggs are also believed to have been destroyed. [13]

If you've ever taken part in a community beach clean, you'll know that plastic is far and away the most common substance that washes up with the waves. There are three reasons for this: plastic is one of the most common materials, used for making virtually every kind of manufactured object from clothing to automobile parts; plastic is light and floats easily so it can travel enormous distances across the oceans; most plastics are not biodegradable (they do not break down naturally in the environment), which means that things like plastic bottle tops can survive in the marine environment for a long time. (A plastic bottle can survive an estimated 450 years in the ocean and plastic fishing line can last up to 600 years.)

While plastics are not toxic in quite the same way as poisonous chemicals, they nevertheless present a major hazard to seabirds, fish, and other marine creatures. For example, plastic fishing lines and other debris can strangle or choke fish. (This is sometimes called ghost fishing .) About half of all the world's seabird species are known to have eaten plastic residues. In one study of 450 shearwaters in the North Pacific, over 80 percent of the birds were found to contain plastic residues in their stomachs. In the early 1990s, marine scientist Tim Benton collected debris from a 2km (1.5 mile) length of beach in the remote Pitcairn islands in the South Pacific. His study recorded approximately a thousand pieces of garbage including 268 pieces of plastic, 71 plastic bottles, and two dolls heads. [14]

Alien species

Most people's idea of water pollution involves things like sewage, toxic metals, or oil slicks, but pollution can be biological as well as chemical. In some parts of the world, alien species are a major problem. Alien species (sometimes known as invasive species ) are animals or plants from one region that have been introduced into a different ecosystem where they do not belong. Outside their normal environment, they have no natural predators, so they rapidly run wild, crowding out the usual animals or plants that thrive there. Common examples of alien species include zebra mussels in the Great Lakes of the USA, which were carried there from Europe by ballast water (waste water flushed from ships ). The Mediterranean Sea has been invaded by a kind of alien algae called Caulerpa taxifolia . In the Black Sea, an alien jellyfish called Mnemiopsis leidyi reduced fish stocks by 90 percent after arriving in ballast water. In San Francisco Bay, Asian clams called Potamocorbula amurensis, also introduced by ballast water, have dramatically altered the ecosystem. In 1999, Cornell University's David Pimentel estimated that alien invaders like this cost the US economy $123 billion a year; in 2014, the European Commission put the cost to Europe at €12 billion a year and "growing all the time. [18]

Other forms of pollution

These are the most common forms of pollution—but by no means the only ones. Heat or thermal pollution from factories and power plants also causes problems in rivers. By raising the temperature, it reduces the amount of oxygen dissolved in the water, thus also reducing the level of aquatic life that the river can support. Another type of pollution involves the disruption of sediments (fine-grained powders) that flow from rivers into the sea. Dams built for hydroelectric power or water reservoirs can reduce the sediment flow. This reduces the formation of beaches, increases coastal erosion (the natural destruction of cliffs by the sea), and reduces the flow of nutrients from rivers into seas (potentially reducing coastal fish stocks). Increased sediments can also present a problem. During construction work, soil, rock, and other fine powders sometimes enters nearby rivers in large quantities, causing it to become turbid (muddy or silted). The extra sediment can block the gills of fish, effectively suffocating them. Construction firms often now take precautions to prevent this kind of pollution from happening.

What are the effects of water pollution?

Some people believe pollution is an inescapable result of human activity: they argue that if we want to have factories, cities, ships, cars, oil, and coastal resorts, some degree of pollution is almost certain to result. In other words, pollution is a necessary evil that people must put up with if they want to make progress. Fortunately, not everyone agrees with this view. One reason people have woken up to the problem of pollution is that it brings costs of its own that undermine any economic benefits that come about by polluting.

Take oil spills, for example. They can happen if tankers are too poorly built to survive accidents at sea. But the economic benefit of compromising on tanker quality brings an economic cost when an oil spill occurs. The oil can wash up on nearby beaches, devastate the ecosystem, and severely affect tourism. The main problem is that the people who bear the cost of the spill (typically a small coastal community) are not the people who caused the problem in the first place (the people who operate the tanker). Yet, arguably, everyone who puts gasoline (petrol) into their car—or uses almost any kind of petroleum-fueled transport—contributes to the problem in some way. So oil spills are a problem for everyone, not just people who live by the coast and tanker operates.

Sewage is another good example of how pollution can affect us all. Sewage discharged into coastal waters can wash up on beaches and cause a health hazard. People who bathe or surf in the water can fall ill if they swallow polluted water—yet sewage can have other harmful effects too: it can poison shellfish (such as cockles and mussels) that grow near the shore. People who eat poisoned shellfish risk suffering from an acute—and sometimes fatal—illness called paralytic shellfish poisoning. Shellfish is no longer caught along many shores because it is simply too polluted with sewage or toxic chemical wastes that have discharged from the land nearby.

Pollution matters because it harms the environment on which people depend. The environment is not something distant and separate from our lives. It's not a pretty shoreline hundreds of miles from our homes or a wilderness landscape that we see only on TV. The environment is everything that surrounds us that gives us life and health. Destroying the environment ultimately reduces the quality of our own lives—and that, most selfishly, is why pollution should matter to all of us.

How can we stop water pollution?

There is no easy way to solve water pollution; if there were, it wouldn't be so much of a problem. Broadly speaking, there are three different things that can help to tackle the problem—education, laws, and economics—and they work together as a team.

Making people aware of the problem is the first step to solving it. In the early 1990s, when surfers in Britain grew tired of catching illnesses from water polluted with sewage, they formed a group called Surfers Against Sewage to force governments and water companies to clean up their act. People who've grown tired of walking the world's polluted beaches often band together to organize community beach-cleaning sessions. Anglers who no longer catch so many fish have campaigned for tougher penalties against factories that pour pollution into our rivers. Greater public awareness can make a positive difference.

One of the biggest problems with water pollution is its transboundary nature. Many rivers cross countries, while seas span whole continents. Pollution discharged by factories in one country with poor environmental standards can cause problems in neighboring nations, even when they have tougher laws and higher standards. Environmental laws can make it tougher for people to pollute, but to be really effective they have to operate across national and international borders. This is why we have international laws governing the oceans, such as the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (signed by over 120 nations), the 1972 London (Dumping) Convention , the 1978 MARPOL International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships , and the 1998 OSPAR Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North East Atlantic . The European Union has water-protection laws (known as directives) that apply to all of its member states. They include the 1976 Bathing Water Directive (updated 2006), which seeks to ensure the quality of the waters that people use for recreation. Most countries also have their own water pollution laws. In the United States, for example, there is the 1972 Clean Water Act and the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act .

Most environmental experts agree that the best way to tackle pollution is through something called the polluter pays principle . This means that whoever causes pollution should have to pay to clean it up, one way or another. Polluter pays can operate in all kinds of ways. It could mean that tanker owners should have to take out insurance that covers the cost of oil spill cleanups, for example. It could also mean that shoppers should have to pay for their plastic grocery bags, as is now common in Ireland, to encourage recycling and minimize waste. Or it could mean that factories that use rivers must have their water inlet pipes downstream of their effluent outflow pipes, so if they cause pollution they themselves are the first people to suffer. Ultimately, the polluter pays principle is designed to deter people from polluting by making it less expensive for them to behave in an environmentally responsible way.

Our clean future

Life is ultimately about choices—and so is pollution. We can live with sewage-strewn beaches, dead rivers, and fish that are too poisonous to eat. Or we can work together to keep the environment clean so the plants, animals, and people who depend on it remain healthy. We can take individual action to help reduce water pollution, for example, by using environmentally friendly detergents , not pouring oil down drains, reducing pesticides, and so on. We can take community action too, by helping out on beach cleans or litter picks to keep our rivers and seas that little bit cleaner. And we can take action as countries and continents to pass laws that will make pollution harder and the world less polluted. Working together, we can make pollution less of a problem—and the world a better place.

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• Earth Matters by Lynn Dicks et al. Dorling Kindersley, 2008: A more general guide to problems Earth faces, with each major biome explored separately. In case you're interested, I contributed the polar regions chapter. The book is mostly a simple read and probably suitable for 7–10 (and maybe 9–12).

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Text copyright © Chris Woodford 2006, 2022. All rights reserved. Full copyright notice and terms of use .

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Lesson Plans, Teacher Guides and Online Environmental Resources for Educators: Water

Find an array of environmental and science based lesson plans, activities and ideas below from EPA, other federal agencies and external organizations.  ​ Encontrar recursos para estudiantes y maestros.

Topics: Air | Climate Change | Ecosystems | Energy | Health | Waste | Water

Acid Rain: A teacher's guide for grades 6 through 8  (PDF 56 pp, 4.6 MB) A lesson plan and activities from EPA for teachers on acid rain. Grades: 6-8 Type of Resource: Lesson plan

Acid Rain Educational Resources Experiments and activities, a review of basic acid rain concepts, factsheets, and things you can do about acid rain. Grades: K-12 Type of Resource: Lesson plans and experiments

Darby Duck and the Aquatic Crusaders Find seven experiments from EPA to learn about the characteristics of water. Grades: K-5 Type of Resource: Lesson plan and experiments

Drinking Water & Ground Water Kids' Stuff Games, activities, and art projects from EPA about the water cycle and water treatment. Grades: K-12 Type of Resource: Lesson plans

EnviroAtlas: Exploring Your Watershed This interactive lesson-plan module encourages students to explore their local watershed through a hands-on lab, an outdoor exploratory session with maps, and an EnviroAtlas web-mapping session that can be completed with or without internet. Grades: K-6 Type of Resource: Lesson Plans

Ground Water Contamination   (PDF 10 pp, 0.2MB)  Find a general review of groundwater contamination and where it occurs. Grades: 9-12 Type of Resource: Factsheet

How's My Waterway? This tool answers questions about the health of waters in supporting swimming, the eating of fish, drinking water protection and delivery, the health of aquatic communities, and the restoration and protection of waterways. Grades: K-12, College, Adult Learners Type of Resource: Website/tool and lesson plan

How People Get Their Water - Reservoirs: "Holding Tanks" for Drinking Water   Let your students "Ride the Water Cycle" with this activity from EPA. Help them understand the role of reservoirs in maintaining a reliable supply of drinking water. Grades: 4-8 Type of Resource: Lesson plan

Magnificent Ground Water Connection This ground-water activity guide is applicable to a wide range of subject matter and the topics include basic concepts on the water cycle, water distribution, treatment, and stewardship. This page includes five sample lesson activity plans. Grades: K-12 Type of Resource: Curriculum guide and lesson plans

Mercury Messes with the Environment (pdf) (10.6 MB) A children’s activity booklet describing the effects of mercury contamination on humans and the environment. Grades: 6-8 Type of Resource: Activity book

On Your Mark, Set, Evaporate (PDF 4.73 MB, 398 pp) This EPA lesson plan covers transpiration as part of the hydrologic cycle. Grades: 6-8 Type of resource: Lesson plan

Drinking Water Activities for Students and Teachers These resources provide a basic understanding of drinking water terms and where water comes from. Grades: K-12 Type of Resource: Website, Lesson Plans, Teacher Guides, Activities

Thirstin's Groundwater Movement Activity (PDF 332 KB, 2 pp) This class activity demonstrates that ground water must be able to move through underground materials. The students will act as molecules of water and the underground materials. Grades: K-5 Type of resource: Lesson plan

Tracking Pollution - A Hazardous Whodunit A Thirstin lesson plan to teach students to make a topographic map, use it to predict ground water flow and investigate the most likely source of ground water contamination. Grades: 9-12 Type of resource: Lesson plan

Water Sense Resources Resources for educating students about "Fix a Leak Week," EPA's WaterSense Partnership program and water efficiency. Grades: K-8 Type of resource: Lesson plan

Watershed Academy The Watershed Academy is a focal point in EPA's Office of Water for providing training and information on watershed management. The Academy's self-paced training modules and webcast seminars provide current information from national experts across a broad range of watershed topics. Grades: 9-12, College, Adult Learners Type of Resource: Self paced online modules

The following links exit the site

National Wetlands Research Center This site from the U.S. Geologic Survey explores the many factors that affect wetland health, and provides resources for teachers on preserving our wetlands. Grades: 9-12

NOAA's Education Resources Website Explore this site to find the information you need to teach students about weather, climate change, and oceans. You'll find activities, background information, and much more! Grades: 6-12

National Ocean Service Education Find case studies, tutorials, games, and more from NOAA's National Ocean Service. Grades: K-12 Type of Resource: Website

Stormwater Pollution Solutions Challenge In these materials, students will read text and diagrams about the elements of watersheds and learn how stormwater pollution influences children’s health. Then they will develop their own environmental solutions to combat stormwater pollution in a local watershed! Grades: 6-8 Type of Resource: Lesson Plan

Water Science for Schools This site provides extensive background information on a wide variety of water topics. It also includes on-line activities, data tables, maps, and a glossary of terms. Grades: 6-12

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102 Water Pollution Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Water pollution essays are an excellent way to demonstrate your awareness of the topic and your position on the solutions to the issue. To help you ease the writing process, we prepared some tips, essay topics, and research questions about water pollution.

🌎 Air and Water pollution: Essay Writing Tips

🏆 best water pollution essay topics & examples, 📌 remarkable air and water pollution research topics, 👍 good research topics about water pollution, ❓ research questions about water pollution.

Water’s ready availability in many locations makes it an easy choice for a variety of purposes, from cleaning to manufacturing to nuclear reactor cooling. However, many companies will then dump water, now mixed with waste, back into rivers or lakes without adequate cleaning, leading to significant environmental pollution.

However, there are other types of harm, such as noise pollution, which are less obvious but also dangerous to sea life. It is critical that you understand what you should and should not do during your writing process.

The stance that big manufacturing industries are the sole culprits of the damage done to the world’s rivers and oceans is a popular one. However, do not neglect the effects of other water pollution essay topics such as microorganisms.

Microbes can spread dangerous illnesses, making them a danger for both water inhabitants and the people who then use that water. Furthermore, they can eat up oxygen if left unchecked, starving fish and other water organisms and eventually making them die out.

Such situations usually result from agricultural practices, which can lead to powerful nutrients entering the water and enabling algae and other microorganisms to grow excessively. An overly lively environment can be as harmful as one where everything is threatened.

With that said, industrial manufacturers deserve much of the attention and blame they receive from various communities. Construction of dedicated waste-cleaning facilities is usually possible, but companies avoid doing so because the process will increase their costs.

You should advocate for green practices, but be mindful of the potential impact of a significant price increase on the global economy. Also, be sure to mention more exotic pollution variations in your types of water pollution essay.

Provide examples of noise pollution or suspended matter pollution to expand on the topic of the complexity of the harm humanity causes to the ecosphere.

You should show your understanding that there are many causes, and we should work on addressing all of them, a notion you should repeat in your water pollution essay conclusions.

However, you should try to avoid being sidetracked too much and focus on the titles of pollution and its immediate causes.

If you stretch far enough, you may connect the matter to topics such as the status of a woman in Islam. However, doing so contributes little to nothing to your point and deviates from the topic of ecology into social and religious studies.

Leave the search for connections to dedicated researchers and concentrate on discussing the major causes that are known nowadays. By doing this, you will be able to create an excellent and powerful work that will demonstrate your understanding of the topic.

Here are some tips for your writing:

• Be sure to discuss the different types of pollution that is caused by the same source separately. Surface and groundwater pollution are different in their effects and deserve separate discussions.
• Focus on the issues and not on solutions, as an essay does not provide enough space to discuss the latter in detail.
• Be sure to discuss the effects of pollution on people and other land inhabitants as well as on water creatures.

Check IvyPanda to get more water pollution essay titles, paper ideas, and other useful samples!

• Air and Water Pollution in the Modern World The high number of vehicles in the city has greatly promoted air pollution in the area. Poor sewerage system, high pollution from industries and automobiles are among the major causes of air and water pollutions […]
• Water Pollution: Causes, Effects and Possible Solutions This is why clean water is required in all the places to make sure the people and all the living creatures in the planet live a good and healthy life.
• Water Pollution: Causes, Effects, and Prevention Farmers should be encouraged to embrace this kind of farming which ensures that the manure used is biodegradable and do not end up accumulating in the water bodies once they are washed off by floods.
• Water Pollution in the Philippines: Metropolitan Manila Area In this brief economic analysis of water pollution in Metro Manila, it is proposed to look at the industrial use of waters and the household use to understand the impact that the population growth and […]
• Coca-Cola India and Water Pollution Issues The first difficulty that the representatives of the Coca-Cola Company happened to face due to their campaign in the territory of India was caused by the concerns of the local government.
• Cashion Water Quality: Spatial Distribution of Water Pollution Incidents This essay discusses the quality of water as per the report of 2021 obtained from the municipality, the quality issue and the source of pollution, and how the pollution impacts human health and the environment […]
• Water Pollution: OIL Spills Aspects The effects of the oil spill on a species of ducks called the Harlequin ducks were formulated and the author attempted to trace out the immediate and residual effects of the oil on the birds.
• Importance of Mercury Water Pollution Problem Solutions The severity of the mercury contamination consequences depends on the age of the person exposed to the contamination, the way of contamination, the health condition, and many other factors.
• Water Pollution as a Crime Against the Environment In particular, water pollution is a widespread crime against the environment, even though it is a severe felony that can result in harm to many people and vast territories.
• Newark Water Crisis: Water Pollution Problem The main problem was rooted in the fact that lead levels in the drinking water were highly elevated, which is dangerous and detrimental to the population’s health.
• Water Pollution in a Community: Mitigation Plan Though for the fact that planet earth is abundant with water and almost two-thirds of the planet is made up of water still it is viewed that in future years, a shortage of water may […]
• Food Distribution and Water Pollution Therefore, food distribution is one of the central reasons for water pollution. According to Greenpeace, one of the ways to improve the ecology of the planet is by creating healthy food markets.
• Water Pollution and Associated Health Risks The results of plenty of studies indicate the existence of the relation between the contamination of water by hazardous chemicals and the development of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, cancer, asthma, allergies, as well as reproductive […]
• Lake Erie Water Pollution There are worries among the members of the community that the lake could be facing another episode of high toxicity, and they have called for the authorities to investigate the main causes of the pollution […]
• Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan All players need to be trained in significant areas of business so as they can handle them with care and beware of the potential they have in causing damage.
• Water Pollution in the US: Causes and Control Although water pollution can hardly be ceased entirely, the current rates of water pollution can be reduced by resorting to the sustainable principle of water use in both the industrial area and the realm of […]
• Water Pollution and Management in the UAE The groundwater in UAE meets the needs of 51% of users in terms of quantity mainly for irrigation. Surface water is the source of groundwater and plays a major role in groundwater renewal.
• Water Pollution and Its Challenges Water pollution refers to a situation where impurities find way into water bodies such as rivers, lakes, and ground water. This is a form of pollution where impurities enter water bodies through distinct sources such […]
• Water Pollution Sources, Effects and Control Unfortunately, not all the users of water are responsible to ensure that proper disposal or treatment of the used water is done before the water is returned to the water bodies.
• Water in Crisis: Public Health Concerns in Africa In the 21st century, the world faces a crisis of contaminated water, which is the result of industrialization and is a major problem in developing countries.
• Air and Water Pollution Thus, it is classified as a primary pollutant because it is the most common pollutants in the environment. In the environment, the impact of carbon monoxide is felt overtime, since it leads to respiratory problems.
• Causes of Water Pollution and the Present Environmental Solution Prolonged pollution of water has even caused some plants to grow in the water, which pose danger to the living entities that have their inhabitants in the water.
• Water Pollution & Diseases (Undeveloped Nations) Restriction on movement and access to the affected area affects trade and the loss of human life and deteriorated health is a major blow on the economy and on the quality of human life.
• Water and Water Pollution in Point of Economics’ View This research tries to explain the importance of water especially in an economist’s perspective by explaining the uses of water in various fields, pollution of water and the agents of pollution.
• Environmental Justice Issues Affecting African Americans: Water Pollution Water pollution in the 1960s occurred due to poor sewage systems in the urban and rural areas. Unlike in the 1960s, there are reduced cases of water pollution today.
• Water Pollution and Wind Energy Chemical pollution of water is one of the leading causes of death of aquatic life. It is thus evident that chemical pollution of water not only has negative effects on health, but it also substantially […]
• Air and Water Pollution in Los Angeles One of the major problems facing major cities and towns in the world is pollution; wastes from firms and households are the major causes of pollution.
• Water Pollution Causes and Climate Impacts The biggest percentage of sewage waste consists of water, treating the wastes for recycling would help in maintaining a constant supply of water.
• Water Pollution Origins and Ways of Resolving The evidence provided by environmental agencies indicates that industrial agriculture is one of the factors that significantly contribute to the deterioration of water quality.
• Mud Lick Creek Project – Fresh Water Pollution This potential source of pollutants poses significant risks to the quality of water at the creek in terms altering the temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and the turbidity of the water.
• Water Pollution in the Jamaican Society
• Water Pollution and Abstraction and Economic Instruments
• Water Pollution and Individual Effects of Water Pollution
• Understanding What Causes Water Pollution
• An Analysis of Water Pollution as a Global Plague That Affects the People, Animals and Plants
• Water Pollution Through Urban and Rural Land Use and Freshwater Allocation in New Zealand
• Water Pollution: Globalization, One of the Causes and Part of the Solution
• Voluntary Incentives for Reducing Agricultural Nonpoint Source Water Pollution
• The Impact of Water Pollution on Public Health in Flint, Michigan
• Understanding Water Pollution and Its Causes
• The Promises and Pitfalls of Devolution: Water Pollution Policies in the American States
• We Must Fight Against Water Pollution
• Transaction Costs and Agricultural Nonpoint-Source Water Pollution Control Policies
• Water Pollution and Drinking Water Quality
• Water Pollution: An Insight into the Greatest Environmental Risk
• US Water Pollution Regulation over the Past Half Century: Burning Waters to Crystal Springs
• Environmental Impact and Health Risks of Water Pollution to a Child
• Water Pollution Environment Effects Chemicals
• The Negative Effects of Water Pollution on Fish Numbers in America
• The Problem of Oil Spills and Water Pollution in Alaska
• Water Pollution in the United State: The Causes and Effects
• California Water Pollution Act Clean Laws
• The Need to Immediately Stop Water Pollution in the United States
• Water Pollution, Causes, Effects and Prevention
• The Water Pollution Prevention in Oceanic Areas
• Water Pollution and the Biggest Environmental Issues Today
• Fresh Water Pollution Assignment
• Water pollution in Southeast Asia and China
• Water Pollution Caused by Industrial Equipment
• The Impacts of Water Pollution on Economic Development in Sudan
• The Importance of Recycling to Prevent Water Pollution
• Water Pollution and Its Effects on The Environment
• The Sources, Environmental Impact, and Control of Water Pollution
• Water Quality and Contamination of Water Pollution
• Water Pollution and the World’s Worst Forms of Pollution
• The Problem of Water Pollution and the Solutions
• Comparing Contrast Legislative Approach Controlling Water Pollution Industrial
• An Analysis of the Water Pollution and it’s Effects on the Environment
• Water Pollution and The Natural Environment
• The Importance of Clean Drinking Water Pollution
• Water Pollution and Arsenic Pollution
• The Issue of Water Pollution in the Drinking Water in Brisbane
• What Are the Causes and Effects of Water Pollution?
• What Is the Effect of Water Pollution on Humanity?
• How Can Leaders Tackle with Water Pollution in China?
• What Is the Drinking Water Pollution Control Act?
• What Was the Social Water Pollution?
• How Non-Point Is Water Pollution Controlled in Agriculture?
• What Is Canada’s Water Pollution Dilemma?
• Water Pollution: Why Is There Trash in the Ocean?
• What Are the Problems Associated with Water Pollution?
• What Is the Connection Between Air and Water Pollution?
• How Water Pollution Effects Marine Life?
• What Are the Leading Factors of Water Pollution Around the World?
• Why Is Water Pollution an Important Issue Environmental Sciences?
• What Are the Factors That Causes Water Pollution and Its Effects on the World Today?
• What Are There Inorganic Chemicals Cause Water Pollution?
• How Does Drinking Water Pollution Impact the World Environmental Sciences?
• Is There a Connection Between Drinking Water Quality and Water Pollution?
• How to Deal with the Big Problem of Deforestation and Water Pollution in Brazil and the Colombian Amazon?
• Why Is China’s Water Pollution Challenge?
• What Is the Ground Water Pollution Assignment?
• How to Deal the Big Problem of Water Pollution in the World?
• How to Reduce Air and Water Pollution?
• What Is the Harmonizing Model with Transfer Tax on Water Pollution Across Regional Boundaries in China’s Lake Basin?
• Are the Causes and Effects of Water Pollution Determined in Lake Huron?
• Can Water Pollution Policy Be Efficient?
• What Are the Kinds of Water Pollution Environmental Sciences?
• What Causes Water Pollution and Its Effects?
• What Effect Does Water Pollution Have on KZN Citizens?
• How Is Water Pollution Managed in Viet Nam’s Craft Villages?
• What Should You Know About Water Pollution?
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Water Pollution

Water Pollution introduces students to the causes and effects of pollution in the water. Students will discover ways to prevent water pollution as well. The activity worksheet in particular will help them solidify their understanding of why pollution is bad and help them explain to others why they should likewise help keep the water clean.

There are several suggestions listed in the “Options for Lesson” section that you can take advantage of in your lesson. One such suggestion is to invite a guest speaker from the water company or a sewage plant to come speak with the students.

Description

Additional information, what our water pollution lesson plan includes.

Lesson Objectives and Overview: Water Pollution explores the negative effects of pollutants in our water sources. Students will discover some causes and effects of water pollution, as well as some ways to prevent it. By the end of the lesson, they should understand why it is important to keep the world’s H 2 O sources clean. This lesson is for students in 3rd grade and 4th grade.

Classroom Procedure

Every lesson plan provides you with a classroom procedure page that outlines a step-by-step guide to follow. You do not have to follow the guide exactly. The guide helps you organize the lesson and details when to hand out worksheets. It also lists information in the yellow box that you might find useful. You will find the lesson objectives, state standards, and number of class sessions the lesson should take to complete in this area. In addition, it describes the supplies you will need as well as what and how you need to prepare beforehand. In addition to the handouts, this lesson requires colored pencils or markers, construction paper or poster boards, and scratch paper. You will also need to ensure students have internet access for researching purposes.

Options for Lesson

There are a number of suggestions in the “Options for Lesson” section of additional activities and tasks that you could incorporate into the lesson plan. One suggestion is to invite a guest speaker from the water company or a sewage plant to speak with the class and answer their questions. Another idea is to obtain a local or state map that shows various bodies of water and their sources. You could also use pH strips or some other kind of testing kit to test the quality of water samples that you gather from different sources. One last idea is to introduce students to developing countries that have problems with clean water and describe some solutions that people could use to filter it better.

Teacher Notes

This page provides an extra paragraph of information or guidance as you prepare the lesson. It stresses how important it is that students understand the effects of water pollution and points out that they could face these issues in their lives. Use the blank lines to write down any other ideas or thoughts you might have regarding the lesson material.

WATER POLLUTION LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES

The Water Pollution lesson plan contains four pages of content. The first page provides students with some background information on what pollution is and why it is bad. All living organisms need food, oxygen, and water to survive. The main source of oxygen for humans is the air. If that air is not clean, however, it can cause health issues. People with asthma, for instance, have a hard time breathing when the air is dirty. In some countries, the air quality is bad enough that people have to cover their noses and mouths with a mask.

The reason behind dirty air has to do with pollution. Pollution includes substances in the environment that are harmful or dangerous for living things. Besides the air, it can also affect water and the land in general. Different types of pollution include air, noise, land, and light. Some of these cause only minor issues, but others can lead to serious problems for all living things. One of the worst kinds is water pollution. Because water is a necessity of life for all living organisms, polluted water causes a lot of issues in the world.

Students will discover that the human body is about 70% water, which is why drinking water regularly is good for their health. The water we consume needs to be clean. Even for plants, if the water is unclean, the plants will die or become unhealthy to eat. Water makes up 70% of the Earth’s surface, most of which is found in the oceans. Ocean water is salty, so it’s not safe to drink. Only 1% of the water on Earth is fresh water, which we find in lakes, rivers, streams, and reservoirs. If these sources become polluted and dirty, there is even less safe drinking water.

Sadly, humans are the cause of much of the water pollution that exists. Polluted water is simply unsafe to drink. While humans should not drink salt water either, pollution in oceans is still bad. Humans may not be able to survive by drinking salt water, but the living organisms in the oceans can and do. Pollution is also bad for oceans because it can cause problems for all the aquatic life living in them.

When different particles, chemicals, and other substances cause water to become unsafe, the water becomes polluted. Sometimes those pollutants flow directly into the water from a factory. Other times, it flows indirectly from rainwater that mixes with farm chemicals or from construction sites or other places that release unsafe chemicals. All rainwater eventually seeps into the ground and flows into rivers, lakes, or streams. So if rainwater is polluted, the pollution will eventually affect the freshwater sources.

In some countries, unsafe drinking water is the leading cause of death. There are places in the world where people drink bad water because they have no other choice. They need water to survive. The pollution can happen naturally due to volcanoes, excessive algae, or silt from storms and floods. However, humans often contribute to the problem even more. Human causes include sewage, pesticides and fertilizers, chemicals, and trash.

Types of Pollution

The lesson lists eight types of water pollution: nutrients, surface water, oxygen depleting, ground water, microbiological, suspended matter, chemical water, and oil spillage. Nutrients pollution occurs when excessive algae and plant growth that takes place in water bodies release too many nutrients into the water. Too much algae, for instance, takes away the oxygen from the water, which means other organisms may die.

Similarly, oxygen depleting is when decaying matter is released into water, leading to more microorganisms that use up the oxygen. Some of these organisms even produce harmful chemicals that can kill other living things. Microbiological pollution happens when many people drink water directly from rivers or streams without first treating the water. The natural pollution in this water can cause illness to humans and other animals.

Suspended matter is when some pollutants do not dissolve in the water and instead sink to the bottom, killing organisms that live there. Chemical water pollution occurs when the chemicals people use end up in the water. It also includes metals and solvents from factories that are poisonous to aquatic life, which slows their growth, makes them infertile, or kills them.

Prevention Methods

Students will learn several ways that they can help prevent water pollution or assist in cleaning up polluted waters. Though some pollution is not possible to prevent, there are ways to help keep water clean. One of the first things we can do is inform others about the effects of polluted water and explain why keeping water clean is essential to survival.

The lesson lists several facts students could share with others to inform them of the issue. Around 14 billion pounds of mostly plastic garbage ends up in the water every single year. In the United States alone, 1.2 trillion gallons of sewage is dumped into the water each year. Nearly 90% of wastewater flows untreated into lakes, rivers, and coastal areas. Over 3 million children under the age of five die every year because of diseases caused by drinking polluted water and poor sanitation. Nearly 1 billion people in the world don’t even have access to clean water sources.

Students can then read through five suggestions of things they can do to prevent polluting water themselves. They can first reduce the amount of water they use when doing things like taking showers or brushing their teeth. They should also not dump paints, oils, medicines, or chemicals down the drain or into the toilet. Another suggestion is to encourage their parents to buy cleaning supplies that are eco-friendly. One other great option is to plant more trees and flowers.

WATER POLLUTION LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS

The Water Pollution lesson plan includes three worksheets: an activity worksheet, a practice worksheet, and a homework assignment. Each one will help reinforce students’ comprehension of the lesson material. The guidelines on the classroom procedure page outlines when you give your students each handout.

PREVENTION POSTERS ACTIVITY WORKSHEET

Students will work with a partner for the activity. Using the supplies you provide, they will create a poster that encourages people to prevent water pollution. They will need to be creative and use words, images, logo, and slogans to demonstrate why this is important. In addition to a catchy title and the images and slogans, they should include facts that relate to the concept of preventing pollution. After they complete their poster, they will respond to three questions at the bottom of the worksheet.

MULTIPLE CHOICE PRACTICE WORKSHEET

For the practice worksheet, students will answer 10 questions. You can choose whether or not students can use the content pages for reference when they need help. This worksheet could also work well as a quiz if you want to test students on their level of comprehension.

WATER POLLUTION HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT

The homework assignment has two sections. The first section contains 12 statements. Students must match the type of pollution from the word bank to the statements. They will use some terms more than once. The second section requires students to fill in the blanks in eight sentences. There is no work bank for this section, so students will need to remember what they learned during the lesson. However, like the practice worksheet, you may choose to allow them to use the content pages for help if they need it.

Worksheet Answer Keys

The last two pages of the lesson plan document are answer keys for the practice and homework worksheets. The answers are all in red to make it easy for you to compare to students’ responses. Because there are no open-ended or opinion-based prompts, students’ answers should mirror those on these pages. If you choose to administer the lesson pages to your students via PDF, you will need to save a new file that omits these pages. Otherwise, you can simply print out the applicable pages and keep these as reference for yourself when grading assignments.

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I have to cover water pollution and it's not really covered in our textbook. I found this resource during a quick Google search and I am really happy with it! I printed everything out and scanned the reading portion to create a Google Classroom assignment, that I posted along with the links to to associated Learn Bright videos. Thanks for such a thorough and engaging resource!

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I love using this site for my lessons. It helps me a lot not only for having those information from the text but also it can give us more ideas on how to teach some particular topics.

Water pollution

This was a well written lesson that went smoothly into the rest of the unit.

I just wish you might have some kid books that you would recommend to go along with this lesson. It's hard to do the internet here where we live so checking the online sources isn't really an option for us. Other than that my child enjoyed learning about all the ways water gets polluted.

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• Water Pollution Control

Water Pollution And Its Control

Water is one of the most vital natural resources on earth and has been around for a long time. In fact, the same water which we drink has been around in one form or the other since the time of the dinosaurs.

The earth has more than two-thirds of its surface covered with water. This translates to just over 1 octillion litres (1,260,000,000,000,000,000,000 litres) of water distributed in the oceans, rivers, lakes and streams.

That is a lot of water, however, less than 0.3% is accessible for human consumption. As commercialization and industrialization have progressed, that number continues to dwindle down. Furthermore, inefficient and outdated practices, lack of awareness and a plethora of other circumstances have led to water pollution.

Also Read: How Can We Conserve Water?

• Water pollution
• Modern Epidemic

Minamata Incident

• Ganges River

What is Water Pollution?

Water pollution can be defined as the contamination of water bodies. Water pollution is caused when water bodies such as rivers, lakes, oceans, groundwater and aquifers get contaminated with industrial and agricultural effluents.

When water gets polluted, it adversely affects all lifeforms that directly or indirectly depend on this source. The effects of water contamination can be felt for years to come.

Also Refer:  Types of Pollution

Sources Of Water Pollution

The key causative of water pollution in India are:

• Urbanization.
• Deforestation.
• Industrial effluents.
• Social and Religious Practices.
• Use of Detergents and Fertilizers.
• Agricultural run-offs- Use of insecticides and pesticides.

Water Pollution – A Modern Epidemic

One of the primary causes of water pollution is the contamination of water bodies by toxic chemicals. As seen in the example mentioned above, the dumped plastic bottles, tins, water cans and other wastes pollute the water bodies. These result in water pollution, which harms not just humans, but the whole ecosystem. Toxins drained from these pollutants, travel up to the food chain and eventually affect humans. In most cases, the outcome is destructive to only the local population and species, but it can have an impact on a global scale too.

Nearly 6 billion kilograms of garbage is dumped every year in the oceans. Apart from industrial effluents and untreated sewage, other forms of unwanted materials are dumped into various water bodies. These can range from nuclear waste to oil spills – the latter of which can render vast areas uninhabitable.

Effects Of Water Pollution

The effect of water pollution depends upon the type of pollutants and their concentration. Also, the location of water bodies is an important factor to determine the levels of pollution.

• Water bodies in the vicinity of urban areas are extremely polluted. This is the result of dumping garbage and toxic chemicals by industrial and commercial establishments.
• Water pollution drastically affects aquatic life. It affects their metabolism, and behaviour, and causes illness and eventual death. Dioxin is a chemical that causes a lot of problems from reproduction to uncontrolled cell growth or cancer. This chemical is bioaccumulated in fish, chicken and meat. Chemicals such as this travel up the food chain before entering the human body.
• The effect of water pollution can have a huge impact on the food chain. It disrupts the food chain. Cadmium and lead are some toxic substances, these pollutants upon entering the food chain through animals (fish when consumed by animals, humans) can continue to disrupt at higher levels.
• Humans are affected by pollution and can contract diseases such as hepatitis through faecal matter in water sources. Poor drinking water treatment and unfit water can always cause an outbreak of infectious diseases such as cholera, etc.
• The ecosystem can be critically affected, modified and destructured because of water pollution.

The Minamata Incident marked one of the worst cases of water pollution

In 1932, a factory in Minamata City, Japan began dumping its industrial effluent – Methylmercury, into the surrounding bay and the sea. Methylmercury is incredibly toxic to humans and animals alike, causing a wide range of neurological disorders.

Its ill effects were not immediately noticeable. However, this all changed as methylmercury started to bioaccumulate inside shellfish and fish in Minamata Bay. These affected organisms were then caught and consumed by the local population. Soon, the ill effects of methylmercury were becoming apparent.

Initially, animals such as cats and dogs were affected by this. The city’s cats would often convulse and make strange noises before dying – hence, the term “dancing cat disease” was coined. Soon, the same symptoms were observed in people, though the cause was not apparent at the time.

Other affected people showed symptoms of acute mercury poisoning such as ataxia, muscle weakness, loss of motor coordination, damage to speech and hearing etc. In severe cases, paralysis occurred, which was followed by coma and death.  These diseases and deaths continued for almost 36 years before they could be officially acknowledged by the government and the organisation.

Since then, various control measures for water pollution have been adopted by the government of Japan to curb such environmental disasters in the future.

Pollution of the Ganges

Some rivers, lakes, and groundwater are rendered unfit for usage. In India, the River Ganges is the sixth most polluted river in the world. This is unsurprising as hundreds of industries nearby release their effluents into the river. Furthermore, religious activities such as burials and cremations near the shore contribute to pollution. Apart from the ecological implications, this river poses a serious health risks as it can cause diseases like typhoid and cholera.

Pollution of the Ganges is also driving some of the distinct fauna to extinction. The Ganges River shark is a critically endangered species that belong to the order Carcharhiniformes. The Ganges River dolphin is another  endangered species of dolphin that is found in the tributaries of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers.

As per a survey, by the end of 2026, around 4 billion people will face a shortage of water. Presently, around 1.2 billion people worldwide do not have access to clean, potable water and proper sanitation. It is also projected that nearly 1000 children die every year in India due to water-related issues. Groundwater is an important source of water, but unfortunately, even that is susceptible to pollution. Hence, water pollution is quite an important social issue that needs to be addressed promptly.

Control Measures of Water Pollution

Water pollution, to a larger extent, can be controlled by a variety of methods. Rather than releasing sewage waste into water bodies, it is better to treat them before discharge. Practising this can reduce the initial toxicity and the remaining substances can be degraded and rendered harmless by the water body itself. If the secondary treatment of water has been carried out, then this can be reused in sanitary systems and agricultural fields.

A very special plant, the Water Hyacinth can absorb dissolved toxic chemicals such as cadmium and other such elements. Establishing these in regions prone to such kinds of pollutants will reduce the adverse effects to a large extent.

Some chemical methods that help in the control of water pollution are precipitation, the ion exchange process, reverse osmosis , and coagulation. As an individual, reusing, reducing, and recycling wherever possible will advance a long way in overcoming the effects of water pollution.

Further Reading:

Frequently Asked Questions

What is sewage treatment.

Wastewater treatment or sewage treatment generally refers to the process of cleaning or removing all pollutants, treating wastewater and making it safe and suitable for drinking before releasing it into the environment.

What are the main steps in sewage treatment?

There are four main stages of the wastewater treatment process, namely:

• Stage 1: Screening
• Stage 2: Primary treatment
• Stage 3: Secondary treatment
• Stage 4: Final treatment

What are the main causes of water pollution?

The main causes of water pollution are attributed to

• Industrial activities
• Urbanization
• Religious and social practices
• Agricultural runoff
• Accidents (such as oil spills, nuclear fallouts etc)

What are the effects of water pollution?

Water pollution can have disastrous consequences on the ecosystem. Furthermore, toxic chemicals can travel through the food chain and get into our bodies, causing diseases and death.

To learn more about water pollution, causes, effects, preventive measures and other important environmental concerns (such as eutrophication), visit us at BYJU’S Biology.

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7.14: Water Pollution

• Last updated
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• Page ID 189484

• Heriberto Cabezas
• Georgia College and State University via GALILEO Open Learning Materials

Learning Objectives

After reading this module, students should be able to

• understand the major kinds of water pollutants and how they degrade water quality
• understand how and why the lack of safe drinking water in some parts of the world is a major problem
• know what sewage treatment does and why it is important
• know why it is more difficult to remediate groundwater pollution than surface water pollution
• understand how we can work toward solving the crisis involving water pollution

The Water Pollution Crisis

The Module 7.3 described one aspect of the global water crisis, the water shortages that afflict many arid and densely populated areas. The global water crisis also involves water pollution, because to be useful for drinking and irrigation, water must not be polluted beyond certain thresholds. According to the World Health Organization, in 2008 approximately 880 million people in the world (or 13% of world population) did not have access to improved (safe) drinking water (World Health Statistics, 2010) (See Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\)). At the same time, about 2.6 billion people (or 40% of world population) lived without improved sanitation (see Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\)), which is defined as having access to a public sewage system, septic tank, or even a simple pit latrine. Each year approximately 1.7 million people die from diarrheal diseases associated with unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene, e.g., hand washing with soap. Almost all of these deaths are in developing countries, and around 90% of them occur among children under the age of 5 (see Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\)). Compounding the water crisis is the issue of social justice; poor people more commonly lack clean water and sanitation than wealthy people in similar areas. Globally, improving water, sanitation, and hygiene could prevent up to 9% of all disease and 6% of all deaths. In addition to the global waterborne disease crisis, chemical pollution from agriculture, industry, cities, and mining threatens global water quality. Some chemical pollutants have serious and well-known health effects; however, many others have poorly known long-term health effects. In the U.S. currently more than 40,000 water bodies fit the definition of “impaired” set by EPA (See Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\)), which means they could neither support a healthy ecosystem nor meet water quality standards. In Gallup public polls conducted over the past decade Americans consistently put water pollution and water supply as the top environmental concerns over issues such as air pollution, deforestation, species extinction, and global warming.

Water Chemistry Overview

Compared to other molecules of similar molecular weight, water (H 2 O) has unique physical properties including high values for melting and boiling point, surface tension (water’s cohesion, or “stickiness”), and capacity to dissolve soluble minerals, i.e., act as a solvent. These properties are related to its asymmetrical structure and polar nature , which means it is electrically neutral overall but it has a net positive charge on the side with the two hydrogen atoms and a net negative charge on the oxygen side (see Figure \(\PageIndex{5}\)). This separation of the electrical charge within a water molecule results in hydrogen bonds with other water molecules, mineral surfaces (hydrogen bonding produces the water films on minerals in the unsaturated zone of the subsurface), and dissolved ions (atoms with a negative or positive charge). Many minerals and pollutants dissolve readily in water because water forms hydration shells (spheres of loosely coordinated, oriented water molecules) around ions.

Any natural water contains dissolved chemicals; some of these are important human nutrients, while others can be harmful to human health. The abundance of a water pollutant is commonly given in very small concentration units such as parts per million (ppm) or even parts per billion (ppb). An arsenic concentration of 1 ppm means 1 part of arsenic per million parts of water. This is equivalent to one drop of arsenic in 50 liters of water. To give you a different perspective on appreciating small concentration units, converting 1 ppm to length units is 1 cm (0.4 in) in 10 km (6 miles) and converting 1 ppm to time units is 30 seconds in a year. Total dissolved solids (TDS) represent the total amount of dissolved material in water. Average TDS (salinity) values for rainwater, river water, and seawater are about 4 ppm, 120 ppm, and 35,000 ppm. As discussed in Module 5.2, the most important processes that affect the salinity of natural waters are evaporation, which distills nearly pure water and leaves the dissolved ions in the original water, and chemical weathering, which involves mineral dissolution that adds dissolved ions to water. Fresh water is commonly defined as containing less than either 1,000 or 500 ppm TDS, but the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends that drinking water not exceed 500 ppm TDS or else it will have an unpleasant salty taste.

Water Pollution Overview

Water pollution is the contamination of water by an excess amount of a substance that can cause harm to human beings and the ecosystem. The level of water pollution depends on the abundance of the pollutant, the ecological impact of the pollutant, and the use of the water. Pollutants are derived from biological, chemical, or physical processes. Although natural processes such as volcanic eruptions or evaporation sometimes can cause water pollution, most pollution is derived from human, land-based activities (see Figure \(\PageIndex{6}\)). Water pollutants can move through different water reservoirs, as the water carrying them progresses through stages of the water cycle (see Figure \(\PageIndex{7}\)). Water residence time (the average time that a water molecule spends in a water reservoir) is very important to pollution problems because it affects pollution potential. Water in rivers has a relatively short residence time, so pollution usually is there only briefly. Of course, pollution in rivers may simply move to another reservoir, such as the ocean, where it can cause further problems. Groundwater is typically characterized by slow flow and longer residence time, which can make groundwater pollution particularly problematic. Finally, pollution residence time can be much greater than the water residence time because a pollutant may be taken up for a long time within the ecosystem or absorbed onto sediment.

Pollutants enter water supplies from point sources, which are readily identifiable and relatively small locations, or nonpoint sources, which are large and more diffuse areas. Point sources of pollution include animal “factory” farms that raise a large number and high density of livestock such as cows, pigs, and chickens (see Figure \(\PageIndex{8}\)) and discharge pipes from a factories or sewage treatment plants. Combined sewer systems that have a single set of underground pipes to collect both sewage and storm water runoff from streets for wastewater treatment can be major point sources of pollutants. During heavy rain, storm water runoff may exceed sewer capacity, causing it to back up and spilling untreated sewage into surface waters (see Figure \(\PageIndex{9}\)). Nonpoint sources of pollution include agricultural fields, cities, and abandoned mines. Rainfall runs over the land and through the ground, picking up pollutants such as herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizer from agricultural fields and lawns; oil, antifreeze, car detergent, animal waste, and road salt from urban areas; and acid and toxic elements from abandoned mines. Then, this pollution is carried into surface water bodies and groundwater. Nonpoint source pollution, which is the leading cause of water pollution in the U.S., is usually much more difficult and expensive to control than point source pollution because of its low concentration, multiple sources, and much greater volume of water.

Types of Water Pollutants

Oxyden-demanding waste is an extremely important pollutant to ecosystems. Most surface water in contact with the atmosphere has a small amount of dissolved oxygen, which is needed by aquatic organisms for cellular respiration. Bacteria decompose dead organic matter (chemically represented in a simplified way as CH 2 O) and remove dissolved oxygen (O 2 ) according to the following reaction:

\[ CH2O+O2→CO2+H2O \nonumber\]

Too much decaying organic matter in water is a pollutant because it removes oxygen from water, which can kill fish, shellfish, and aquatic insects. The amount of oxygen used by aerobic (in the presence of oxygen) bacterial decomposition of organic matter is called biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). The major source of dead organic matter in most natural waters is sewage; grass and leaves are smaller sources. An unpolluted water body with respect to oxygen is a turbulent river that flows through a natural forest. Turbulence continually brings water in contact with the atmosphere where the O 2 content is restored. The dissolved oxygen content in such a river ranges from 10 to 14 ppm O 2 , BOD is low, and clean-water fish, e.g., bass, trout, and perch dominate. A polluted water body with respect to oxygen is a stagnant deep lake in an urban setting with a combined sewer system. This system favors a high input of dead organic carbon from sewage overflows and limited chance for water circulation and contact with the atmosphere. In such a lake, the dissolved O 2 content is ≤5 ppm O 2 , BOD is high, and low O 2 -tolerant fish, e.g., carp and catfish dominate.

Excessive plant nutrients, particularly nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P), are pollutants closely related to oxygen-demanding waste. Aquatic plants require about 15 nutrients for growth, most of which are plentiful in water. N and P are called limiting nutrients , because they usually are present in water at low concentrations and therefore restrict the total amount of plant growth. This explains why N and P are major ingredients in most fertilizer. High concentrations of N and P from human sources (mostly agricultural and urban runoff including fertilizer, sewage, and P-based detergent) can cause cultural eutrophication, which involves the rapid growth of aquatic plants, particularly algae, called an algal bloom . Thick mats of floating and rooted green or sometimes red algae (see Figure \(\PageIndex{10}\)) create water pollution, damage the ecosystem by clogging fish gills and blocking sunlight, and damage lake aesthetics by making recreation difficult and creating an eyesore. A small percentage of algal species produce toxins that can kill fish, mammals, and birds, and may cause human illness; explosive growths of these algae are called harmful algal blooms (see Figure \(\PageIndex{11}\)). When the prolific algal layer dies, it becomes oxygen-demanding waste, which can create very low O 2 water (<~2 ppm O 2 ), called hypoxia or dead zone because it causes death to organisms that are unable to leave that environment. An estimated 50% of lakes in North America, Europe, and Asia are negatively impacted by cultural eutrophication. In addition, the size and number of marine hypoxic zones have grown dramatically over the past 50 years (see Figure \(\PageIndex{12}\)), including a very large dead zone located offshore Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. Cultural eutrophication and hypoxia are difficult to combat, because they are caused primarily by nonpoint source pollution, which is difficult to regulate, and N and P, which are difficult to remove from wastewater.

Pathogens are disease-causing microorganisms, e.g., viruses, bacteria, parasitic worms, and protozoa, which cause a variety of intestinal diseases such as dysentery, typhoid fever, hepatitis, and cholera. Pathogens are the major cause of the water pollution crisis discussed at the beginning of this section. Unfortunately nearly a billion people around the world are exposed to waterborne pathogen pollution daily and around 1.5 million children mainly in underdeveloped countries die every year of waterborne diseases from pathogens (see Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\)). Pathogens enter water primarily from human and animal fecal waste due to inadequate sewage treatment. In many underdeveloped countries, sewage is discharged into local waters either untreated or after only rudimentary treatment. In developed countries untreated sewage discharge can occur from overflows of combined sewer systems, poorly managed livestock factory farms, and leaky or broken sewage collection systems (see Figure \(\PageIndex{14}\)). Water with pathogens can be remediated by adding chlorine or ozone, by boiling, or by treating the sewage in the first place.

Oil spills are another kind of organic pollution. Oil spills can result from supertanker accidents such as the Exxon Valdez in 1989, which spilled 10 million gallons of oil into the rich ecosystem of offshore south Alaska and killed massive numbers of animals. The largest marine oil spill was the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which began with a natural gas explosion (see Figure \(\PageIndex{14}\) ) at an oil well 65 km offshore of Louisiana and flowed for 3 months in 2010, releasing an estimated 200 million gallons of oil. The worst oil spill ever occurred during the Persian Gulf war of 1991, when Iraq deliberately dumped approximately 200 million gallons of oil in offshore Kuwait and set more than 700 oil well fires that released enormous clouds of smoke and acid rain for over nine months. During an oil spill on water, oil floats to the surface because it is less dense than water, and the lightest hydrocarbons evaporate, decreasing the size of the spill but polluting the air. Then, bacteria begin to decompose the remaining oil, in a process that can take many years. After several months only about 15% of the original volume may remain, but it is in thick asphalt lumps, a form that is particularly harmful to birds, fish, and shellfish. Cleanup operations can include skimmer ships that vacuum oil from the water surface (effective only for small spills), controlled burning (works only in early stages before the light, ignitable part evaporates but also pollutes the air), dispersants (detergents that break up oil to accelerate its decomposition, but some dispersants may be toxic to the ecosystem), and bioremediation (adding microorganisms that specialize in quickly decomposing oil, but this can disrupt the natural ecosystem).

Toxic chemicals involve many different kinds and sources, primarily from industry and mining. General kinds of toxic chemicals include hazardous chemicals , which are a wide variety of synthetic organic and inorganic chemicals such as acids, bases, cyanide, and a class of compounds called persistent organic pollutants that includes DDT (pesticide), dioxin (herbicide by-product), and PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls, which were used as a liquid insulator in electric transformers). Persistent organic pollutants are long-lived in the environment, accumulate through the food chain (bioaccumulation), and can be toxic. Another category of toxic chemicals includes radioactive materials such as cesium, iodine, uranium, and radon gas, which can result in long-term exposure to radioactivity if it gets into the body. A final group of toxic chemicals is heavy metals such as lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, and chromium, which can accumulate through the food chain. Heavy metals are commonly produced by industry and at metallic ore mines. Arsenic and mercury are discussed in more detail below. The US EPA regulates 83 contaminants in drinking water to ensure a safe public water supply. Similarly, at the international level the World Health Organization has drinking water standards for a variety of contaminants.

Arsenic (As) has been famous as an agent of death for many centuries. In large doses arsenic causes cancer and can be fatal. Only recently have scientists recognized that health problems can be caused by drinking small arsenic concentrations in water over a long time. It attacks the central nervous system and can damage the respiratory system, bladder, lungs, liver, and kidneys. It enters the water supply naturally from weathering of As-rich minerals and from human activities such as coal burning and smelting of metallic ores. The worst case of arsenic poisoning occurred in the densely populated impoverished country of Bangladesh, which had experienced 100,000s of deaths from diarrhea and cholera each year from drinking surface water contaminated with pathogens due to improper sewage treatment. In the 1970s the United Nations provided aid for millions of shallow water wells, which resulted in a dramatic drop in pathogenic diseases. Unfortunately, many of the wells produced water naturally rich in arsenic. Tragically, there are an estimated 77 million people (about half of the population) who inadvertently may have been exposed to toxic levels of arsenic in Bangladesh as a result. The World Health Organization has called it the largest mass poisoning of a population in history.

Mercury (Hg) is used in a variety of electrical products, such as dry cell batteries, fluorescent light bulbs, and switches, as well as in the manufacture of paint, paper, vinyl chloride, and fungicides. In the methylmercury form (CH 3 Hg + ) it is highly toxic; ≥ 1 ppb of methylmercury represents water contaminated with mercury. Mercury concentrates in the food chain, especially in fish, in a process caused biomagnification (see Sidebar Biomagnification ). It acts on the central nervous system and can cause loss of sight, feeling, and hearing as well as nervousness, shakiness, and death. Like arsenic, mercury enters the water supply naturally from weathering of Hg-rich minerals and from human activities such as coal burning and metal processing. A famous mercury poisoning case in Minamata, Japan involved methylmercury-rich industrial discharge that caused high Hg levels in fish. People in the local fishing villages ate fish up to three times per day for over 30 years, which resulted in over 2,000 deaths. During that time the responsible company and national government did little to mitigate, help alleviate, or even acknowledge the problem.

Biomagnification

Biomagnification represents the processes in an ecosystem that cause greater concentrations of a chemical, such as methylmercury, in organisms higher up the food chain. Mercury and methylmercury are present in only very small concentrations in seawater; however, at the base of the food chain algae absorb methylmercury. Then, small fish eat the algae, large fish and other organisms higher in the food chain eat the small fish, and so on. Fish and other aquatic organisms absorb methylmercury rapidly but eliminate it slowly from the body. Therefore, each step up the food chain increases the concentration from the step below (see Figure \(\PageIndex{15}\)). Largemouth bass can concentrate methylmercury up to 10 million times over the water concentration and fish-eating birds can concentrate it even higher. Other chemicals that exhibit biomagnification are DDT, PCBs, and arsenic.

Other water pollutants include sediment and heat. Muddy water is bad for drinking but even worse for underwater plants that need sunlight for photosynthesis. Much of the sediment in water bodies is derived from the erosion of soil, so it also represents a loss of agricultural productivity. Thermal pollution involves the release of heated waters from power plants and industry to surface water, causing a drop in the dissolved O 2 content, which can stress fish.

Hard water contains abundant calcium and magnesium, which reduces its ability to develop soapsuds and enhances scale (calcium and magnesium carbonate minerals) formation on hot water equipment. Water softeners remove calcium and magnesium, which allows the water to lather easily and resist scale formation. Hard water develops naturally from the dissolution of calcium and magnesium carbonate minerals in soil; it does not have negative health effects in people.

Groundwater pollution can occur from underground sources and all of the pollution sources that contaminate surface waters. Common sources of groundwater pollution are leaking underground storage tanks for fuel, septic tanks, agricultural activity, and landfills. Common groundwater pollutants include nitrate, pesticides, volatile organic compounds, and petroleum products. Polluted groundwater can be a more serious problem than polluted surface water because the pollution in groundwater may go undetected for a long time because usually it moves very slowly. As a result, the pollution in groundwater may create a contaminant plume, a large body of flowing polluted groundwater (see Figure \(\PageIndex{15}\)), making cleanup very costly. By the time groundwater contamination is detected, the entity responsible for the pollution may be bankrupt or nonexistent. Another troublesome feature of groundwater pollution is that small amounts of certain pollutants, e.g., petroleum products and organic solvents, can contaminate large areas. In Denver, Colorado 80 liters of several organic solvents contaminated 4.5 trillion liters of groundwater and produced a 5 km long contaminant plume. Most groundwater contamination occurs in shallow, unconfined aquifers located near the contamination source. Confined aquifers are less susceptible to pollution from the surface because of protection by the confining layer. A major threat to groundwater quality is from underground fuel storage tanks. Fuel tanks commonly are stored underground at gas stations to reduce explosion hazards. Before 1988 in the U.S. these storage tanks could be made of metal, which can corrode, leak, and quickly contaminate local groundwater. Now, leak detectors are required and the metal storage tanks are supposed to be protected from corrosion or replaced with fiberglass tanks. Currently there are around 600,000 underground fuel storage tanks in the U.S. and over 30% still do not comply with EPA regulations regarding either release prevention or leak detection.

Sustainable Solutions to the Water Pollution Crisis?

Resolution of the global water pollution crisis described at the beginning of this section requires multiple approaches to improve the quality of our fresh water and move towards sustainability. The most deadly form of water pollution, pathogenic microorganisms that cause waterborne diseases, kills almost 2 million people in underdeveloped countries every year. The best strategy for addressing this problem is proper sewage (wastewater) treatment. Untreated sewage is not only a major cause of pathogenic diseases, but also a major source of other pollutants, including oxygen-demanding waste, plant nutrients (N and P), and toxic heavy metals. Wastewater treatment is done at a sewage treatment plant in urban areas and through a septic tank system in rural areas.

The main purpose of a sewage treatment plant is to remove organic matter (oxygen-demanding waste) and kill bacteria; special methods also can be used to remove plant nutrients and other pollutants. The numerous processing steps at a conventional sewage treatment plant (see Figure \(\PageIndex{17}\)) include pretreatment (screening and removal of sand and gravel), primary treatment (settling or floatation to remove organic solids, fat, and grease), secondary treatment (aerobic bacterial decomposition of organic solids), tertiary treatment (bacterial decomposition of nutrients and filtration), disinfection (treatment with chlorine, ozone, ultraviolet light, or bleach), and either discharge to surface waters (usually a local river) or reuse for some other purpose, such as irrigation, habitat preservation, and artificial groundwater recharge. The concentrated organic solid produced during primary and secondarytreatment is called sludge, which is treated in a variety of ways including landfill disposal, incineration, use as fertilizer, and anaerobic bacterial decomposition, which is done in the absence of oxygen. Anaerobic decomposition of sludge produces methane gas, which can be used as an energy source. To reduce water pollution problems, separate sewer systems (where street runoff goes to rivers and only wastewater goes to a wastewater treatment plant) are much better than combined sewer systems, which can overflow and release untreated sewage into surface waters during heavy rain. Some cities such as Chicago, Illinois have constructed large underground caverns and also use abandoned rock quarries to hold storm sewer overflow. After the rain stops, the stored water goes to the sewage treatment plant for processing.

A septic tank system is an individual sewage treatment system for homes in rural and even some urban settings. The basic components of a septic tank system (see Figure \(\PageIndex{18}\)) include a sewer line from the house, a septic tank (a large container where sludge settles to the bottom and microorganisms decompose the organic solids anaerobically), and the drain field (network of perforated pipes where the clarified water seeps into the soil and is further purified by bacteria). Water pollution problems occur if the septic tank malfunctions, which usually occurs when a system is established in the wrong type of soil or maintained poorly.

For many developing countries, financial aid is necessary to build adequate sewage treatment facilities; however, the World Health Organization estimates an estimated cost savings of between $3 and $34 for every $1 invested in clean water delivery and sanitation ( Water for Life, 2005 ). The cost savings are from health care savings, gains in work and school productivity, and deaths prevented. Simple and inexpensive techniques for treating water at home include chlorination, filters, and solar disinfection. Another alternative is to use constructed wetlands technology (marshes built to treat contaminated water), which is simpler and cheaper than a conventional sewage treatment plant.

Bottled water is not a sustainable solution to the water crisis, despite exponential growth in popularity in the U.S. and the world. Bottled water is not necessarily any safer than the U.S. public water supply, it costs on average about 700 times more than U.S. tap water, and every year it uses approximately 200 billion plastic and glass bottles that have a relatively low rate of recycling. Compared to tap water, it uses much more energy, mainly in bottle manufacturing and long-distance transportation. If you don’t like the taste of your tap water, then please use a water filter instead of bottled water!

Additional sustainable solutions to the water pollution crisis include legislation to eliminate or greatly reduce point sources of water pollution. In the U.S., the Clean Water Act of 1972 and later amendments led to major improvements in water quality (see Sidebar Clean Water Act). Nonpoint sources of water pollution, e.g., agricultural runoff and urban runoff (see Figure \(\PageIndex{19}\)), are much harder to regulate because of their widespread, diffuse nature. There are many construction and agricultural practices that reduce polluted runoff including no-till farming and sediment traps. Artificial aeration or mechanical mixing can remediate lakes with oxygen depletion. Specific things that we can do to reduce urban runoff include the following: keep soil, leaves, and grass clippings off driveways, sidewalks, and streets; don't pour used motor oil, antifreeze, paints, pesticides, or any household hazardous chemical down the storm sewer or drain; recycle used motor oil; use hazardous waste disposal programs offered by the community; compost your organic waste; don't use fertilizers and herbicides on your lawn; and flush pet waste down the toilet.

Clean Water Act

During the early 1900s rapid industrialization in the U.S. resulted in widespread water pollution due to free discharge of waste into surface waters. The Cuyahoga River in northeast Ohio caught fire numerous times (see Figure \(\PageIndex{20}\)), including a famous fire in 1969 that caught the nation’s attention. In 1972 Congress passed one of the most important environmental laws in U.S. history, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, which is more commonly called the Clean Water Act. The purpose of the Clean Water Act and later amendments is to maintain and restore water quality, or in simpler terms to make our water swimmable and fishable. It became illegal to dump pollution into surface water unless there was formal permission and U.S. water quality improved significantly as a result. More progress is needed because currently the EPA considers over 40,000 U.S. water bodies as impaired, most commonly due to pathogens, metals, plant nutrients, and oxygen depletion. Another concern is protecting groundwater quality, which is not yet addressed sufficiently by federal law.

Sometimes slow flow through a soil can naturally purify groundwater because some pollutants, such as P, pesticides, and heavy metals, chemically bind with surfaces of soil clays and iron oxides. Other pollutants are not retained by soil particles: These include N, road salt, gasoline fuel, the herbicide atrazine, tetrachloroethylene (a carcinogenic cleaning solvent used in dry cleaning), and vinyl chloride. In other cases, slow groundwater flow can allow bacteria to decompose dead organic matter and certain pesticides. There are many other ways to remediate polluted groundwater. Sometimes the best solution is to stop the pollution source and allow natural cleanup. Specific treatment methods depend on the geology, hydrology, and pollutant because some light contaminants flow on top of groundwater, others dissolve and flow with groundwater, and dense contaminants can sink below groundwater. A common cleanup method called pump and treat involves pumping out the contaminated groundwater and treating it by oxidation, filtration, or biological methods. Sometimes soil must be excavated and sent to a landfill. In-situ treatment methods include adding chemicals to immobilize heavy metals, creating a permeable reaction zone with metallic iron that can destroy organic solvents, or using bioremediation by adding oxygen or nutrients to stimulate growth of microorganisms.

Review Questions

• What are the major kinds of water pollutants and how do they degrade water quality?
• How would you rank the water pollution problems described in this chapter? Why?
• Why is untreated sewage such an important water pollutant to remediate?
• What should society learn from the case history of Love Canal?
• Why are people facing a crisis involving water pollution and how can we solve it?

Water for Life: Making it Happen (2005) World Health Organization and UNICEF. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/waterforlife.pdf

World Health Statistics (2010) World Health Organization. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/whosis/whostat/EN_WHS10_Full.pdf

• Water and Water Pollution

We already know that Water is the most important resource on the planet . It is the essence of all life on earth. And yet if you ever see a river or lake around your city, it would be evident to you that we are facing a very serious problem of Water pollution. Let us educate ourselves about water and water pollution.

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Water and Water Cycle

Two-thirds of the Earths surface is covered by water, seventy-six perfect of your body is made up of water. As you already know water is everywhere and all around.  However, we have a fixed amount of water on earth. It just changes its states and goes through a cyclic order, known as the Water Cycle .

As shown in the image above, the water cycle is a natural process that is continuous in nature. It is the pattern in which the water from oceans, seas, lakes etc gets evaporated and turns to vapour. After which it goes through the process of condensation, and finally precipitation when it falls back to earth as rain or snow.

You can download Water – Natural Resources Cheat Sheet by clicking on the download button below

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What is Water Pollution?

Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies (like oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, aquifers, and groundwater ) usually caused due to human activities. Water pollution is any change in the physical, chemical or biological properties of water that will have a detrimental consequence of any living organism .

Drinking water, also called Potable Water, is the water that is considered safe enough for human and animal consumption. This is water that is generally used for drinking, cooking, washing, crop irrigation , etc. These days chemicals, bacteria , and other pollutants are even affecting our drinking water .

Learn more about Air and Air Pollution here .

Sources of Water Pollution

Some of the most commonly occurring water pollutants are

• Domestic Waste
• Industrial effluents
• Insecticides and pesticides
• Detergents and Fertilizers

Some of the water pollution that is caused is by Direct Sources , such as factories, waste management facilities. refineries etc, that directly release waste and harmful by-products into the nearest water source without treating them. Indirect sources include pollutants that enter the water bodies via groundwater or soil or via the atmosphere as acid rain.

Effects of Pollution of Water

• Diseases: In humans, drinking or consuming polluted water in any way has many disastrous effects on our health. It causes typhoid, cholera, hepatitis and various other diseases.
• Destruction of Ecosystems: Ecosystems are extremely dynamic and respond to even small changes in the environment. Water pollution can cause an entire ecosystem to collapse if left unchecked.
• Eutrophication: Chemicals in a water body, encourage the growth of algae . These algae form a layer on top of the pond or lake. Bacteria feed on this algae and this decreases the amount of oxygen in the water body, severely affecting the aquatic life there.
• Effects the food chain: Disruption in food chains happens when toxins and pollutants in the water are consumed by aquatic animals (fish, shellfish etc) which are then consumed by humans.

The best way to prevent large-scale water pollution is to try and reduce its harmful effects. There are various small changes we can make to protect ourselves from a scary future where water is scarce.

• Save Water: Conserving water is our first aim. Water wastage is a major problem globally and we are only now waking up to the issue. Simply small changes you can make domestically will make a huge difference.
• Better treatment of sewage: So treating waste products before disposing of it in a water body helps reduce water pollution on a large scale. Agriculture or other industries can reuse this wastewater by reducing its toxic contents.
• Use environmentally friendly products: By using soluble products that do not go on to become pollutants, we can reduce the amount of water pollution caused by a household.

Solved Example for You

Q: What is thermal water pollution?

• Colour of the water is changed
• A change in Water pressure
• Change in temperature of water
• pH of water changes

Solution: The correct answer is “c”. Thermal pollution is the rise and fall in the temperature of a natural body of water caused by human influence. And Thermal pollution, unlike chemical pollution, results in a change in the physical properties of water.

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2 responses to “Air and Air Pollution”

is it possible to get the authors name and the date this was published? I need this for a paper.

Hi Josh, it was published on 19th January 2018 by Preksha Thakkar from Toppr.

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• Water Pollution Essay

Water Pollution and How it Harms the Environment

Global pollution is a problem. Pollution can spread to remote areas where no one lives, despite the fact that urban areas are typically more polluted than the countryside. Air pollution, water pollution, and land pollution are the three main categories of pollution. Some contaminated water has a terrible smell, a muddy appearance, and floating trash. Some contaminated water appears clean, but it contains dangerous substances that you can't see or smell.

Together, developed and developing nations must fight to conserve the environment for present and future generations. Today, we dig deep into the subject of Water Pollution. This article can be an introduction to water pollution for kids as we will read many things such as the causes of water pollution further in the article.

What is Water Pollution?

Water contamination occurs when pollutants pollute water sources and make the water unfit for use in drinking, cooking, cleaning, swimming, and other activities. Chemicals, garbage, bacteria, and parasites are examples of pollutants. Water is eventually damaged by all types of pollution. Lakes and oceans become contaminated by air pollution. Land contamination may contaminate an underground stream, a river, and ultimately the ocean. As a result, trash thrown on an empty lot can eventually contaminate a water source.

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Water Pollution

The water cycle, called  the hydrological cycle, involves the following steps:

Evaporation- Because of the sun's heat, the water bodies such as oceans, lakes, seas etc., get heated up, and water evaporates in the air, forming water vapours.

Transpiration- Like evaporation, the plants and trees also lose water from them which goes to the atmosphere. This process is called transpiration.

Condensation- As the water evaporates, it starts to become cool because of the cold atmosphere in the air and because of this cooling down of water leads to the formation of clouds.

Precipitation- Because of the high movements of the wings, the clouds start to collide and then fall back to the earth’s surface in the form of rain. Sometimes they also fall back in the form of snow, hail, sleet etc., depending upon the temperature.

Runoff or Infiltration- After precipitation, the water either flows to the water bodies called runoff or is absorbed into the soil, called infiltration.

Causes of Water Pollution

There are many reasons for water pollution. Some of the reasons are directly affected by water pollution and some indirectly. Many factories and industries are dumping contaminated water, chemicals, and heavy metals into major waterways as a result of direct water pollution. 

One more reason for water pollution is the use of modern techniques in farms. Farmers apply nutrients such as phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium in the form of chemical fertilizers, manure, and sludge. It causes farms to discharge large quantities of agrochemicals, organic matter, and saline drainage into water bodies. It indirectly affects water pollution.

Pollutants can be of various types such as organic, inorganic, radioactive etc. Water pollutants are discharged either from one point from pipes, channels etc., which are called point sources or from various other sources. They can be agricultural areas, industries etc., called dispersed sources. 

Some of the major forms of water pollutants are as follows:

Sewage- Domestic sewage from homes contains various forms of pathogens that threaten the human body. Sewage treatment reduces the risk of pathogens, but this risk is not eliminated. 

Domestic sewage majorly contains nitrates and phosphates, and excess of these substances allows the algae to grow on the surface of water bodies. Due to this, the clean water bodies become nutrient-rich water body and then slowly, the oxygen level of water bodies reduces. This is called eutrophication or cultural eutrophication (if this step rapidly takes place by the activities of humans). This leads to the early death of water bodies.

Toxins- The industrial or factory wastes that are not disposed of properly and contain chemicals such as mercury and lead are disposed of in the water bodies making the bodies toxic, radioactive, explosive and cancerous.

Sediments- Sediments are the result of soil erosion that is formed in the water bodies. These sediments imbalances the water bodies ecologically. They also interfere in the reproductive cycle of various aquatic animals living in the water.

Thermal pollution- Water bodies get polluted because of heat, and excess heat reduces the oxygen level of the water bodies. Some of the species of fish cannot live in such water bodies with very low oxygen levels. The disposal of cold waters from the power plants leads to increased thermal pollution in the water bodies.

Petroleum oil pollution- The runoff of oil into the water bodies, either accidentally as happened in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico, or intentionally, leads to an increase in water pollution.

As water is an important element of human health, polluted water directly affects the human body. Water pollution causes various diseases like typhoid, cholera, hepatitis, cancer, etc. Water pollution damages the plants and aquatic animals present in the river by reducing the oxygen content from the water. Polluted water washes the essential nutrients which plants need out of the soil and also leaves large amounts of aluminium in the soil, which can be harmful to plants. 

Wastewater and sewage are a by-product of daily life and thus produced by each household through various activities like using soap, toilets, and detergents. Such sewage contains chemicals and bacteria which are harmful to human life and environmental health. Water pollution also leads to an imbalance in our ecosystem. Lastly, it also affects the food chain as the toxins in the water bodies are consumed by aquatic animals like fish, crabs etc., and then humans consume those animals forming turmoil. 

Sometimes our tradition also becomes a cause for water pollution. Some people throw the statues of deities, flowers, pots, and ashes in rivers.

There are various standards to define water quality standards. Water meant for swimming may not be clean enough for drinking, or water meant for bathing may not be good for cooking. Therefore, there are different water standards for defined:

Stream standards- Standards that define streams, lakes, oceans or seas based on their maximum use.

Effluent standards- Define the specific standards for the level of contaminants or effluents allowed during the final discharge of those into the water bodies.

Drinking water standards- Define the level of contamination allowed in water that will be supplied for drinking or cooking in the domestic areas.

Different countries regulate their water quality standards through different acts and amendments.

While many of the solutions for water pollution need to be applied on a broader macro-level for that individual, companies, and communities can have a significant and responsible impact on the water quality. Companies, factories have to dispose of leftover chemicals and containers properly as per the product instructions. Farmers also have to reduce the use of nitrates and phosphates from fertilizers, pesticides, and contamination of groundwater. 

The Swachh Bharat Mission of the government had led to reduced groundwater contamination. Under the Namami Ganga program, the government has initiated several major projects to clean Ganga. Along with all these steps, conservation of water is the very basic and important step towards water conservation and should be followed globally, treatment of sewage before their disposal in the water bodies and using environment-friendly products that do not form toxins when dissolved in water. These are some small steps that have to be taken into consideration by every human being.

As we all know, “Water is life’s matter and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water.” We have to save water. We must keep the water clean. If everyone will follow their responsibility against water to protect it from getting polluted then it will be easy to get clean and healthy drinking water. Clean water is a must for us and our kids' present, future, and healthy environment. 

We cannot just live with contaminated waters filled with toxins and no oxygen. We cannot see our wildlife being destroyed and therefore, immediate steps have to be taken by groups of people to first clean the already contaminated water bodies and then keep a check on all the surrounding water bodies. Small steps by every individual can make a huge difference in controlling water pollution.

Water Pollution Prevention

Conserve Water 

Our first priority should be to conserve water. Water wasting could be a big problem for the entire world, but we are just now becoming aware of it.

Sewage Treatment 

Cleaning up waste materials before disposing of them in waterways reduces pollution on a large scale. By lowering its dangerous elements, this wastewater will be used in other sectors or in agriculture.

Usage of Eco-Friendly Materials

We will reduce the amount of pollution produced by choosing soluble products that do not alter to become pollutants.

Water contamination is the discharge of pollutants into the water body, where they dissolve, are suspended, are deposited on the bottom, and collect to the point where they hinder the aquatic ecosystem's ability to function. Water contamination is brought on by toxic compounds that easily dissolve and combine with it and come from factories, municipalities, and farms.

Healthy ecosystems depend on a complex network of organisms, including animals, plants, bacteria, and fungi, all of which interact with one another either directly or indirectly. In this article, we read about water pollution, its causes and prevention. With this, we have come to the end of our article, in case of any other doubts, feel free to ask in the comments.

FAQs on Water Pollution Essay

1. What are the effects of water pollution?

Water pollution has a great impact on human health. Water pollution kills. It's been recorded that in 2015 nearly 1.8 million people died because of water pollution. People with low income are exposed to contaminated water coming out from the industries. Presence of disease causing pathogens in drinking water are the major cause of illness which includes cholera, giardia, and typhoid. Water pollution not only affects human health but also our environment by causing algal bloom in a lake or marine environment. Water pollution also causes eutrophication which suffocates plants and animals and thus causes dead zones. Chemicals and heavy metals from industrial and municipal wastewater contaminate waterways and harm aquatic life.

2. What are the causes of Water pollution?

Water being a universal solvent is vulnerable to pollution as it dissolves more substances than any other liquid on earth. Therefore, water is easily polluted. Toxic substances from farms, towns, and factories readily dissolve into water and mix with it, resulting in water pollution. Agricultural pollution is one of the major causes of contamination in rivers and streams. The use of excessive fertilizers, pesticides, and animal waste from farms and livestock operations lets the rain wash the nutrients and pathogens—such as bacteria and viruses—into our waterways. The other major cause of water pollution is used water,  termed as wastewater which comes from our sinks, showers, toilets and from commercial, industrial, and agricultural activities. It's been reported that the world's 80% wastewater flows back into the environment without being treated or reused. Oil spills and radioactive waste also cause water pollution to a great extent.

3. How to prevent water pollution?

It is important to keep our water bodies clean so we can take the following preventive measures to prevent from water pollution:

Chemicals like bleach, paint, paint thinner, ammonia, and many chemicals are becoming a serious problem. Dumping toxic chemicals down the drain or flushing them down the toilet can cause water pollution. Thus, proper disposal is important. Also, household chemicals need to be recycled.

Avoid buying products that contain persistent and dangerous chemicals. Buying non-toxic cleaners and biodegradable cleaners and pesticides cut down on water pollution.

Prevent from pouring fats or greasy substances down the drain as it might clog the drain resulting in the dumping of waste into yards or basement which can contaminate the local water bodies.

4. What is the role of medical institutions in polluting the water?

Pharmaceutical pollution affects aquatic life and thus there is a need to take preventive measures. Consumers are responsible for winding up pharmaceutical and personal care products in lakes, rivers, and streams. There's a lot of unused and expired medication that can potentially get into the water if not disposed of properly.

5. What are the major kinds of pollution?

The three main types of pollution are air pollution, water pollution or soil pollution. Some artificial pollution is also there, such as noise pollution. Factors leading to such pollution include:

Air Pollution: Industrial emissions, fires, traffic and transportation, burning of chemical waste, etc.

Water Pollution: No proper sewage disposal, pesticides in farms leaking into water bodies, industrial waste dumped into water bodies, etc.

Soil Pollution:  Oil spills, acid rains, irresponsible disposal of trash, chemical waste, etc.

Noise Pollution: Honking of horns, construction activities, loud parties, etc.

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Training the Next Generation of Scientists to Tackle Water Pollution

NC State professor Angela Allen is training students to conduct water quality testing and monitoring through the Environmental Resource Clinic Student Training Program.

Drinking water is essential to human health, from regulating the body’s temperature to eliminating toxins. But when water becomes polluted, it can cause serious problems — from gastrointestinal illnesses to cancer.

NC State professor Angela Allen launched the Environmental Resource Clinic Student Training Program to train undergraduate and graduate students to identify and address drinking water quality issues. 

“Students are trained to engage with communities and provide technical support for real-world water quality challenges as part of their education,” said Allen, an assistant teaching professor in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources.

The Environmental Resource Clinic Student Training Program is open to all NC State students interested in learning about water quality monitoring and research. More than 20 students have participated in research, mentorship and community outreach opportunities so far. 

All students complete online safety training before learning to use a variety of tools to determine water quality parameters and pollution. They also learn to communicate their findings with communities and other stakeholders.

“We work immediately with communities. They are the backbone of the work we do,” Allen said. “Students are introduced to these stakeholders so that they can get a sense of the importance of what we do and why we do it.” 

Much of the work completed so far has focused on addressing ongoing water quality challenges in the Walnut Creek watershed, specifically in the historic neighborhoods of Rochester Heights and Biltmore Hills. 

The predominantly African-American neighborhoods often experience flooding as polluted stormwater from downtown Raleigh and Interstate 40 flows into Little Rock Creek, a tributary of the Walnut Creek watershed.

Walnut Creek feeds into the Neuse River, which provides drinking water for thousands of North Carolinians. It has long been adversely affected by sedimentation and bacterial contamination.

Local organizations, government agencies and other stakeholders, including NC State researchers, have worked together over the past decade to mitigate flooding and pollution in southeast Raleigh. 

Allen’s involvement began with a request from Stacie Hagwood, then manager of Walnut Creek Wetland Park, for water quality monitoring. Her program has since expanded to include collaborations with Partners for Environmental Justice, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, among others.

“Working to characterize water quality in an area that has been disproportionately impacted by urban development gives our students an opportunity to positively contribute to the health and well-being of our community,” Allen said.

She added, “We are led by the needs of those in our community, and having knowledge about their concerns allows us to provide the needed resources to arrive at meaningful solutions.” 

Allen and her students have not only monitored water quality, but they’ve also partnered with collaborators to develop funding proposals for Walnut Creek improvement projects and to participate in outreach activities.

Andrea Putri, a senior majoring in environmental technology and management at NC State, has participated in the Environmental Resource Clinic Student Training Program since summer 2023 as an undergraduate research assistant.

Putri said the program has provided her with valuable skills and knowledge that will contribute to future success. It has not only improved her ability to think critically and collaborate with others, but it has also improved her ability to manage her time appropriately and communicate science to the public.

“My participation in the program has been a rewarding experience,” Putri said. “I can say it has helped me gain insight into the topics of environmental justice, water quality, leadership skills, and how to become a lifelong learner.”

She added that her participation in the program has even helped her to further articulate her career goals. “My initial plan after graduation was to pursue a career in water and environmental management. But after this experience, I have also started thinking about continuing my academic studies by getting a master’s degree or doctorate degree.”

Recently, the North Carolina Source Water Collaborative awarded Allen the 2024 Source Water Protection Education Award for her contributions through the Environmental Resource Clinic Student Training Program.

The Source Water Protection Award acknowledges individuals and/or groups that demonstrate innovative, proactive, and collaborative solutions to protect North Carolina’s drinking water and the watersheds that support it. 

Going forward, Allen is seeking funding to continue the program in order to meet increased demand. The program has seen exponential growth since its launch, with more and more students wanting to participate. 

“Students yearn for more experiences outside the classroom and want to learn about research,” Allen said. “This program does just that.”

If you’re interested in joining or collaborating with the Environmental Resource Clinic Student Training Program, please contact Angela Allen at [email protected].

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4.4 Water Pollution

Groundwater and surface water can both become polluted by human activities (as well as through natural causes). This can be a problem for humans as well as other organisms.

A range fo pollution management strategies can be applied to prevent or minimise the extent of the pollution, or clean it up after the pollutants have have entered the system.

Chapter Workbook

• Compare the dissolved oxygen content of at least three different water samples using the Winkler method.
• Use secondary data to compare and contrast the impact of water pollution in two named areas.

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“Describe and evaluate pollution management strategies to tackle fertiliser-related eutrophication.” [9 marks]

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News from the Columbia Climate School

Protecting Our Planet: 5 Strategies for Reducing Plastic Waste

Olga Rukovets

Plastics are ubiquitous in our world, and given that plastic waste can take thousands of years to break down , there’s more of it to be found on Earth every single day. Worse yet is the fact that the stuff doesn’t easily decompose —it mostly just disintegrates into smaller and smaller pieces.

These tiny particles, called microplastics , have found their way to all parts of our globe , no matter how remote. They’re also increasingly detected in our food and drinking water. A recent study by Columbia researchers found that water bottles contain even more—10 to 100 times more—of these minute plastic bits (dubbed “nanoplastics”) than we previously believed. The health effects and downstream repercussions of microplastics are not fully understood, but researchers are concerned about the long-term impacts of ingesting all this plastic.

Meaningful change to clean up this mess will undoubtedly need to happen on a very large scale. Accordingly, Earthday.org , an organization that originates from the first Earth Day back in 1970, has designated this year’s theme as Planet vs. Plastics , with a goal of achieving a 60% reduction in plastics production by 2040. Organizations like Ocean Cleanup have been working on technologies to clean up the plastic floating in our oceans and polluting our waterways. And in 2022, 175 UN member nations signed on to a global agreement that promises to produce a binding treaty to overcome the scourge of plastic by the end of this year (though it has not been without setbacks ).

What are some actions individuals can take on a regular basis to reduce plastics consumption?

1. Embrace the circular economy

Increasingly, advocates are calling for a circular approach to production and consumption as one important way to reduce the burden of plastic waste. Sandra Goldmark , senior assistant dean of interdisciplinary engagement at the Columbia Climate School, reminds us that circularity is very much in use in the modern world—we have public libraries, neighborhood swaps and traditional and regenerative agricultural practices that demonstrate the success of the concept. But it does need to be harnessed on a global scale for the benefits to be palpable. “Currently [our economy] is just 8.6% circular,” Goldmark said. “Over 90% of the resources extracted from the earth are manufactured into goods that are used, usually once, and then sent to landfill or incinerated, often within a year.” By encouraging greater reuse, repurposing and exchange of these goods, we can keep more plastic out of our oceans and reduce global greenhouse gas emissions substantively.

Fast fashion, for example, may be appealing for its convenience and low prices—but what are the true costs? With 100 billion garments being produced every year, 87% end up as waste ( 40 million tons ) in a landfill or incinerator. The average person is now buying 60 percent more clothing than they did 15 years ago, but they’re only keeping them for  half as long as they used to, according to EarthDay.org . 

Instead, the UN Environment Programme recommends re-wearing clothes more frequently and washing them less often. Look for neighborhood swaps and Buy Nothing groups, where you can trade items with your local community. Consider repairing items before trading them in for new ones. See additional tips for healthier consumption of “stuff” here .

2. Reduce your reliance on single-use plastics

Considering the fact that Americans currently purchase about 50 billion water bottles per year, switching to a reusable water bottle could save an average of 156 plastic bottles annually. Start bringing reusable shopping bags and containers when you go to the grocery store or coffee shop.

Many cities and states have already implemented plastic bag bans as one step toward decreasing our use of these plastics. Some local businesses even offer discounts for bringing your own coffee cup or bags with you.

3. If all else fails, recycle (responsibly)

When it can’t be avoided, recycle your plastic correctly . If you try to recycle the wrong items—sometimes called “ wishcycling ”—it can slow down an already constrained sorting process. One rule to remember, Keefe Harrison, CEO of the Recycling Partnership , told NPR: “When in doubt, leave it out.”

Recycling programs vary between communities and states, so it’s important to get to know your symbols and research what they mean in your own zip code . For example , plastic bags and plastic wrap or film cannot be placed in your household recycling bin, but some stores have special collections for those items. The symbol on the bottom of a plastic container can tell you what the plastic is made from, which can help guide your decision to recycle it or not, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it can be picked up by your local recycling program. Local websites, like New York City’s 311 , can provide a more detailed breakdown of the types of items that can and cannot be recycled—e.g., rigid plastic packaging including “clamshells”: yes; tubes from cosmetics and toothpaste: no.

Still, reports of how much (or how little) of our plastic waste is actually recycled are alarming—with some estimates ranging from 10% to as low as 5% —so it is still best to opt for other alternatives whenever possible.

4. Get involved with local actions and clean-ups

There are many local movements doing their part to mitigate the environmental contamination caused by plastics pollution. Take a look at what’s happening locally in your neighborhood and globally. Check with your parks department for organized community efforts or consider starting your own . As part of EarthDay.org, you can register your initiative with the Great Global Cleanup , where you can find helpful tips on all stages of this process and connect with a worldwide community.

5. Stay informed about new legislation

As the world grapples with the growing plastics crisis, some states are trying to take matters into their own hands. In California, the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act (known as SB 54 ), mandates the switch to compostable packaging for all single-use utensils, containers and other receptacles by 2032, with steep fines for companies that don’t comply. New York is currently moving ahead with a bill called Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act , with the goal of cutting down plastic packaging by 50% in the next 12 years; if it is signed into law, this legislation would also mandate charging fees for noncompliant brands.

Pay attention to what’s happening in your own county, state or country and get involved with efforts to advocate for causes you support. Send messages to your representatives, educate your neighbors and friends, and join a larger contingent of people trying to make the world a better and more sustainable place for current and future generations.

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Biden administration sets first-ever limits on 'forever chemicals' in drinking water

The Biden administration on Wednesday finalized strict limits on certain so-called “forever chemicals” in drinking water that will require utilities to reduce them to the lowest level they can be reliably measured. Officials say this will reduce exposure for 100 million people and help prevent thousands of illnesses, including cancers.

The rule is the first national drinking water limit on toxic PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which are widespread and long lasting in the environment.

Health advocates praised the Environmental Protection Agency for not backing away from tough limits the agency proposed last year . But water utilities took issue with the rule, saying treatment systems are expensive to install and that customers will end up paying more for water.

Water providers are entering a new era with significant additional health standards that the EPA says will make tap water safer for millions of consumers — a Biden administration priority. The agency has also proposed forcing utilities to remove dangerous lead pipes .

Utility groups warn the rules will cost tens of billions of dollars each and fall hardest on small communities with fewer resources . Legal challenges are sure to follow.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan says the rule is the most important action the EPA has ever taken on PFAS.

“The result is a comprehensive and life-changing rule, one that will improve the health and vitality of so many communities across our country,” said Regan.

PFAS chemicals are hazardous because they don’t degrade in the environment and are linked to health issues such as low birth weight and liver disease, along with certain cancers. The EPA estimates the rule will cost about $1.5 billion to implement each year, but doing so will prevent nearly 10,000 deaths over decades and significantly reduce serious illnesses.

They’ve been used in everyday products including nonstick pans, firefighting foam and waterproof clothing. Although some of the most common types are phased out in the U.S., others remain. Water providers will now be forced to remove contamination put in the environment by other industries.

“It’s that accumulation that’s the problem,” said Scott Belcher, a North Carolina State University professor who researches PFAS toxicity. “Even tiny, tiny, tiny amounts each time you take a drink of water over your lifetime is going to keep adding up, leading to the health effects.”

PFAS is a broad family of chemical substances, and the new rule sets strict limits on two common types — called PFOA and PFOS — at 4 parts per trillion. Three other types that include GenEx Chemicals that are a major problem in North Carolina are limited to 10 parts per trillion. Water providers will have to test for these PFAS chemicals and tell the public when levels are too high. Combinations of some PFAS types will be limited, too.

Regan will announce the rule in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Wednesday.

Environmental and health advocates praised the rule, but said PFAS manufacturers knew decades ago the substances were dangerous yet hid or downplayed the evidence. Limits should have come sooner, they argue.

“Reducing PFAS in our drinking water is the most cost effective way to reduce our exposure,” said Scott Faber, a food and water expert at Environmental Working Group. “It’s much more challenging to reduce other exposures such as PFAS in food or clothing or carpets.”

Over the last year, EPA has periodically released batches of utility test results for PFAS in drinking water. Roughly 16% of utilities found at least one of the two strictly limited PFAS chemicals at or above the new limits. These utilities serve tens of millions of people. The Biden administration, however, expects about 6-10% of water systems to exceed the new limits.

Water providers will generally have three years to do testing. If those test exceed the limits, they’ll have two more years to install treatment systems, according to EPA officials.

Some funds are available to help utilities. Manufacturer 3M recently agreed to pay more than $10 billion to drinking water providers to settle PFAS litigation. And the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law includes billions to combat the substance. But utilities say more will be needed.

For some communities, tests results were a surprise. Last June, a utility outside Philadelphia that serves nearly 9,000 people learned that one of its wells had a PFOA level of 235 parts per trillion, among the highest results in the country at the time.

“I mean, obviously, it was a shock,” said Joseph Hastings, director of the joint public works department for the Collegeville and Trappe boroughs, whose job includes solving problems presented by new regulations.

The well was quickly yanked offline, but Hastings still doesn’t know the contamination source. Several other wells were above the EPA’s new limits, but lower than those the state of Pennsylvania set earlier. Now, Hastings says installing treatment systems could be a multi-million dollar endeavor, a major expense for a small customer base.

The new regulation is “going to throw public confidence in drinking water into chaos,” said Mike McGill, president of WaterPIO, a water industry communications firm.

The American Water Works Association, an industry group, says it supports the development of PFAS limits in drinking water, but argues the EPA’s rule has big problems.

The agency underestimated its high cost, which can’t be justified for communities with low levels of PFAS, and it’ll raise customer water bills, the association said. Plus, there aren’t enough experts and workers — and supplies of filtration material are limited.

Work in some places has started. The company Veolia operates utilities serving about 2.3 million people across six eastern states and manages water systems for millions more. Veolia built PFAS treatment for small water systems that serve about 150,000 people. The company expects, however, that roughly 50 more sites will need treatment — and it’s working to scale up efforts to reduce PFAS in larger communities it serves.

Such efforts followed dramatic shifts in EPA's health guidance for PFAS in recent years as more research into its health harms emerged. Less than a decade ago, EPA issued a health advisory that PFOA and PFOS levels combined shouldn’t exceed 70 parts per trillion. Now, the agency says no amount is safe.

Public alarm has increased, too. In Minnesota, for example, Amara’s Law aims to stop avoidable PFAS use. It’s been nearly a year since the law’s namesake, Amara Strande, died from a rare cancer her family blames on PFAS contamination by 3M near her high school in Oakdale, although a connection between PFAS and her cancer can’t be proven. Biden administration officials say communities shouldn’t suffer like Oakdale. 3M says it extends its deepest condolences to Amara’s friends and family.

Losing Amara pushed the family towards activism. They’ve testified multiple times in favor of PFAS restrictions.

“Four parts per trillion, we couldn’t ask for a better standard,” Amara’s sister Nora said. “It’s a very ambitious goal, but anything higher than that is endangering lives.”

Associated Press data journalist Camille Fassett in San Francisco and reporter Matthew Daly in Washington D.C. contributed to this story.

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

Assignment on Pollution

Introduction

Environmental pollution is a multi-disciplinary science involving chemistry, physics, life science, agriculture, medical science, public health, sanitary engineering etc. In broader sense, it is the study of the sources, reactions, transport, effect and fate of chemical species in the air, water and soil and the effect of human activity upon these.

Pollutant : A substance present in nature, in greater than natural abundance due to human activity, which ultimately has a detrimental effect on the environment and therefrom on living organisms and mankind. Examples are- lead, mercury, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, etc.

Contaminant : A material which does not occur in nature, but is introduced by human activity into the environment, affecting its composition. A contaminant is classified as a pollutant when it exerts a detrimental effect. Example- chlorine gas

Types of Pollution

Causes of air pollution:

• motor vehicle exhaust
• power stations
• car manufacturing
• fertilizer factories
• demolishing buildings
• solvent evaporation
• volcanic eruption
• building roads
• forest fires

Effect of air pollution:

Global warming, acid rain, smog, ozone depletion are some effects of air pollution

Causes of water pollution:

• man-made chemicals used in farming
• heavy metals
• waste from factories
• sediment from the river bed
• air pollution
• thermal (heat) pollution
• soil pollution from rubbish dumps

Effects of water pollution:

The water in the earth’s biosphere is used and reused again and again by all living things

Soil Causes of soil pollution:

• mining and quarrying
• household waste
• demolition and putting up buildings
• factory waste

Effects of soil pollution:

Experts say that lots of land each year becomes unusable for humans or animals.

Causes of noise pollution:

• noisy roads and traffic
• air traffic
• rail traffic
• household noise
• industrial noise

Effects of noise pollution:

We hear and make sounds nearly all the time but too much noise can make us feel angry or depressed. The time of day that noises are heard is very important.

Radiation Pollution from radiation can be caused by:

• nuclear power plants
• making nuclear weapons
• disposal of nuclear waste
• mining for uranium

What can happen?

Radiation occurs naturally at low levels and is a useful source of power when concentrated.

It can also be very harmful to all living things if they are exposed to too much of it.

Light pollution happens when outside lights, such as a streetlight or a security light, points light upwards into the night sky.

This light gets scattered in the sky and makes an orange foggy glow to appear above a town.

It is likely that we won’t be able to see the stars in the night sky if the amount of light pollution isn’t closely controlled.

CONSERVATION AND ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT

It is imperative that we carefully utilise our renewable resources of soil, water, plant and animal life to sustain our economic development. Over exploitation of these is reflected in soil erosion, siltation, floods, and rapid destruction of our forest, floral and wildlife resources. The depletion of these resources often tends to be irreversible and since the bulk of our population depends on these natural resources to meet the basic needs, it has meant a deterioration in their quality of life.

Global petroleum deposits are likely to be exhausted within this century. Research is going on for alternatives to fossil fuel (petroleum) based on biomass (green energy). Controlled nuclear fusion holds the prospect of abundant energyif the relatively difficult deuterium-deuterium fusion reaction can be utilised for energy production. This energy source will become unlimited.

Solar energy is both renewable and non-polluting and provides ideal energy source. On a global scale, tapping of only a small fraction of solar energy the earth can supply the entire energy requirement.

In any new development project, due consideration must be given to the environmental, social and cultural impacts. For this purpose, environmental experts must be involved in project planning.

NATURAL AND MANMADE DISASTERS

Sometimes there are drastic changes in environment due to natural disasters, e.g. cyclone, typhoon, hurricane, tornado, earthquake, volcanic eruption etc. within a short time.

Bush fires , are another type of natural disasters, are of common occurrence in some regions of the world due to hot summer and lightning. During the hot summer months bush fires are common in Australia and in the Pacific coast arid areas in USA.

Man developed science and technology but over the years since the Industrial Revolution (1780- todate) he continued to plunder natural resources thereby polluting the environment. He degraded lands, destroyed forests, threw toxic wastes into rivers and seas and also harmful gases into the atmosphere. This continuous load of manmade pollutants into environment brought about adverse changes, which ultimately back-fired into series of disasters from time to time.

Some examples of manmade disasters are: London smog, Minamata disease, nuclear explosions, Bhopal disaster, Chernobyl disaster and Gulf War Hazards.

Nuclear Explosions . Two bombs were dropped by USA during World War II (Aug 6 and 9, 1945) on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. These instantly killed about 6 lakhs people, wiped out the two cities and unleashed radioactive fallout which has caused generations to suffer from various diseases including genetic disorder. Radiation continues to damage plants, soil and biosphere* in the region.

*the environment consists of four segments- atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere and bioshphere.

Global Warming or Green House Effect

Among the constituents of the atmosphere, only carbon dioxide and water vapour strongly absorb infrared radiation (14000 to 25000 nm) and effectively block a large fraction of the earth’s emitted radiation. The radiation thus absorbed by carbon dioxide and water vapour is partly re-emitted to the earth’s surface. The net result is that the earth’s surface gets heated up by a phenomenon called the greenhouse effect .

The current global trend in deforestation along with increased combustion of fossil fuels have a cumulative effect on the net increase in carbon dioxide content (present 356 ppm, 50%). Carbon dioxide has the potential to rival nuclear wars in terms of massive irreversible damage to the environment. It is the major greenhouse gas but there are other greenhouse gases- methane (CH 4 , 19%), chlorofluorocarbons (CFC, 17%), nitrous oxide (N 2 O, 4%) and water vapour (2%).

In september, 1980 scientists reported a large hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica. CFC was the prime suspect for causing ozone depletion. It was established that one molecule of CFC is capable of destroying one lakh O 3 molecule in the stratosphere. The extreme chemical stability and nontoxicity of CFCs enable them to persist for years in the atmosphere and to enter the stratosphere. Depletion of ozone layer above the earth surface helps to penetrate harmful rays from the sun to the earth .

Chemical and Biological Investigations of Erythrina stricta

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Breaking News

Federal EPA limits toxic ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water

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The Environmental Protection Agency early Wednesday issued federal limits on dangerous “forever chemicals” in drinking water, which it believes will save thousands of lives and prevent serious illnesses including cancer.

The new rules require that water systems monitor for six toxic chemicals known as PFAS. The manmade chemicals, officially called per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are notoriously hard to destroy. They build up in the body and don’t break down in the environment.

If the tests find the chemicals at levels above the new federal standard, the water systems must notify the public and work to reduce them.

“There’s no doubt that these chemicals have been important for certain industries and consumer uses,” EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said in a call with journalists. “But there’s also no doubt that many of these chemicals can be harmful to our health and our environment.”

Risk of tap water exposure to toxic PFAS chemicals higher in Southern California

At least 45% of the nation’s tap water is estimated to have PFAS ‘forever chemicals,’ with urban residents more likely to be exposed, new research says.

July 14, 2023

The chemicals have been used since the 1940s to repel oil and water and resist heat. They’ve been included in thousands of consumer and industrial products including nonstick cookware, stain resistant clothing and firefighting foam.

Manufacturers began phasing out production of two PFAS chemicals, known as PFOA and PFOS, decades ago but they are still prevalent in the environment.

The EPA said “the science is clear” that exposure to the chemicals over a long period can cause cancer and other illnesses.

Scientists believe that children may be more sensitive to the chemicals’ harmful effects because they are still developing.

The federal agency estimates that as many as 100 million Americans are using and drinking tap water contaminated with the chemicals.

In California, water systems have been required since 2019 to test for the chemicals in wells near landfills, airports, military bases and other sites known to be contaminated.

Dan Newton, assistant deputy director at the State Water Resources Control Board, said that 2,000 wells near those sites have been tested.

“We found so far that about 60% of those wells have detections of PFAS,” Newton said.

He said it was difficult to know what testing would find in wells that were not near sites known to be contaminated.

Tap water in urban areas of Southern and Central California appears more likely to be contaminated than drinking water in many other regions of the nation, according to a study last year by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Climate & Environment

‘This is taking too long’: California community awaits cleanup of PFAS-contaminated wells

Firefighting foam left water polluted with PFAS chemicals near San Luis Obispo’s airport. Residents hope plans to deliver clean water move quickly.

Aug. 5, 2023

The new EPA rules set a maximum contaminant level for PFOA and PFOS of 4 parts per trillion. Four other chemicals are also subject to limits.

Water utilities have up to five years to comply with the new standards.

There are more than 14,000 PFAS chemicals.

David Andrews, senior scientist at the Environmental Working Group, said that although water systems must remove just six of those chemicals under the new rules, the treatments will lower the levels of other PFAS too.

“The filtration goes beyond just these chemicals and should be relatively effective for other PFAS chemicals as well as other contaminants,” he said.

The EPA proposed the new rules early last year. Since then, the agency received tens of thousands of comments, which it said it had considered before issuing its final decision.

For years, the chemical industry and the U.S. Department of Defense have fought proposals for a federal limit on PFAS in water.

The American Chemistry Council, an industry trade group, called the agency’s proposal “controversial and unscientific.”

Water systems also worry about the costs of testing and treating the water.

“What is clear is that meeting these new federal regulations will cost billions of dollars,” said Robert F. Powelson, president of the National Assn. of Water Cos. “It’s a cost that will disproportionately fall on water and wastewater customers in small communities and low-income families.

“The next step must now be to develop a system where the polluters are held responsible for the cleanup not our consumers.”

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Watch CBS News

Minnesota to receive nearly $15M in federal funding to combat PFAS pollution

By Cole Premo , Tracy J. Wholf

Updated on: April 10, 2024 / 7:49 AM CDT / CBS Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS —  The Biden Administration is directing funding to help Minnesota get rid of forever chemicals in our water. 

On Wednesday, the administration said $1 billion will go across the U.S. to help remove per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. The funding will be used for PFAS detection and treatment systems. This is to protect Americans from diseases and cancers caused by forever chemicals.

Minnesota will receive nearly $15 million.

The administration also announced that the Environmental Protection Agency is issuing a national regulation limiting the amount of certain PFAS

The EPA has stated there is no safe level of exposure to PFAS without risk of health impacts, but now it will require that public water utilities test for six different types of PFAS chemicals to reduce exposure in drinking water. The new standards will reduce PFAS exposure for 100 million people, according to the EPA, and prevent thousands of deaths and illnesses.

"Drinking water contaminated with PFAS has plagued communities across this country for too long," EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said in a statement Wednesday.

RELATED: Court approves 3M multi-billion dollar settlement over PFAS in public drinking water systems

Commonly called "forever chemicals," PFAS are synthetic chemicals found nearly everywhere – in air, water, and soil – and can take thousands of years to break down in the environment.

While the onus on clean up will come at the cost of the water utility companies, the new regulations do little to hold polluters accountable for the damage PFAS have done to the environment and human health. There have been several major settlements in recent years by chemical companies over PFAS contamination, a notable one being a  $10.3 billion settlement  reached by 3M in June 2023.  

• Biden Administration
• Drinking Water

Cole Premo is a web producer at WCCO.com. For more than a decade, he's been covering breaking news and weather, daily topics, stories from the Native community and more in Minnesota.

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Biden administration sets first-ever limits on ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water

Logan Feeney pours a PFAS water sample into a container for research, Wednesday, April 10, 2024, at a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lab in Cincinnati. The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday announced its first-ever limits for several common types of PFAS, the so-called “forever chemicals,” in drinking water. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

Vials containing PFAS samples sit in a tray, Wednesday, April 10, 2024, at a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lab in Cincinnati. The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday announced its first-ever limits for several common types of PFAS, the so-called “forever chemicals,” in drinking water. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

Jackson Quinn brings PFAS water samples into a temperature controlled room, Wednesday, April 10, 2024, at a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lab in Cincinnati. The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday announced its first-ever limits for several common types of PFAS, the so-called “forever chemicals,” in drinking water.(AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

FILE - Eva Stebel, water researcher, pours a water sample into a smaller glass container for experimentation as part of drinking water and PFAS research at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Center For Environmental Solutions and Emergency Response on Feb. 16, 2023, in Cincinnati. The Biden administration on Wednesday, April 10, 2024, finalized strict limits on certain so-called “forever chemicals” in drinking water that will require utilities to reduce them to the lowest level they can be reliably measured. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel, File)

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The Biden administration on Wednesday finalized strict limits on certain so-called “forever chemicals” in drinking water that will require utilities to reduce them to the lowest level they can be reliably measured. Officials say this will reduce exposure for 100 million people and help prevent thousands of illnesses, including cancers.

The rule is the first national drinking water limit on toxic PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which are widespread and long lasting in the environment.

Health advocates praised the Environmental Protection Agency for not backing away from tough limits the agency proposed last year . But water utilities took issue with the rule, saying treatment systems are expensive to install and that customers will end up paying more for water.

Water providers are entering a new era with significant additional health standards that the EPA says will make tap water safer for millions of consumers — a Biden administration priority. The agency has also proposed forcing utilities to remove dangerous lead pipes .

Utility groups warn the rules will cost tens of billions of dollars each and fall hardest on small communities with fewer resources . Legal challenges are sure to follow.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan says the rule is the most important action the EPA has ever taken on PFAS.

“The result is a comprehensive and life-changing rule, one that will improve the health and vitality of so many communities across our country,” said Regan.

PFAS chemicals are hazardous because they don’t degrade in the environment and are linked to health issues such as low birth weight and liver disease, along with certain cancers. The EPA estimates the rule will cost about $1.5 billion to implement each year, but doing so will prevent nearly 10,000 deaths over decades and significantly reduce serious illnesses.

They’ve been used in everyday products including nonstick pans, firefighting foam and waterproof clothing. Although some of the most common types are phased out in the U.S., others remain. Water providers will now be forced to remove contamination put in the environment by other industries.

“It’s that accumulation that’s the problem,” said Scott Belcher, a North Carolina State University professor who researches PFAS toxicity. “Even tiny, tiny, tiny amounts each time you take a drink of water over your lifetime is going to keep adding up, leading to the health effects.”

PFAS is a broad family of chemical substances, and the new rule sets strict limits on two common types — called PFOA and PFOS — at 4 parts per trillion. Three other types that include GenEx Chemicals that are a major problem in North Carolina are limited to 10 parts per trillion. Water providers will have to test for these PFAS chemicals and tell the public when levels are too high. Combinations of some PFAS types will be limited, too.

Regan will announce the rule in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Wednesday.

Environmental and health advocates praised the rule, but said PFAS manufacturers knew decades ago the substances were dangerous yet hid or downplayed the evidence. Limits should have come sooner, they argue.

“Reducing PFAS in our drinking water is the most cost effective way to reduce our exposure,” said Scott Faber, a food and water expert at Environmental Working Group. “It’s much more challenging to reduce other exposures such as PFAS in food or clothing or carpets.”

Over the last year, EPA has periodically released batches of utility test results for PFAS in drinking water. Roughly 16% of utilities found at least one of the two strictly limited PFAS chemicals at or above the new limits. These utilities serve tens of millions of people. The Biden administration, however, expects about 6-10% of water systems to exceed the new limits.

Water providers will generally have three years to do testing. If those test exceed the limits, they’ll have two more years to install treatment systems, according to EPA officials.

Some funds are available to help utilities. Manufacturer 3M recently agreed to pay more than $10 billion to drinking water providers to settle PFAS litigation. And the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law includes billions to combat the substance. But utilities say more will be needed.

For some communities, tests results were a surprise. Last June, a utility outside Philadelphia that serves nearly 9,000 people learned that one of its wells had a PFOA level of 235 parts per trillion, among the highest results in the country at the time.

“I mean, obviously, it was a shock,” said Joseph Hastings, director of the joint public works department for the Collegeville and Trappe boroughs, whose job includes solving problems presented by new regulations.

The well was quickly yanked offline, but Hastings still doesn’t know the contamination source. Several other wells were above the EPA’s new limits, but lower than those the state of Pennsylvania set earlier. Now, Hastings says installing treatment systems could be a multi-million dollar endeavor, a major expense for a small customer base.

The new regulation is “going to throw public confidence in drinking water into chaos,” said Mike McGill, president of WaterPIO, a water industry communications firm.

The American Water Works Association, an industry group, says it supports the development of PFAS limits in drinking water, but argues the EPA’s rule has big problems.

The agency underestimated its high cost, which can’t be justified for communities with low levels of PFAS, and it’ll raise customer water bills, the association said. Plus, there aren’t enough experts and workers — and supplies of filtration material are limited.

Work in some places has started. The company Veolia operates utilities serving about 2.3 million people across six eastern states and manages water systems for millions more. Veolia built PFAS treatment for small water systems that serve about 150,000 people. The company expects, however, that roughly 50 more sites will need treatment — and it’s working to scale up efforts to reduce PFAS in larger communities it serves.

Such efforts followed dramatic shifts in EPA’s health guidance for PFAS in recent years as more research into its health harms emerged. Less than a decade ago, EPA issued a health advisory that PFOA and PFOS levels combined shouldn’t exceed 70 parts per trillion. Now, the agency says no amount is safe.

Public alarm has increased, too. In Minnesota, for example, Amara’s Law aims to stop avoidable PFAS use. It’s been nearly a year since the law’s namesake, Amara Strande, died from a rare cancer her family blames on PFAS contamination by 3M near her high school in Oakdale, although a connection between PFAS and her cancer can’t be proven. Biden administration officials say communities shouldn’t suffer like Oakdale. 3M says it extends its deepest condolences to Amara’s friends and family.

Losing Amara pushed the family towards activism. They’ve testified multiple times in favor of PFAS restrictions.

“Four parts per trillion, we couldn’t ask for a better standard,” Amara’s sister Nora said. “It’s a very ambitious goal, but anything higher than that is endangering lives.”

Associated Press data journalist Camille Fassett in San Francisco and reporter Matthew Daly in Washington D.C. contributed to this story.

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

• Water Pollution Assignment

As a matter of fact, water covers over 70% of Earth’s surface and it’s a very important resource for people and the environment. But nowadays, water is polluted. And water pollution affects drinking water, rivers, lakes and oceans all over the world. This consequently harms human health and the natural environment . If we don’t have any methods to prevent water resource from polluting, we will not have enough water to use in the future. Water is polluted by a lot of causes.

First of all is the industrial waste. Industries cause huge pollution with their activities. These come mainly from sulfur, asbestos, lead and mercury, nitrates and phosphates, oils… Firstly, sulfur is a non-metallic substance that is harmful for marine life. Secondly, asbestos is the pollutant which has cancer-causing properties when inhaled, it can cause illnesses such as asbestosis and many type of cancer. Thirdly, lead and mercury are metallic elements and can cause environmental and health problems for humans and animals. Less even more poisonous.

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It’s usually very hard to clean up from the environment once it gets into it because it is non- biodegradable. Beside, nitrates and phosphates are also the poisonous. There are found in fertilizers, are often washed from the soil to nearby water bodies. They can cause transportation, which can be very problematic to marine environment. Lastly, oil forms a thick layer on the water surface because it does not dissolve in water. This can stop marine plants receiving enough light for photosynthesis. Its also harmful for fish and marine birds. Sewage and waste of water are also causes of water pollution.

Every day, we cook, do laundry, flush the toilet, wash our cars, shower and do many things that use water. Think about how we use water in school, hospitals and public places. Where do you think all the water, liquid waste, toilet and urine end up? In many developed countries, all this water and sewage is treated, cleaned and dumped into the sea. But in some developing countries, these sewage is not treated, but quickly dumped into the sea or water bodies. This is very dangerous because it contaminates the environment and water bodies and brings many deadly diseases to us.

Another cause of water pollution is ocean and marine dumping. Think of the rubbish we all make each day: paper waste, plastic, rubber, metallic and aluminum waste. In some countries, they are deposited into the sea. All the waste types take time to decompose. For example, it is known that paper takes about 6 weeks, aluminum takes about 200 years and glass takes even more. When these end up into in the sea, they harm sea animals and cause a lot of deaths. Last but not least is pollution through Oil. Routine shipping run-offs and dumping of Oil on the ocean surface happen every day.

Oil spills make up about 12% of the oil that enters the ocean. Oil spills cause major problems, and can be extremely harmful to local marine wildlife. Because oil doesn’t dissolve, it stays on the water surface and suffocates fish. Oil also gets caught in the feathers of sea birds avoiding them from flying. Some animals die as a result. There are some causes of water pollution. We can see that the main causes come from human beings. Therefore, nowadays, water pollution is affecting our life. Water pollution is very harmful to humans, animals, and water life.

The effects can be catastrophic, depending on the kind of chemicals, concentrations of the pollutants and where they are pollute. It is varied and depended on what chemicals are dumped and in which locations. Firstly, many water bodies near urban areas (cities and towns) are highly polluted. This is the result of both garbage dumped by individuals and dangerous chemicals legally or illegally dumped by manufacturing industries, health centers, schools and market places. Secondly, many water animals are dying. The main problem caused by water pollution is that it kills life that depends on these water bodies.

Dead fish, crabs, birds and sea gulls, dolphins, and many other animals often wind up on beaches, killed by pollutants in their habitat. Another effect is diseases. Humans are affected by this process as well. People can get diseases such as hepatitis by eating seafood that has en poisoned. In many poor nations, there is always an outbreak of cholera and diseases as a result of poor drinking water treatment from contaminated water. Moreover, water pollution also affects to the ecosystems. Ecosystems can be severely changed or destroyed by water pollution.

Many areas are now being affected by careless human pollution, and this pollution is coming back to hurt humans in many ways. Hence, we can see that all the effects of water pollution are affecting our life. If we don’t have any methods to prevent water from polluting more, we will receive bad consequences. Dealing with eater pollution is something that everyone needs to get involved with. We can help by getting involved in many ways: firstly, never throw rubbish away anyhow. Always look for the correct waste bin. If there is none around, please take it home and put it in your trash can.

This includes places like the beach, riverside and water bodies. Learn more about waste disposal here; secondly, do not throw chemicals, oils, paints and medicines down the sink drain, or the toilet. In many cities, your local environment office can help with the disposal of medicines and chemicals. Check with your local authorities if there is a Heimlich disposal plan for local residents; thirdly, buy more environmentally safe cleaning liquids for the use at home and other public places. They are less dangerous to the environment.

Another way is that if you use chemicals and pesticides for your gardens and farms, be mindful not to water sources. Start looking at options of composting and using organic manure instead. Last but not least, if you live close to a water body, try to plants lots of trees and flowers around your home, so that when it rains, chemicals from your home do not easily drain into the water. There are some methods to help us reverent water from polluting. It’s not the best way to solve water pollution but it is also a big help for preventing water from polluting.

Nowadays, water pollution is one of the most severe problems which is discussed by a lot of people. Many people find the best solution is to conserve water resources. Scientists said that if we don’t know how to protect and conserve water resource, we will not have fresh water in the future and maybe human can be died because of a lack of fresh water. Therefore, we have to know how to conserve our water resources. Each of our small activities also helps to conserve the water resource.

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