water pollution essay causes and effects

Water Pollution Causes, Effects and Solutions

Introduction, causes of water pollution, effects of water pollution, solutions to water pollution, reference list.

Rivers are common sources of water in the world. Water is useful in various ways both domestically and in industries. It is imperative that such water remains clean and safe and free from any pollution. Unfortunately, water pollution takes place in various water bodies all over the world. This essay seeks to examine the concept of water pollution, its causes, effects, and solutions to water pollution.

Water pollution refers to dirtying of water resulting in a chemical, physical or biological alteration in the condition of water making such water harmful to anyone who utilizes it. In other words, pollution makes water unfit for consumption (Go Green Academy, 2013). There are various causes of water pollution. Disposing solid waste in water sources is the main cause of water pollution (Go Green Academy, 2013). Most of these wastes are made of plastic, which by nature, is non-biodegradable. Plastics take over four hundred years to decompose in water and as such, they move in different places before they finally decompose.

Effluence from industries and factories cause water pollution (Go Green Academy, 2013). Coffee factories use fresh water to transport waste to rivers. Effluence from industrial plants adds pollutants like lead and mercury into rivers. Oil spills from ships on transit also cause water pollution. Oil is indissoluble in water and consequently forms thick patches on the water surface making it hard for organisms in such a water body to survive. Overall, such contaminated water destroys an ecosystem (Go Green Academy, 2013).

Sewerage disposal from households and commercial houses cause water pollution. In some places, sewage can be treated or recycled but in most places, such waste finds a way into rivers. Due to chemical substances used in maintaining hygiene in washrooms, effluence from such places is destructive to water sources into which it flows (Go Green Academy, 2013). Cauterizing of fossil fuels leads to building up of acidic particles in the air, which in turn leads to acidic rains falling on water bodies (Go Green Academy, 2013).

Groundwater polluted through the use of chemicals in farming causes destruction to plants, which in turn affect human beings and animals that feed on them (Go Green Academy, 2013). Secondly, polluted water causes skin rashes and even cancer to swimmers. In addition, such water can cause reproductive difficulties and typhoid fever, which if untreated, leads to death. Water pollution leads to flooding when solid wastes accumulate to very high levels (Go Green Academy, 2013).

Global warming leads to increased water temperatures and this leads to the destruction of aquatic plants. Coral reefs, for instance, suffer destruction because warm water has a discoloring effect on them. In addition, plastic materials can easily entangle organisms such as fish leading to their suffocation and death hence reduction in available organisms for human consumption. Water polluted by oil spills also leads to the death of aquatic animals (Go Green Academy, 2013).

Several measures are necessary to tackle water pollution. Relevant authorities should enforce existing regulations concerning water pollution and come up with an even stricter penalty for those who pollute water (Hearn, 2013). Secondly, people should use less plastic and avoid littering by using designated dumping sites. Farmers, as well as householders, should minimize the use of chemicals such as fertilizers and adopt the use of environmental friendly fertility boosters like animal wastes. Since cars emit particles that lead to acidic rains, people should drive less and where possible use public transport to minimize emissions into the atmosphere (Hearn, 2013)

Go Green Academy. 2013, Causes and effects of water pollution . Web.

Hearn, M. 2013, Solutions to water pollution . Web.

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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.

Russell Millner/Alamy

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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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What Causes Water Pollution and How Do We Solve it?

Water pollution is putting our health at risk. Unsafe water kills more people each year than war and all other forms of violence combined. Meanwhile, less than 1% of the Earth’s freshwater is actually accessible to us and it’s in our best interest to protect what we have, especially considering that by 2050, global demand for freshwater is expected to be one-third greater than it is now. Here are six causes of water pollution, as well as what we can do to reduce it.

Water is uniquely vulnerable to pollution because it’s able to dissolve more substances than any other liquid on Earth. Toxic substances from farms, towns, and factories readily dissolve into and mix with it, which causes water pollution as a result.

6 Most Common Causes of Water Pollution

1. sewage and wastewater .

According to the UN , more than 80% of the world’s wastewater flows back into the environment without being treated or reused; in some least-developed countries, this figure tops 95%. Harmful chemicals and bacteria can be found in sewage and wastewater even after it’s been treated. Households release sewage and wastewater, which makes its way to the ocean, mixing with freshwater and affecting the water quality and marine life. Also, the bacteria and pathogens found in wastewater breed disease, and cause health-related issues in humans and animals. 

2. Oil Spills

Large oil spills and leaks are some of most significant causes of water pollution. These are often caused by oil drilling operations in the ocean, but nearly half of the estimated 1 million tons of oil that makes its way into marine environments each year come not from oil tankers, but from land-based sources like factories, farms and cities. In England and Wales, there are about 3,000 pollution incidents involving oil and fuel each year. Oil makes drinking water unsafe and a substantial amount of oil released into oceans or become river water pollution, will destroy marine life and the ecosystems that support them. What’s more, oil reduces the oxygen supply within the water environment.  Oil is also naturally released from under the ocean floor through fractures known as seeps.

You Might Also Like: How Do Oil Spills Affect the Environment?

3. Industrial Waste

Industrial waste is one of the biggest sources of water contamination. Many industrial sites produce waste in the form of toxic chemicals and pollutants, and some don’t have proper waste management systems in place. Sometimes, industrial waste is dumped into nearby freshwater systems. The toxic chemicals leached from this waste can make the water unsafe for human consumption, and they can also cause the temperature in freshwater systems to change, making them dangerous for marine life. Finally, industrial waste can cause “ dead zones ,” which are areas of water that contain so little oxygen that marine life cannot survive in them.

4. Agricultural Runoff

To protect crops from pests, farmers use pesticides, however when these substances seep into the groundwater, they can harm animals, plants and humans. Additionally, when it rains, the chemicals mix with rainwater, which flows into waterways and creates further pollution. Other agricultural processes such as uncontrolled spreading of slurries and manures, tillage and ploughing the land can also cause water pollution.

5. Marine Dumping and Plastic Pollution in the Sea

Most items collected and dumped into oceans by many countries can take anywhere from two to 200 years to decompose completely! Other sources of waste at sea include plastic and other materials blown or washed from land. Currently, about 11 million metric tons of plastic make their way into the oceans each year. Research has found that should this rate of pollution continues, the amount of ocean plastics will grow to 29 million metric tons per year by 2040. The damage to wildlife habitats and to life on land is incalculable. 

You Might Also Like: 8 Shocking Plastic Pollution Statistics to Know About

6. Radioactive Waste

Radioactive waste can persist in the environment for thousands of years , making disposal a major challenge and one of the most harmful water contaminants. Radioactive waste released from facilities that create nuclear energy can be extremely harmful to the environment and must be disposed of properly; uranium, the element used in the creation of nuclear energy, is a highly toxic chemical. Accidents occur at these facilities from time to time, and toxic waste is released into the environment.

In April 2021, Japan discharged contaminated water containing radioactive materials from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea. Though the Japanese government claims potential health risks and damage to marine life to be minimal as the waste water have been treated, close monitoring is required to ensue there are no environment effects from the water pollution. 

You Might Also Like: The Nuclear Waste Disposal Dilemma

How Can You Reduce Water Pollution?

• Reduce your plastic consumption and reuse or recycle plastic when you can. 
• Properly dispose of chemical cleaners, oils and non-biodegradable items.
• Use phosphate-free detergents – phosphates lead to algae blooms and kill fish and other aquatic animals by reducing the oxygen in the water. 
• Dispose of medical waste properly.
• Eat more organic food, which is produced without the use of pesticides.
• Cut down on your meat consumption – raising animals for meat takes lots of water for the grains and other feed they need. Furthermore, the antibiotics and solid waste are both likely to end up in groundwater and rivers.

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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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For younger readers.

• 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 .

This article was originally written for the UK Rivers Network and first published on their website in April 2006. It is revised and updated every year.

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Essay on Water Pollution for Students and Children

500+ words essay on water pollution.

Water is the most important resource for survival on a planet. It is the essence of life on our planet – Earth. 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 . Two-thirds of the Earth’s surface is covered by water , seventy-six perfect of your body is made up of water.

Water and Water Cycle

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. 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 vapor. After which it goes through the process of condensation, and finally precipitation when it falls back to earth as rain or snow.

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, minor or major in the physical, chemical or biological properties of water that eventually leads to a detrimental consequence of any living organism . Drinking water, called Potable Water, is considered safe enough for human and animal consumption.

Sources of Water Pollution

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

Some of the water pollutions are caused by direct Sources, such as factories, waste management facilities, refineries, etc, that directly releases waste and dangerous by-products into the nearest water source without treating them. Indirect sources include pollutants that infuse in the water bodies via groundwater or soil or via the atmosphere through acidic rain.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Effects of Pollution of Water

The effects of Water Pollution are:

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.

Eradication of Ecosystem: Ecosystem is extremely dynamic and responds to even small changes in the environment. Increasing water pollution can cause an entire ecosystem to collapse if left unchecked.

Eutrophication: Chemicals accumulation and infusion in a water body, encourages the growth of algae. The algae form a layer on top of the pond or lake. Bacteria feed on this algae and this event decreases the amount of oxygen in the water body, severely affecting the aquatic life there

Effects of the food chain: Turmoil in food chain happens when the aquatic animals (fish, prawns, seahorse, etc) consume the toxins and pollutants in the water,  and then the humans consume them.

Prevention of Water Pollution

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

Conserve Water: Conserving water should be our first aim. Water wastage is a major problem globally and we are only now waking up to the issue. Simple small changes made domestically will make a huge difference.

Treatment of sewage: Treating waste products before disposing of it in water bodies helps reduce water pollution on a large scale. Agriculture or other industries can reuse this wastewater by reducing its toxic contents.

Use of environment-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.

Life is ultimately about choices and so is water pollution. We cannot live with sewage-strewn beaches, contaminated rivers , and fish that are poisonous to drink and eat. To avoid these scenarios,  we can work together to keep the environment clean so the water bodies, plants, animals, and people who depend on it remain healthy. We can take individual or teamed action to help reduce water pollution. As an example, by using environmentally friendly detergents, not pouring oil down the drains, reducing the usage of pesticides, and so on. We can take community action too to keep our rivers and seas cleaner. And we can take action as countries and continents to pass laws against water pollution. Working together, we can make water pollution less of a problem—and the world a better place.

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Discharge from a Chinese fertilizer factory winds its way toward the Yellow River. Like many of the world's rivers, pollution remains an ongoing problem.

Water pollution is a rising global crisis. Here’s what you need to know.

The world's freshwater sources receive contaminants from a wide range of sectors, threatening human and wildlife health.

From big pieces of garbage to invisible chemicals, a wide range of pollutants ends up in our planet's lakes, rivers, streams, groundwater, and eventually the oceans. Water pollution—along with drought, inefficiency, and an exploding population—has contributed to a freshwater crisis , threatening the sources we rely on for drinking water and other critical needs.

Research has revealed that one pollutant in particular is more common in our tap water than anyone had previously thought: PFAS, short for poly and perfluoroalkyl substances. PFAS is used to make everyday items resistant to moisture, heat, and stains; some of these chemicals have such long half-lives that they are known as "the forever chemical."

Safeguarding water supplies is important because even though nearly 70 percent of the world is covered by water, only 2.5 percent of it is fresh. And just one percent of freshwater is easily accessible, with much of it trapped in remote glaciers and snowfields.

Water pollution causes

Water pollution can come from a variety of sources. Pollution can enter water directly, through both legal and illegal discharges from factories, for example, or imperfect water treatment plants. Spills and leaks from oil pipelines or hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations can degrade water supplies. Wind, storms, and littering—especially of plastic waste —can also send debris into waterways.

Thanks largely to decades of regulation and legal action against big polluters, the main cause of U.S. water quality problems is now " nonpoint source pollution ," when pollutants are carried across or through the ground by rain or melted snow. Such runoff can contain fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides from farms and homes; oil and toxic chemicals from roads and industry; sediment; bacteria from livestock; pet waste; and other pollutants .

Finally, drinking water pollution can happen via the pipes themselves if the water is not properly treated, as happened in the case of lead contamination in Flint, Michigan , and other towns. Another drinking water contaminant, arsenic , can come from naturally occurring deposits but also from industrial waste.

Freshwater pollution effects

Water pollution can result in human health problems, poisoned wildlife, and long-term ecosystem damage. When agricultural and industrial runoff floods waterways with excess nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, these nutrients often fuel algae blooms that then create dead zones , or low-oxygen areas where fish and other aquatic life can no longer thrive.

Algae blooms can create health and economic effects for humans, causing rashes and other ailments, while eroding tourism revenue for popular lake destinations thanks to their unpleasant looks and odors. High levels of nitrates in water from nutrient pollution can also be particularly harmful to infants , interfering with their ability to deliver oxygen to tissues and potentially causing " blue baby syndrome ." The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 38 percent of the European Union's water bodies are under pressure from agricultural pollution.

Globally, unsanitary water supplies also exact a health toll in the form of disease. At least 2 billion people drink water from sources contaminated by feces, according to the World Health Organization , and that water may transmit dangerous diseases such as cholera and typhoid.

Freshwater pollution solutions

In many countries, regulations have restricted industry and agricultural operations from pouring pollutants into lakes, streams, and rivers, while treatment plants make our drinking water safe to consume. Researchers are working on a variety of other ways to prevent and clean up pollution. National Geographic grantee Africa Flores , for example, has created an artificial intelligence algorithm to better predict when algae blooms will happen. A number of scientists are looking at ways to reduce and cleanup plastic pollution .

There have been setbacks, however. Regulation of pollutants is subject to changing political winds, as has been the case in the United States with the loosening of environmental protections that prevented landowners from polluting the country’s waterways.

Anyone can help protect watersheds by disposing of motor oil, paints, and other toxic products properly , keeping them off pavement and out of the drain. Be careful about what you flush or pour down the sink, as it may find its way into the water. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends using phosphate-free detergents and washing your car at a commercial car wash, which is required to properly dispose of wastewater. Green roofs and rain gardens can be another way for people in built environments to help restore some of the natural filtering that forests and plants usually provide.

For Hungry Minds

Related topics.

• WATER POLLUTION
• ENVIRONMENT AND CONSERVATION
• FRESH WATER
• GROUNDWATER
• WATER QUALITY
• WATER RESOURCES

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Water Pollution - List of Free Essay Examples And Topic Ideas

Water pollution poses a dire threat to ecosystems, human health, and economies. Essays could explore the myriad sources of water pollution, such as industrial discharges, agricultural runoff, and improper waste disposal. The discourse might extend to the examination of the impacts of water pollution on aquatic life, human health, and the broader environment. Discussions could also delve into the various measures and technologies available to prevent and mitigate water pollution, such as wastewater treatment, pollution control regulations, and community-led initiatives. Furthermore, essays might focus on case studies showcasing the challenges and successes in addressing water pollution in different regions. The interlinkages between water pollution and broader environmental issues like climate change, along with the examination of international efforts to promote clean water and sanitation, could provide a comprehensive exploration of the challenges and potential solutions surrounding water pollution. A substantial compilation of free essay instances related to Water Pollution you can find in Papersowl database. You can use our samples for inspiration to write your own essay, research paper, or just to explore a new topic for yourself.

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Essay About Water Pollution Water is basic to life requirements and more than 70% of the earth’s surface is cover by water. W.H.Auden said that “thousands have lived without love, not one without water”. Water is one of our most valuable and important resources because all living organisms require water to survive their life. The human body consists of more than 50% of water, so it proves that humans can survive without food but cannot survive if without water. Fish and other living organisms need water which forms lakes, rivers and oceans as their shelter. Water pollution caused by when humans started discarding sewage and toxic chemical into the ocean, effluents from industries, manufacturing and agro-based industries, dumping, oil pollution, acid rain and so on. Sewage that causes water pollution is one of the most important problem in the earth today. Rivers contaminated by sewerage contain high levels of organic pollutants, and they become breeding grounds for harmful bacteria and viruses that may cause fish and other aquatic organisms impossible to survive and become extinct. Sewage also causes many diseases such as cholera and typhoid that will detrimental to humans. For a few more times, water has been infected with sewage and human cannot enjoy clean water. Recently, the Amazon rainforest had some of the highest deforestations in the world, which has hugely affected the access to and quality of water. This causes the area of the earth to lose a lot of freshwater due to this problem. This is heartbreaking and terrifying to think that the Amazon is the largest rainforest on the planet which creates 20% of the earth’s oxygen, basically is the “lungs of the world”. People are literally destroying the miracle of home and waste a lot of water to put out the fire. Through deforestation, trees are being removed, naturally, there is a loss of support on the soil and leads to more loss of soil. Thereby causing higher rates of soil erosion that seeps into the nearby lakes, affecting the water quality of the lake. It also makes it impossible for sea creatures to survive because of the lack of clean water and the collapsed soil that fills the river’s space, the creatures cannot multiply. In Malaysia, the environmental problem that becoming more serious from time to time is water pollution. This pollution occurs when pollutants are not treated properly to remove harmful compounds are discharged into water bodies. So it is very important to prevent polluting of water bodies and remove existing contaminants or reducing the concentration of these contaminants and use it as desired. Dealing with water pollution is something that everyone including the government and local people need to get involved with. The ways of treating polluted water are industrial wastewater treatment which the raw sewage is needed to be treated carefully and correctly in a water treatment plant before it can be released into the environment. Therefore, all manufacturing industries should assure they have a well-designed treatment facility that can prevent water pollution. Besides, we should never throw rubbish away anyhow. If the rubbish bin is none around, we can take the rubbish home and put it in the rubbish bin. These include places like beaches, riverside and water bodies. We must use water wisely and do not keep the water pipe running when not in use. It can significantly prevent water shortages and reduce the amount of dirty water that needs treatment plants. Anti-pollution laws and regulations must be applied to everyone because it always played an important role to ensure water pollution are kept to the minimum. Anti-pollution laws can as well establish measures that put restrictions for water pollution. These laws are usually directed to industries, hospitals, schools and market areas on how to dispose of, treat and manage sewage.  

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Essay on Water Pollution : Causes, Effects & Solutions

February 2, 2021 by Study Mentor Leave a Comment

Water is one of the most important factors essential for sustaining life. Every organism, no matter how big or small, requires water to live.

You must’ve noticed that water quality has undergone a sea change over the years. The water has gotten harder and harder.

The color of water in rivers and lakes has significantly changed. The crystal clear surface on water bodies was a thing of the past and we no longer get to see a picturesque image of a clean and perfect water body anymore.

The tap water we receive can no longer be used for drinking, and we are forced to buy separate drinking water, install water purifying devices in our homes.

Have you wondered why we are forced to go in for such applications at our homes. There is no answer for water scarcity in big cities today and people are forced to live with the bitter truth.

Table of Contents

What is water pollution?

Water pollution is nothing but contamination of water bodies with chemicals, toxins and effluents let out from industrial establishments and factories.

These toxins contain harmful concentrations of lead, Sulphur, heavy metals and detergents in them.

Not just that, water bodies are mixed with sewage water and one can imagine the extent of dirt and filth that is contained in the waters of river bodies, thus making them highly polluted.

Pollution is tainting or forcefully mixing harmful and toxic substances into environment. These substances that endanger the consistency and integrity of the environment are called Pollutants.

Pollutants have been ever rampant since man entered the industrial ages.

The environment has been enduring the abuse we afflicted on it since ages. Industries, factories, etc. contribute to pollution on a large scale.

The daily activities that we perform, also pollute the earth due to inefficiency of the methods we use. Alarming quantities of pollutants are being produced and released.

Causes of water pollution

Speaking about water, most of the industries and factories have leftover chemical effluents. They release these residual products into primary water sources like rivers streams, lakes, fresh water tanks etc.

These residues may be a mixture of a myriad of chemically toxic substances.

The microbes present in the natural sources of water have the ability to purify the water to some extent. But the problem arises when we dump more Pollutants before the current batch of water is purified.

Purified, in this context, means oxidizing the water.

Microbes present in water have the natural ability to oxidize it. But constant human intended interference has almost nullified that ability.

In short, pollutants just overtake the good microbial activity and instead cause damage to water sources by inducing them  with filth and dirt.

The activities of the microbes in cleaning up the water reduce to a low minimum or may not take place at all. Waste water from domestic sources is also often dumped into rivers. This pollutes the entire source.

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Effects of water pollution

Water pollution affects us on a daily basis. The cases of water borne disease are on the rise. Since water is one of the building blocks of life, we have but no choice to consume the same water in adequacy.

The dangers of polluted water increases when people unknowingly use polluted water for daily purposes.

This mostly occurs in rural areas, where rivers are a prime source of water.

Factories set up near river bodies may be releasing effluents and people downstream maybe using the same water for drinking purposes and for other daily activities.

It is common knowledge that 70 percent of the earth is covered by water. But not all of this water can be used for drinking and household purposes.

Only a small percentage is fresh water, and most of the other share in the percentage finds itself frozen at the Poles.

The advent of pollution has further reduced the potable water resources. Water available today is way more polluted than it was ages ago.

Our quality of life is greatly affected by this. Use of polluted water causes diseases and ailments. It can be directly linked to the receding length of our lifespan.

Solutions for water pollution

Humans have realized that they have greatly affected the environment in a bad way. Everywhere, efforts are being made to conserve water.

Water treatment plants are setup everywhere. Every waste disposal station has a water treatment department, so that all the chemical and other harmful substances can be removed from water before it is let into the main source.

This has been pivotal in controlling pollution of water. Rules and regulations have been made stringent for factories and industries, regarding their effluent emission, both through the air and through water.

Domestic waste disposal techniques have been improved and proper steps taken in the right direction.

It is entirely up to us, what we decide to do, with our water sources. Global warming is becoming an ever gaping issue and a worldwide concern. There’s always fear of the rains being more infrequent and unseasonal.

What on earth do we do without adequate water. The hardships we’d have to face to obtain enough water for sustaining looks so terrible if we were to quest for a suitable answer.

The everyday tasks that we do would become incredibly difficult. We need to take measures ourselves, to save water and keep it from being polluted.

We must start conserving water in our homes. Only then will the next generation have even the slightest hope for a well-rounded future.

Water pollution is actually a two-fold issue raising global concerns today.

The first issue, the most common one as we know is of the contamination of water by toxins and measures to reduce the contamination and improve the quality of water.

The second one is more serious and pertains to the availability of potable water on earth after some years, putting a question mark on the survival of life on earth itself.

We talk about beautifying our lakes, restoring the cleanliness of our water bodies, removing their contaminants and making them toxic free.

Yes, this is definitely required at the moment and there have been measures taken in the right direction to make our rivers clean and clear.

Specific installations of dust collector and dirt remover equipment’s in river basins have been employed to collect waste material from river surfaces.

This is primarily to remove hard traces of waste or what we can call as visible wastes. This also takes removes unnecessary growth of phytoplankton in rivers, thus letting the river waters breathe at ease.

Regarding toxin removal from river waters, purification using reverse osmosis methods, chemical filtration methods and other treatments using distillation methods are employed to make them free from chemical residues.

Much other advancement have been achieved and successfully employed in the river basins of our country to restore the natural beauty of lakes and rivers.

The best example of river water cleaning in our country is the cleanliness drive carried out at river Ganga in the holy city of Varanasi.

The government of India took it up as a big challenge to clean the river waters at the region and was successful in achieving its mission.

It is only with citizen co-operation and participation that any reformative measures taken by the governments will prove fruitful and worthy of action.

We blame successive governments for not cleaning up our river beds, for not providing us clean drinking water, for not beautifying our lakes etc.

In the melee, we forget our own responsibilities of acting with care and concern.

If we visit rural areas and spot women washing their clothes, utensils and cattle in river waters, it is our duty to educate them and spread awareness about their wrong acts.

We ought to tell them that they aren’t supposed to pollute the river water.

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Have you Burn Crackers this Diwali ? Yes No

• Biology Article
• 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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Water Shortage’ Major Causes and Implication Cause and Effect Essay

Introduction.

It’s no doubt that the world is facing a topic of water crisis which has gone out of control and therefore raising a lot of concerns from the leaders and international organization who are trying to come up with ideas of solving this problem (Oxfam.org.uk, 2011).

However, the root cause of this problem is upon the human race that is entirely to blame for the ever increasing water crisis due poor and undeveloped policies governing protection of such water one of the most precious natural resource. In this regard the following discussion will elaborate on the major causes and implication of water shortage in the planet today.

First, both industrial and domestic water pollution is one of the major causes of water shortage because as more water is polluted the more water is wasted (Oxfam.org.uk, 2011).

Due to lack of proper technology available for recycling and purifying such polluted water in many countries across the world, issues of water pollution have become so prevalent and therefore contributing to high percentage of water wastage.

Secondly, water shortage has also been attributed to the high population growth causing a serious competition for this resource (Jones, 2010). The world population is increasing at an alarming rate and consequently straining the supply of this natural resource and hence resulting to severe scarcity of such water due to it’s over use.

Additionally, poor management of the water catchment areas is also another cause of water shortage (Oxfam.org.uk, 2011).

Majorly, when water catchment areas are destroyed through deforestation among many other ways, water is also likely to decrease due to destruction rocks and water table hence resulting to low water generation from the surface of earth (Oxfam.org.uk, 2011).

On the other hand, due to the fact that water has become a scarce resource, consequently this has possible implications to the humanity and animal kingdom as well.

To the humanity, one of the major implications is that, water scarcity may possibly cause a disagreement of ideas in the planet due to conflict of interest among different countries who would want to have the natural resource for them selves.

Additionally, issues of water shortage may also probably cause division of classes when people will want to own water privately and this will create a class of water have and have-nots (Jones, 2010).

Summary of the article

This article is a discussion regarding one major problem that is an issue of concern in the 21 st century which according to the author, the world is currently facing a major crisis- the scarcity of water one of the most useful natural resource.

The argument is that, in the 20 th century the world was having a crisis in dealing with issues such as political ideologies among others, but now the current crisis is much worse and it might be one the major causes of conflict in the planet today (Jones, 2010).

The author describes the intensity to how much water as natural resource has become so scarce especially the fresh water which is essential for domestic consumption, in fact, the most shocking news is that, according to author’s report, fresh water currently contributes only about “2.5 percent of the planet’s entire water supply” and therefore, such supply of water can not meet the actual demand for water worldwide since the world’s population is also increasing at an alarming rate and consequently causing an increasing in water demand at least by double the original water necessity (Jones, 2010).

For this reason, then it is reasonably clear that the current trends of this particular natural resource can not sustain the world population; meaning that those sectors that fully depend on water such as agriculture and manufacturing industries may also not be able to function fully (Jones, 2010).

As a result of all these issues, then the ever rising water shortage crisis might be a cause of conflict in the world due to the competition for the natural resource that will also rise.

For this particular concern, there is a clear warning to the humanity that, this is a “real danger” because people will clash to own any drop of fresh water and then there will be “water have and water have not” categories of people (Jones, 2010).

Additionally, the article describes water shortage as a “genuine problem” that the world leaders need to address in order to establish a long lasting solution to safeguard the future (Jones, 2010).

The opinion is that, the leaders should put laws which are necessary in governing proper and at the same time, people should try to reduce cases of water pollution in order to facilitate recycling process.

Clear examples and factors arising due to fear of water scarcity

Water crisis is a global issue although it is more pronounced in some countries than others. For instance, a good example is river Nile which is one of the biggest rivers and a major source of water for various uses in North Africa region.

However, river Nile is also a source of worry to the current international relations due to the rising water competition amongst three African countries namely; Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia (Egypt. com, 2007).

There is a crisis in this part of the world where there is a lot of politics on which country should rightfully tap out water (Egypt. com, 2007).

Egypt being a country with powerful military power is more likely to initiate military action in order to ensure she has control over the use of this water for its domestic use and for agricultural production as well, besides, Sudan and Ethiopia also claims that, they have the exclusive rights to use this water which Egypt argues that, the use of water by these other two countries might starve them (Egypt. com, 2007).

Besides, Lake Victoria in East Africa is also another geographical region where conflict over water is an issue already raising concern.

Due to the fact that, the lake lies along the boarder lines of three countries, namely; Kenya, Ugunda and Tanzania, this is enough reason to have a water crisis in this region (Kamugisha, 2007).

For instance, the many activities takes place at this lake including economical activities such as fishing among others is the major cause of catastrophe over the volume of water which is reportedly decreasing with each day.

There is a conflict over ownership of the lake due to the economical benefits which the three countries are generating from this lake causing some of the countries to extend their boundaries in order to have a bigger share of the lake which has already triggered a major conflict (Kamugisha, 2007).

It is no doubt that, these two cases reflect a rising conflict in Africa which happens to be one of the most affected regions in the world. The conflicts are on the rise as a result of competition for the natural resource which is becoming a scarce every day.

The world is currently facing much worse crisis in the 21 st century than previously when the world leaders were only having crisis over political ideologies and so on (Jones, 2010).

Currently, this is an issue that should be addressed with a lot of concern putting into consideration that, this particular issue of water scarcity might be the next cause of major conflict in the planet especially also considering that this particular natural resource is diminishing at a frightening rate.

In this regard, the humanity has a duty to safeguard their future in order to ensure it’s survival which can not be achieved without a drop of fresh water.

World leader, scientific researchers , international organization among many others, all have a major rule in enlightening the society about the need to protect and take care of this precious commodity in order to ensure sustainability for many years to come because water is an essential component that the whole animal kingdom rely on for life sustenance (Sipes, 2010).

Therefore appropriate and necessary actions should be implemented to curb the issue of water scarcity. Such measures would include; proper management of water catchment areas, reduce cases of water pollution, plant more tree around the globe, and establish policies such as water act which has already been implemented in US to reduce water wastage (Sipes, 2010).

Among many other measures, the solution to water scarcity is achievable if we fully get committed to the set polices in order to provide a long lasting solution one for all.

Egypt (2007). Egypt News – Water crisis hits Egypt “Country of Nile River” . Web.

Jones, D. (2010). Water: The cause of the next global conflict? Web.

Kamugisha, D. (2007). Lake Victoria Extinction and Human Vulnerability in Uganda . Web.

Oxfam (2011). Water for all . Web.

Sipes, J. (2010). Sustainable Solutions for Water Resources . New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons Press.

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A hidden threat

Fast-rising seas could swamp septic systems in parts of the south.

On the worst days, when the backyard would flood and the toilet would gurgle and the smell of sewage hung thick in the air, Monica Arenas would flee to her mother-in-law’s home to use the bathroom or wash laundry.

“It was a nightmare,” Arenas, 41, recalled one evening in the modest house she shares with her husband and teenage daughter several miles north of downtown Miami.

She worried about what pathogens might lurk in the tainted waters, what it might cost to fix the persistent problems and whether the ever-present anxiety would ever subside.

Residents in neighborhoods around Arenas’s have similar tales to share — of out-of-commission toilets, of groundwater rising through cracks in their garage floors, of worries about their own waste running through the streets and ultimately polluting nearby Biscayne Bay.

For all the obvious challenges facing South Florida as sea levels surge, one serious threat to public health and the environment remains largely out of sight, but everywhere:

Septic tanks.

Millions of them dot the American South, a region grappling with some of the planet’s fastest-rising seas, according to a Washington Post analysis . At more than a dozen tide gauges from Texas to North Carolina, sea levels have risen at least 6 inches since 2010 — a change similar to what occurred over the previous five decades.

One village’s risk

Officials worry about the threat of rising groundwater along the Little River in and around El Portal, where many homes rely on septic systems

Septic systems

Elevation above king tide*

Profile along NW Second Avenue

Above king tide

Below king tide

Little River

Officials worry about the threat of rising

groundwater along the Little River in and

around El Portal, where many homes rely

on septic systems

Unincorporated

Miami Shores

To Biscayne

King tide shown is the highest observed tide at Virginia Key on Oct. 28, 2023 (1.96 ft.)

Source: Miami-Dade County

Northwest 2nd AVe

BISCAYNE BAY

Along those coastlines, swelling seas are driving water tables higher and creating worries in places where septic systems abound, but where officials often lack reliable data about their location or how many might already be compromised.

“These are ticking time bombs under the ground that, when they fail, will pollute,” said Andrew Wunderley, executive director of the nonprofit Charleston Waterkeeper, which monitors water quality in the Lowcountry of South Carolina.

To work properly, septic systems need to sit above an adequate amount of dry soil that can filter contaminants from wastewater before it reaches local waterways and underground drinking water sources. But in many communities, that buffer is vanishing.

How rising waters threaten

septic systems

The most common type of septic systems rely on gravity to move sewage through a tank where solids settle and liquid waste is slowly released into the soil through a series of perforated pipes called a drain field.

Normal operation

DRAIN FIELD

Sewage enters

Wastewater filters

through soil

GROUNDWATER

The soil acts as a natural filter, neutralizing germs and pollutants before they can contaminate groundwater.

Rising water table

Contamination

Sea level rise and extreme rainfall are raising groundwater levels, resulting in more shallow buffers of soil that help protect local waterways and underground aquifers.

System failure

If a conventional septic system becomes submerged, wastewater will not be properly treated. Toilets can stop working and sewage can flood yards.

The most common type of septic systems rely on gravity to move sewage through a tank where solids settle and liquid waste is slowly released into the soil through a series of perforated pipes called a drainfield.

How rising waters threaten septic systems

An estimated 120,000 septic systems remain in Miami-Dade County, their subterranean concrete boxes and drain fields a relic of the area’s feverish growth generations ago. Of those, the county estimated in 2018, about half are at risk of being “periodically compromised” during severe storms or particularly wet years.

Miami, where seas have risen six inches since 2010, offers a high-profile example of a predicament that parts of the southeast Atlantic and Gulf coasts are confronting — and one scientists say will become only more pervasive — as waters continue to rise.

Virginia Key, Biscayne Bay, Fla.

sea level rise since 2010

0.4 inches per year

0.1 inches per year

Annual mean

Here, expensive repairs afflict homeowners as septic systems falter. Fetid water increases the risk of gastrointestinal diseases and other health hazards as floodwaters fill yards and streets. Profound worries persist about the environmental toll — which, researchers in Miami say, means submerged septic tanks are leaking nutrients into the porous limestone, potentially fueling algae blooms that kill fish .

“It’s really pretty gross,” said Michael Sukop, a hydrogeologist at Florida International University.

Rising seas will only exacerbate the problem, he added. “As the water table gets higher, all bets are off.”

Miami-Dade County is racing to replace as many septic tanks as possible, as quickly as possible. But it is a tedious, expensive and daunting task, one that officials say will ultimately cost billions of dollars they don’t yet have.

It also is far beyond a Florida problem.

In Georgia, officials have documented more than 55,000 septic tanks in counties near the Atlantic Coast in an ongoing data gathering effort. In North Carolina, researchers estimate, the discharge from approximately 1 million septic systems drains to waterways that eventually reach the ocean. In South Carolina, the issue has been the subject of legal fights and proposals in the state legislature.

In numerous states, researchers are studying the potential effects of what they call a largely unseen and unquantified environmental and public health threat.

“We don’t even know the scale of the problem,” said Rob Young, director of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Western Carolina University. “I think it’s everywhere. And it can’t get better as long as sea levels are rising. The only question is how quickly it can get worse.”

An environmental mess

More than 700 miles north of Miami, Mike O’Driscoll is among the scientists trying to decipher just how quickly rising seas are driving water tables higher, and why that matters.

O’Driscoll, a coastal studies professor at East Carolina University, and several colleagues have spent recent years documenting how rising groundwater is altering the hydrology along the Outer Banks in North Carolina.

In Nags Head, the group installed technology to monitor nearly a half-dozen aquifer wells for fluctuations in groundwater levels. They compared their findings to similar data from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality stretching back to 1983, and a clear trend emerged: Rising sea levels are raising the groundwater.

“If you look around the Outer Banks, the groundwater has risen one and a half feet in some places,” O’Driscoll said.

North Carolina requires about a foot to a foot and a half of separation between septic drain fields and the seasonal high-water table, depending on the soil type. But in places, that cushion is dwindling.

The Drowning South

“Rising groundwater has started to inundate systems in low-lying areas,” O’Driscoll said. “Some may be failing right now, but within a couple of decades, in some places, it won’t be viable to use conventional septic systems anymore.”

Beyond the environmental concerns, O’Driscoll worries about the financial impact for coastal communities and residents. It can cost homeowners $30,000 or more to install more advanced on-site wastewater treatment systems, and it costs localities many millions to expand existing infrastructure.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that roughly 20 percent of households in the United States rely on septic systems to treat their wastewater. That figure rises to more than one-third of homes in the Southeast, according to the agency . Florida is home to an estimated 2.6 million such systems.

In some places, such as rural areas not served by a centralized sewer and not threatened by encroaching groundwater, the approach can work well and be cost effective .

When conventional systems work as designed, solids from a home or business’s waste settle within the septic tank, while liquid waste is discharged into a drain field — usually a set of perforated pipes designed to slowly release effluent into the ground. The soil acts as a natural filter, neutralizing disease-causing pathogens, and reducing nitrogen, phosphorus and other contaminants before it reaches groundwater.

But that process is under increasing strain as seas push higher in the region and torrential rainfalls become more common, a combination that can inundate buffers that once existed.

EPA-funded research in Maryland has shown that many coastal properties with septic systems, which already face significant flood risk, will become far more vulnerable in the coming decades. As more septic systems fail, said Allison Reilly, a University of Maryland civil and environmental engineering professor, the more widespread the consequences will become, disproportionately harming low-income and minority residents.

“Right now it’s an environmental issue,” she said, “but as we warm, we’d expect it to become more of a public health issue.”

‘W e know what’s coming ’

Roy Coley , Miami-Dade County’s top sewer and water official, stood in the backyard of a home on NE 87th Street one afternoon. Nearby, workers had dug a trench as they prepared to connect the house and others nearby to a municipal sewer line.

“You’ve got so many thousands to do, where do you start? You start with one,” he said. “These houses are the low-hanging fruit.”

Over the past several years, leaders in Miami-Dade have aggressively pursued federal and state funding to decommission septic tanks and connect homes to sewage lines. The homes along NE 87th Street, not far from the Little River, just off Biscayne Bay, were converted in part using a grant from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Miami-Dade County said it has so far been awarded about $280 million in grants. About 100 homes have been converted, and workers have put in place the public infrastructure to connect another 775. Coley said the county also is trying various approaches to offset connection costs for homeowners, which average around $15,000.

“We are seeking every way in the world to ease that pain,” he said.

But it remains a herculean task. The county estimates that about 9,000 septic tanks already are vulnerable to compromise or failure under current conditions — a number expected to climb as sea levels rise. Coley said roughly 11,000 septic tanks are on the priority list for removal.

Eradicating septic entirely could cost more than $4 billion, the county estimated in 2020. And the future of the effort, officials said in an email, “is strongly dependent on identifying and securing funding sources.”

But Coley said there has been a key shift over time: buy-in from elected officials and residents.

“I think up until now, there was just a general lack of understanding about how failing septic tanks impacted the environment,” he said. But that’s no longer the case. “When you know better, you do better.”

The problem of leaky and failing septic tanks is hardly a new one in Miami, and the area’s geography and geology have always made them a risky proposition.

The author of a 1949 article in Look Magazine titled “Florida’s Polluted Paradise” detailed the estimated 150,000 septic tanks already around greater Miami, many wedged side-by-side in a region that is “prairie-flat” and hardly above sea level.

Even then, South Florida’s heavy rains often overwhelmed them. “I, myself, have seen septic tanks in numbers back up and overflow into lawns and onto sidewalks in residential areas, owning to the fact that the underlying ground was too burdened with sewage and water to contain any more,” wrote the author, Philip Wylie.

Two decades later, little had changed.

A 1970 report from the Federal Water Quality Administration found that as many as 800,000 people around the county relied on septic tanks, and that many waterways suffered from low oxygen concentrations and startling levels of coliform bacteria, which can signal the presence of fecal waste.

“Septic tanks, widely used in Dade County, are public health hazards,” the report concluded.

The federal government insisted the county develop a master plan to reduce sewage pollution and combat leaking waste from septic tanks.

Using hundreds of million dollars of federal money along with public bonds, the county did build new wastewater treatment plants to ease some of the pollution, but it was not a panacea. Today, there remain neighborhoods that are surrounded by municipal sewer service, but where most homes still rely on septic tanks.

“They were intended to be temporary in Miami, and here we are 50, 70 years later,” said Rachel Silverstein, executive director of Miami Waterkeeper, which has campaigned to end septic pollution.

“There’s water everywhere, and there’s nowhere for it to go,” she said one sunny morning as a high tide sent water sloshing over the bulkheads along Biscayne Bay.

As bad as the problem has been historically, there is one aspect long-ago planners did not factor in: sea-level rise.

“Septic systems were not designed with the assumption that groundwater levels would rise gradually over time,” found a 2018 county report , “and as a result many are not functioning as they were originally designed.”

That report emphasizes how elevated groundwater levels are creating an “immediate” public health risk. “There are also many financial and environmental risks, including contamination of the freshwater aquifer, which is the community’s sole source of potable water,” the study found.

In recent years, Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado has led the charge toward trying to phase out failing septic systems in the county.

“I hate them all. I want to get rid of all of them,” the Republican lawmaker said of the old concrete tanks.

She spearheaded a moratorium on any new septic systems on county-owned properties, pushed to ensure that development within a certain distance of sewer lines be required to connect, oversaw rules that require more sophisticated, self-monitoring septic tanks when outdated ones must be replaced and supported trying to offset costs of sewer conversions for homeowners.

“We have to get ahead of this, because we know what’s coming,” Regalado said. “It’s an environmental disaster waiting to happen.”

‘It will keep happening’

The lawsuit came from two South Carolina environmental groups — the Charleston Waterkeeper and the Coastal Conservation League.

Amid a building boom, the groups claim, state regulators have failed to adequately consider the effects of sea-level rise and stronger storms when approving growing numbers of septic tank permits across eight coastal counties.

“[Their] failures place the public’s health at risk and expose our state’s waterways, marshes, beaches, and fisheries to significant, documented harms that can be traced to untreated sewage from malfunctioning, ill-maintained, and/or ill-placed septic systems,” one filing read .

The lawsuit, filed in late 2022, cites existing or planned housing developments in vulnerable areas, including several near the town of Awendaw, about 25 miles northeast of Charleston. There, the suit states, hundreds of homes built close together would rely on septic tanks, all near the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge.

“A large percentage of the developed land is actually comprised of septic drain fields,” one filing argues , saying that such a situation risks “significant, irreparable harms” to public health and that of nearby marshes, beaches and fisheries. That includes the possibility of diseases such as hepatitis A and salmonellosis, which can be transmitted through fecal matter, and degradation of water quality, the filing said.

The groups want state officials to give special consideration to the cumulative impact of such clusters of septic permits. Already, they argue, South Carolina has no comprehensive inventory of existing septic tanks and little way for the public to challenge permits before they are approved.

“Sea level rise is happening. It will keep happening,” said Leslie Lenhardt, a senior managing attorney for the South Carolina Environmental Law Project, which is working on the case. “It’s steady, and it’s coming for these developments.”

In legal filings and in an email to The Post, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control said that it follows current law, which requires the agency “to conduct a coastal zone consistency review of only those wastewater treatment systems and septic tanks that handle more than 1,500 gallons per day or handle other than domestic waste.”

The agency acknowledged that there is no database of all septic tanks in the state, and said there is “no legal authority” that requires public notice about pending septic permits — though anyone can request such information by email.

Data provided by the agency shows it has approved increasing numbers of septic permits in the state’s coastal counties: nearly 16,000 from 2018 through 2023, with the largest numbers in Charleston County.

Beyond the courtroom, other South Carolina officials also are attempting to change the status quo.

“Everyone is very proud of the natural resources around here, but it’s fragile,” said state Rep. Joe Bustos (R), whose district encompasses a coastal swath of Charleston County, an area where seas have risen 7 inches since 2010, according to The Post’s analysis.

Bustos has co-sponsored a bill, unpassed by the legislature, that would ban new septic permits within two miles of the coast.

Wunderley, the Charleston Waterkeeper, supports that legislation and has watched both sea-level rise and the area’s growth accelerate in recent years. “It’s creating this dual pressure that’s really hard to deal with,” he said.

The legal and legislative efforts in South Carolina offer a glimpse at the tensions that states and localities face as they confront the legacy of conventional septic tanks in coastal areas where seas are rising fast.

There are success stories, but none are cheap or fast.

In 1999, with evidence that water quality was deteriorating along parts of the Florida Keys, the state mandated that the island chain eliminate the use of tens of thousands of septic tanks and other outdated waste systems. The cost reached roughly $1 billion as Monroe County built centralized sewage and hooked up thousands of homes and businesses.

“There was a huge change in water quality,” said Coley, who spent a decade working for the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority.

For years, Georgia has worked to compile one of the most robust databases of where its remaining septic systems are — an effort that at times has involved digging through handwritten permits in dusty county filing cabinets. The result is a detailed list that allows state officials to better understand the risks that exist, both now and as groundwater rises over time.

“There are places where septic systems are clearly unsuitable, and that needs to be factored into future land planning,” said Scott Pippin, an attorney and environmental planner at the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government.

Skip Stiles, a senior adviser at the Norfolk-based group Wetlands Watch, said septic failures are “like a blinking yellow light” that foreshadow a wider set of problems. As waters rise, he said, it will raise wrenching questions where the problem already is shifting from a nuisance to a persistent hazard.

“It’s forcing that decision that all of us in coastal communities are going to face eventually, but some are already facing now: Do I stay or do I go?”

Buying time

Arenas and her family are among the first homeowners to benefit from Miami-Dade County’s race to replace the most vulnerable systems.

Last year, crews removed their septic tank and hooked their house into a nearby municipal sewer line. Overnight, the nightmare vanished. No more monthly calls to have her underground tank pumped out. No more fretting over toxic water in the yard, or racing to a relative’s house to use the bathroom.

“It is 100 percent changed,” Arenas said.

That remains far from the case everywhere.

Less than a mile away, in the quaint village of El Portal, where peacocks lounge on the steps of the municipal building and Spanish moss hangs from giant oaks, Elizabeth Fata Carpenter spent years worried about water rising underneath the community she loves.

Carpenter and her husband moved to the neighborhood in 2019, and their yard flooded on multiple occasions, undermining the septic system behind their 87-year-old house. Especially after heavy rains, water oozed from the cracks in their garage floor. Their overmatched drain field overflowed into their yard and across the patio. They carried their 70-pound dog to higher ground for walks, and kept boots nearby to wade to their cars.

“We know the floodwater on our property is septic tank water,” Carpenter said one morning last fall outside her home, steps from the Little River. “I know it’s flowing into the river, and not just from my house, but everybody’s homes.”

Earlier this spring, the couple sold the house and moved to Fort Lauderdale. But Carpenter remains as chair on El Portal’s sustainability and resilience task force . And as an environmental attorney, she continues to fret about the collective pollution caused by septic tanks.

El Portal Mayor Omarr Nickerson shares those worries, and is working to end his community’s reliance on septic systems. But there is an inescapable obstacle: money.

Nickerson estimates that it would take roughly $50 million to convert the homes of El Portal to the municipal sewer system. The village’s annual budget is about $2 million, he said, more than half of which goes to the police department.

The county has designated roughly $6 million to help kick-start the effort, Nickerson said, but El Portal also must compete for funding with dozens of other local governments.

He worries that the issue, if left unsolved, might not only pollute the bay, but eventually drive people from his community.

Walking the streets on a postcard-perfect morning, Nickerson points to houses where unseen troubles lie. Where toilets back up. Where sewage-tainted water sometimes swamps yards and driveways. Where homeowners keep sandbags close at hand.

“It’s just going to continue,” Nickerson said.

The mayor points out an easily overlooked clue about the changing landscape of his village. Outside some houses, unnatural mounds of earth rise from the otherwise pancake-flat ground — an unmistakable sign that an old septic tank has been replaced with a newer, elevated version.

Some mounds are unadorned. Others are neatly landscaped. One resident built an entire deck around what she called the “mountain” in her backyard.

Several years ago, the septic system behind Kristen McLean’s home along the Little River failed as groundwater filled the tank and rendered her plumbing useless. For weeks, she relied on a composting toilet while she had a new engineered system installed.

“When we dug the hole for that septic system, the groundwater was 18 inches below my lawn,” she said. “This little area is a microcosm of what South Florida is up against.”

McClean sold the house in 2021 and jokes that she moved two miles away but seven feet higher.

These days, the mound rising in her old front yard is ringed with native plants.

It’s now a butterfly garden.

About this story

Design and development by Emily Wright .

Photo editing by Sandra M. Stevenson . Video editing by Alice Li and John Farrell . Design editing by Joseph Moore .

Editing by Anu Narayanswamy , Katie Zezima and Monica Ulmanu . Additional editing by Juliet Eilperin . Project editing by KC Schaper . Copy editing by Phil Lueck .

Additional support from Jordan Melendrez, Erica Snow , Kathleen Floyd and Victoria Rossi.

More on climate change

Understanding our climate: Global warming is a real phenomenon , and weather disasters are undeniably linked to it . As temperatures rise, heat waves are more often sweeping the globe — and parts of the world are becoming too hot to survive .

What can be done? The Post is tracking a variety of climate solutions , as well as the Biden administration’s actions on environmental issues . It can feel overwhelming facing the impacts of climate change, but there are ways to cope with climate anxiety .

Inventive solutions: Some people have built off-the-grid homes from trash to stand up to a changing climate. As seas rise, others are exploring how to harness marine energy .

What about your role in climate change? Our climate coach Michael J. Coren is answering questions about environmental choices in our everyday lives. Submit yours here. You can also sign up for our Climate Coach newsletter .

• Biotechnology
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• Microbiology
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• Water Pollution and its Control - Definition, Types, Causes, Effects
• Air Pollution Control - Definition, Types, Causes and Effects
• Floods: Definition, Types, Causes and Effects
• What is Air Pollution? Definition, Types, Causes, Prevention
• Causes and Effects of Water Pollution
• What is the Greenhouse Effect? Definition, Causes, and Effects
• Causes, Effects and Control of Deforestation
• Water Pollution - Definition, Causes, Prevention
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• Cyclone And Thunderstorm : Types, Causes and Effects
• E-Waste: Causes and Effects on Environment
• Environmental Pollution : Effects, Types of Environmental Pollution and their Causes
• Business & Environmental Protection: Causes, Types, Role & Need for Pollution Control
• Smog - Definition, Types, Causes and How to Control
• Ocean Pollution: Causes, Effects and Prevention
• Causes, Effects and Solutions to Ocean Dead Zones

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

Water Pollution is considered one of the most dangerous forms of pollution as water is the basis of all the forms of life on earth. Most of the deadly forms of water contamination are caused by man-made activities that result in death and diseases of many organisms.

It is very important to understand how water is polluted and then devise strategies for water pollution control. In this article, we will read about water pollution and its control, effects, and diseases due to water pollution.

Table of Content

What is Water Pollution?

Sources of water pollution, types of water pollution, groundwater pollution, surface water pollution, chemical pollution, microbial pollution, nutrient pollution, oxygen depletion pollution, suspended matter water pollution, point and non-point source contaminants, effects of water pollution, diseases of water pollution, control measures of water pollution, water treatments methods, minimize the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, utilization of less water, keeping water checks for lead contamination, avoid polluting open-air water sources, use environmentally friendly products, chemical methods, new technologies to prevent water pollution, bioremediation, phytoremediation, riparian buffers, effective strategies for controlling water pollution, introduction to water pollution control, industrial wastewater treatment, agricultural runoff management, urban runoff reduction, enhancing water legislation and policies, public education and community involvement, essential health tips for environmental protection, stay hydrated, maintain indoor air quality, choose anti-pollution skincare, exercise indoors on high pollution days, follow a diet rich in antioxidants, use protective gear, regular medical check-ups.

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

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

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

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

Different types of water pollution are:

When it rains, some amount of water seeps through the pores of the earth and fills the crevices, cracks, and pores and become groundwater. This groundwater is the main source of freshwater for the majority of the population. But when water pollutants from industrial activities, agricultural activities, sewage discharge, urban runoff, landfills, etc seeps through the soil to contaminate the water body, it makes the water polluted and unsafe for utilization.

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

This type of pollution occurs above ground in water bodies such as oceans, lakes and rivers. Excessive use of fertilizer that adds nitrates and phosphates, is one of the main sources of surface water pollution in these freshwater bodies along with industrial, and rural wastes. It is estimated that currently almost 50% of river systems and 33% of lakes have become unsuitable for any form of use.

Chemical contamination of water occurs when harmful substances, like pesticide run-offs, oil spills, and heavy metals such as mercury, cadmium, etc., contaminate water sources. When these pollutants get into the water, they can harm aquatic life by disrupting ecosystems and affecting the health of plants and animals. Control measures to reduce chemical pollution of water involves minimizing the use of pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and proper waste disposal.

Microbial pollution of water is usually a natural form of water pollution which is caused by microorganisms. Different types of microorganisms like bacteria, viruses, and protozoa live in water and cause health problems in fish, animals and humans. Microbes can enter water bodies through various sources, including untreated sewage, animal waste, and runoff from agricultural areas. When water becomes contaminated with these microorganisms, it can lead to the spread of waterborne diseases.

It is a type of water contamination that arises when too many nutrients, mainly nitrogen and phosphorus , enter water bodies. They act as fertilizer, causing excessive growth of algae or algal bloom. The source of many nutrients are man-made including – fertilizers, wastewater, automobile exhaust, and animal waste. The algal bloom block out sunlight and inhibit the growth of other microorganisms.

It is a decrease in concentration of dissolved oxygen in a waterbody due to increased uptake of oxygen by bacteria, fungi, and algae. The sewage disposal is rich in organic matter that encourages growth of microbes. They consume oxygen thereby reducing the content for other aerobic species, resulting in their death.

Waste such as plastics, rubber that are improperly disposed of and cannot be broken down easily, reach water bodies and settle there for a long time. Since they are difficult to dissolve water molecules, they float around on the surface blocking the sunlight and oxygen from penetrating below. Major source of primary particles are industrial processes, power plants, domestic burning (wood, coal etc.), and construction dust.

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

Some of the most common effects of water pollution are;

• Water pollution causes disruption of food chain . Heavy metals like Cadmium and lead are toxic and upon entering food chain through animals, continue travelling higher levels causing severe illness or death.
• Eutrophication of water bodies degrades the quality of water for aquatic organisms as well as other organisms that use that source of water for survival.
• Human health is affected by the degraded quality of water. It causes many diseases mainly diarrhoea, skin diseases, typhoid, cholera.
• The water cycle that maintains the environmental conditions of the planet gets disturbed.
• The major contributor to global warming .
• Effect on groundwater system causing a shortage of drinking and other essential purposes of water.
• Spread of many types of transmissible and non-transmissible diseases like hepatitis, typhoid , arsenic poisoning, cancer, etc.
• Biomagnification and accumulation of different types of chemical substances in the bodies of different organisms.
• Loss of many forms of life.

Water pollutants can cause infections or act as toxins. Microorganisms from untreated sewage disposal can easily enter the drinking water supplies and causes diseases like cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid, and polio . Harmful bacteria like Salmonella typhi, Shigella sp., hepatitis virus, etc. can survive within the chemicals in the water system, and when used for drinking, can make people sick, leading to harmful side effects.

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

We must avoid dumping waste into water bodies. Water treatment plants should be used for sewage water and effluent removal plants for effluent removal. Industrial wastes should have a different dumping site or they should be properly treated before releasing into water bodies.

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

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

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

Littering of water bodies and their surroundings, oil spills, chemical disposal, dumping of fertilizers, pesticides, etc. should be avoided. So, it is required to stop littering wastes near the water sources or around them to avoid seeping the wastes into the water sources.

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

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

With advancing technologies, scientists have found new technologies which can be used to prevent water pollution:

The utilization of microorganisms to debase the natural contamination into a less poisonous form is called bioremediation . Microorganisms can be explicitly intended for bioremediation utilizing genetic engineering technologies.

It is the utilization of plants to eliminate impurities from soil and water. Normal phytoremediation is completed by mangroves, estuarine vegetation, and other wetland vegetation.

A riparian buffer is a vegetated region, a buffer strip close to a stream, typically forested, which helps as shade and acts as a shield to the stream from the effect of neighboring area uses.

Water pollution poses significant risks to both environmental health and human well-being. Addressing this pressing issue requires comprehensive strategies involving advanced technology, community action, and stringent regulatory measures. Ensuring effective water pollution control enhances water quality and ecosystem health.

Industries are major contributors to water pollution. Implementing advanced industrial wastewater treatment solutions such as reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration, and biological treatment can significantly reduce pollutants in wastewater before discharge into natural water bodies. This critical step helps in reducing industrial water pollution .

Pesticides and fertilizers from agricultural lands can severely affect water quality. By integrating sustainable farming practices such as precision farming, the use of organic fertilizers, and contour plowing, farmers can control agricultural runoff effectively. These sustainable farming practices help minimize runoff and its detrimental impacts on nearby water sources.

Urban areas contribute to water pollution through runoff that carries pollutants from roads, roofs, and other surfaces. Implementing green infrastructure solutions like rain gardens, permeable pavements, and green roofs can effectively absorb and filter runoff, preventing it from polluting water bodies. These measures are crucial in urban runoff management and promoting green infrastructure for stormwater control.

Robust legal frameworks and consistent enforcement of water pollution laws are essential for sustainable water management. Governments can enhance water pollution laws by setting stringent water quality standards and ensuring compliance through regular monitoring and penalties for violations. This firm legal foundation supports the enforcement of water quality standards .

Educating the public about the sources and effects of water pollution and promoting community involvement in water conservation efforts can lead to significant improvements in local water quality. Initiatives like community clean-up days and educational campaigns raise awareness and encourage proactive protection of water resources, crucial for public education on water pollution and fostering community water conservation .

Drinking plenty of water is crucial, especially in areas with high pollution levels. Staying hydrated helps your body naturally flush out toxins. Aim for at least 8-10 glasses of water a day to support detoxification processes, ensuring you reap the benefits of staying hydrated .

Ensure that your living space has clean air, which is vital for good health. Use home air purifiers , especially those with HEPA filters, to remove pollutants from indoor air. Regularly ventilating your home by opening windows and using exhaust fans also helps improve indoor air quality .

Protect your skin from the damaging effects of pollution with anti-pollution skincare products . These products can provide a barrier against environmental pollutants and free radicals that contribute to skin aging and irritation, effectively protecting skin from pollution .

When the air quality is poor, opt for indoor workouts to avoid exposure to harmful pollutants. Indoor exercise benefits include preventing the inhalation of pollutants that can exacerbate respiratory issues or lead to other health problems, making it a safer option during high pollution days .

Consuming foods high in antioxidants can help counteract the effects of pollution on your body. Include plenty of fruits and vegetables like berries, nuts, and greens in your diet. These foods help strengthen your immune system against the oxidative stress caused by pollutants, fulfilling a diet that’s rich in antioxidants and ideal for fighting pollution .

Wear masks, especially N95 respirators, when you’re outdoors on days with high pollution levels. These masks can filter out most of the harmful particulates from the air you breathe, serving as essential protective gear for pollution .

Regular check-ups can help detect and mitigate the adverse effects of environmental pollutants. Monitoring your health can guide necessary adjustments to your lifestyle or treatments to address any issues early on, highlighting the importance of regular health check-ups .

Conclusion: Water Pollution

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

Also Read: Difference Between Air and Water Pollution Types of Pollution

Water Pollution – FAQs

What are the main causes of water pollution.

Water pollution primarily results from industrial discharge, agricultural runoff containing pesticides and fertilizers, untreated sewage, and pollutants from urban runoff. These sources introduce harmful substances into water bodies, adversely affecting water quality and ecosystem health.

What are the Major Effects of Water Pollution on the Environment?

Water pollution can lead to the destruction of aquatic ecosystems, loss of biodiversity, and the disruption of natural aquatic processes. Polluted water can harm aquatic life forms by depleting oxygen levels and introducing toxic substances that accumulate in the food chain.

How Can Water Pollution Be Controlled?

Controlling water pollution involves several strategies including treating industrial wastewater before discharge, managing agricultural runoff through sustainable practices, restoring wetlands to filter pollutants, and enforcing strict regulations on pollutant discharge into water bodies.

What are the Health Risks Associated with Water Pollution?

Water pollution poses significant health risks including waterborne diseases such as cholera and hepatitis, chemical poisoning from contaminated water, and long-term health issues like cancer from exposure to toxins. Ensuring water quality through regular monitoring and treatment is essential to mitigate these risks.

How Can Individuals Help Reduce Water Pollution?

Individuals can contribute to reducing water pollution by properly disposing of chemicals and pharmaceuticals, using environmentally friendly detergents and pesticides, conserving water to reduce wastewater generation, and participating in community clean-up events to keep local waterways clean.

What are the 5 Sources of Water Pollution?

The 5 main sources of water pollution are – sewage disposal (waste water), industrial waste, synthetic soaps and detergents, agricultural activities (fertilisers, pesticides), and oil spillage.

What are the most common Effects of Water Pollution?

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

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

What are the 5 Ways to Stop Water Pollution.

Water pollution control can be done by effluent sewage treatment, minimizing the use of pesticide and fertilisers, reusing water, removal of non-biodegradable wastes, and use the minimum amount of detergent preferably phosphate free soaps and detergents.

What are the 7 Types of Water Pollution?

The 7 types of water pollution are – Chemical Pollution, Groundwater Pollution, Microbial Pollution, Nutrient Pollution, Oxygen-Depletion, Surface Water Pollution and Suspended Matter Pollution

Why Should we Control Water Pollution?

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

What is Sewage Treatment?

A type  of wastewater treatment that aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent  that is suitable to discharge to the waterbodies is called sewage treatment.

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Wars cause widespread pollution and environmental damage − here’s how to address it in peace accords

Assistant Professor of Environment, Peace, and Global Affairs at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame, University of Notre Dame

Professor of the Practice in International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame

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As wars grind on in Ukraine and Gaza , another location ravaged by conflict is taking steps to implement a historic peace agreement. From the mid-1960s through 2016, Colombia was torn by conflict between the government, leftist guerrilla movements and right-wing paramilitary groups. Now the government and rebels are working to carry out a sweeping accord that addresses many critical sectors, including environmental damages and restoration.

University of Notre Dame researchers Richard Marcantonio and Josefina Echavarria Alvarez study peace and conflict issues, including their effects on the environment. They currently are advising negotiations between the Colombian government and several rebel factions over wartime damage to soil, water and other natural resources. They explain that while Colombia’s transition from war to peace has been difficult, the accord offers a model for addressing the ravages of war in places such as Gaza and Ukraine.

Is it common for peace settlements to address environmental harm?

Few agreements include environmental provisions, and even fewer see them carried out, even though research shows that many drivers of conflict can be directly or indirectly related to the environment .

We work with a research program at the University of Notre Dame called the Peace Accords Matrix , which monitors the implementation of comprehensive peace accords in 34 countries worldwide. Only 10 of the accords have natural resource management provisions agreements, and these typically have not triggered major steps to protect the environment.

How is the Colombia accord different?

Colombia’s is seen as the most comprehensive peace accord that has been signed to date. It considers issues ranging from security to social justice and political participation, in great detail.

The accord acknowledges that a peaceful postwar society requires not only respect for human rights but also “protection of the environment, respect for nature and its renewable and nonrenewable resources and biodiversity .” More than 20% of the commitments in the agreement have an environmental connection.

They fall into four main categories:

– Adapting and responding to climate change

– Preserving natural resources and habitats

– Protecting environmental health through measures such as access to clean water

– Process issues, such as ensuring that communities can participate in decisions about rural programs and resource management

There also are gaps. For example, many protected areas have been deforested for ranching and coca production in the postaccord period. And there are no provisions addressing toxic pollution, an issue other agreements also neglect .

Often there are power vacuums during transitions between war and peace , when government agencies are working to reestablish their operations. Natural resources and environmental health need protection during these phases.

In Sierra Leone, for example, resource extraction by foreign companies drastically ramped up immediately after the Lome Peace Agreement eventually ended that nation’s civil war in 2002. Companies exploited a lack of governance and support in the rural areas and often mined metals illegally or hazardously without any regulatory oversight. Today these areas still struggle with mining impacts, including contaminated drinking water and fish , the primary protein source in the area.

What is the environmental toll of war in Ukraine?

The damage is vast: There’s air, water and soil contamination, deforestation and enormous quantities of waste, including ruined buildings, burned-out cars and thousands of tons of destroyed military equipment. Russia’s destruction of the Kakhovka Dam flooded villages, destroyed crops and wrecked irrigation systems.

The cost estimates are staggering. A joint commission of the World Bank, the government of Ukraine and other institutions currently estimate direct damages at roughly US$152 billion .

In addition, cleaning up sites, rebuilding infrastructure and other repairs could cost more than $486 billion over the next decade, as of late 2023. That figure rises every day that the war continues .

There’s broad interest in a green and sustainable reconstruction that would include steps like using sustainable building materials and powering the electricity grid with renewable energy. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been adamant that Russia must pay for the damage it has caused. It’s still unclear how this would work, although some U.S. and European lawmakers support seizing frozen Russian assets held in Western banks to help cover the cost.

There is a legal basis for holding Russia accountable. In 2022, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a set of principles for protecting the environment during armed conflicts . Among other existing statutes, they draw on a protocol to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 that prohibits using “methods or means of warfare which are intended, or may be expected, to cause widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment .”

There has been only modest discussion so far of how to integrate these principles into a formal peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia. But a working group that included Ukrainian and European Union officials and former leaders from Sweden, Finland, Ireland and Brazil has recommended a framework for addressing environmental damage and holding perpetrators accountable .

What environmental impacts are known or asserted in Gaza?

Environmental damage in Gaza also is devastating . The U.N. estimated in early 2024 that over 100,000 cubic meters (26 million gallons) of untreated sewage and wastewater were flowing daily onto land or into the Mediterranean Sea .

Gaza’s drinking water system was insufficient before the war and has been further weakened by military strikes . On average, Gazans now have access to about 3 liters of water per person per day – less than 1 gallon.

Thousands of buildings have been destroyed, spreading hazardous materials such as asbestos . Every bomb that’s dropped disperses toxic materials that will persist in the soil unless it’s remediated. Simultaneous environmental and infrastructure impacts, such as water and power shortages, are contributing to larger crises , such as the collapse of Gaza’s health care system, that will have long-lasting human costs.

How can future peace accords address these impacts?

Integrating the environment into peace accords isn’t easy. Resources such as energy, clean soil and water are vital for life, which is precisely why military forces may seek to control or destroy them . This is happening in both Ukraine and Gaza .

Peace negotiators tend to focus on social, political and economic issues, rather than environmental reparations. But leaving environmental damage unresolved until after a peace accord is signed keeps people who have been displaced and marginalized by conflict in precarious positions .

It may even cause fighting to resume. According to the U.N. Environment Program, at least 40% of all wars within states in the past 60 years have had a link to natural resources. In those cases, fighting was twice as likely to resume within five years after conflict ended .

We see some lessons for future negotiations.

First, it’s important for accords to recognize environmental harm as one of war’s main consequences and to acknowledge that a healthy environment is essential for sustainable livelihoods and peace.

Second, connecting environmental provisions with other issues, such as rural reform and political participation, can create better, more sustainable and equal conditions for reestablishing democracy. The Colombia accords are an example.

Third, it is important to clearly define goals, such as what infrastructure and institutions need to be rebuilt, who is in charge of getting those tasks done, and the timetable for doing it. This can help ensure that environmental restoration doesn’t become a secondary goal.

Fourth, the international community has an important role to play in monitoring and verifying environmental restoration and providing financial and technical support. Foreign donors have already pledged $66 billion for rebuilding Ukraine and have said that they will require grantees to follow strict environmental standards in order to receive financing.

Reconstructing nations and simultaneously regenerating communities and ecosystems after wars is a daunting mission, but it’s also an opportunity to build something better . We see Ukraine and Gaza as potential test cases for addressing war’s toll on the environment and creating a more sustainable future.

• International law
• Environment
• Reparations
• Peace accord
• Colombia peace agreement
• Russia-Ukraine
• Environmental harms
• Kakhovka dam
• Israel-Hamas conflict

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• Mold After a Disaster
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What to know

• Mold can look like spots of many different colors, and it can smell musty. If you see or smell mold, you should remove it.
• If mold is growing in your home, you need to clean up the mold and fix the moisture problem.
• Learn what mold is, how to prevent it, and how to clean it up.

There is always some mold around. Molds have been on the Earth for millions of years. Mold can get in your home through open doors, windows, vents, and heating and air conditioning systems. Mold in the air outside can be brought indoors on clothing, shoes, bags, and even pets.

Mold will grow where there is moisture, such as around leaks in roofs, windows, or pipes, or where there has been a flood. Mold grows on paper, cardboard, ceiling tiles, and wood. Mold can also grow in dust, paints, wallpaper, insulation, drywall, carpet, fabric, and upholstery.

Common types

Mold is found both indoors and outdoors. Mold can enter your home through open doorways, windows, vents, and heating and air conditioning systems. Mold in the air outside can also attach itself to clothing, shoes, and pets can and be carried indoors.

When mold spores drop on places with excessive moisture, such as where leakage may have occurred in roofs, pipes, walls, plant pots, or where there has been flooding, they will grow.

Learn more about a few common types of mold:

• Aspergillosis
• Blastomycosis
• Cryptococcosis
• Histoplasmosis
• Mucormycosis
• Sporotrichosis
• Fungal diseases
• Valley fever

Mold can cause many health effects. For some people, mold can cause a stuffy nose, sore throat, coughing or wheezing, burning eyes, or skin rash. People with asthma or who are allergic to mold may have severe reactions. Immune-compromised people and people with chronic lung disease may get infections in their lungs from mold.

There are steps you can take to prevent mold growth in your home.

• Keep humidity levels in your home as low as you can — no higher than 50% — all day long. An air conditioner or dehumidifier will help you keep the level low.
• Be sure the air in your home flows freely. Use exhaust fans in the kitchen and bathroom that vent to outside your home. Make sure your clothes dryer vents outside your home.
• Fix any leaks in your home's roof, walls, or plumbing so mold does not have moisture to grow.
• Clean up and dry out your home fully and quickly (within 24–48 hours) after a flood.
• Add mold inhibitors to paints before painting. You can buy mold inhibitors at paint and home improvement stores.
• Clean bathrooms with mold-killing products.
• Remove or replace carpets and upholstery that have been soaked and cannot be dried right away. Don't use carpet in places like bathrooms or basements that may have a lot of moisture.

If you see or smell mold, you should remove it. You do not need to know the type of mold. If mold is growing in your home, you need to clean up the mold and fix the moisture problem.

Mold can be removed from hard surfaces with household products, soap and water, or a bleach solution of no more than 1 cup of household laundry bleach in 1 gallon of water .

If you use bleach

• Never mix bleach with ammonia or other cleaners. This will produce a poisonous gas.
• Follow manufacturers' instructions when you use bleach or any other cleaning product.
• Open windows and doors to provide fresh air.
• Wear rubber boots, rubber gloves, and goggles during cleanup.

For more information, read the guide on safely cleaning up mold

(Also available in Spanish and Vietnamese)

Homeowners and Renters Guide to Mold Cleanup After Disasters

Home testing

CDC does not recommend mold testing.

The health effects of mold are different for different people so you cannot rely on sampling and culturing to know whether someone might become sick. No matter what type of mold is present, you need to remove it.

Also, good sampling for mold can be expensive, and there are no set standards for what is and what is not an acceptable quantity of different kinds of mold in a home. The best thing you can do is to safely remove the mold and prevent future mold growth.

Mold can cause many health effects. Mold will grow where there is moisture, such as around leaks in roofs, windows, or pipes, or where there has been a flood.

Home — Essay Samples — Environment — Water Pollution — The Causes and Solutions for the Problem of Water Pollution

Water Pollution: Problem and Solution

• Categories: Water Pollution

About this sample

Words: 749 |

Published: Nov 6, 2018

Words: 749 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Water pollution: causes and effects, solutions to water pollution, works cited.

• United Nations Environment Programme. (2016). Freshwater pollution: A hidden crisis. Retrieved from https://www.unep.org/explore-topics/water/what-we-do/ freshwater
• National Geographic. (n.d.). Water pollution. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/water-pollution/
• United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2018). Causes and effects of water pollution. Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/npdes/causes-and-effects-water-pollution
• World Health Organization. (2019). Water pollution and health. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/water-pollution
• United Nations. (2018). Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/water-and-sanitation/
• Johnson, S., & Morrisey, J. (2008). The economics of water pollution: An overview. Water Policy, 10(S1), 3-14.
• Environmental Defense Fund. (2021). Water pollution: Everything you need to know. Retrieved from https://www.edf.org/water/water-pollution-everything-you-need-know
• Bhutta, M. N., & Raza, S. A. (2019). Impact of water pollution on human health and environmental sustainability. Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Sciences, 14(4), 1-11.
• Blumenthal, U. J., & Peasey, A. (2002). Critical review of epidemiological evidence of health effects of wastewater and excreta: A call for more research. Tropical Medicine & International Health, 7(11), 1047-1053.
• Chen, X., Li, Y., & Lü, C. (2016). The impact of water pollution on economic development in China. Journal of Cleaner Production, 112(3), 3520-3528.

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Brixham: Water firm apologises after parasite detected in reservoir - as cause of outbreak found

Residents in parts of Brixham, Boohay, Kingswear, Roseland and North West Paignton were told to boil their drinking water after 22 cases of cryptosporidiosis were confirmed in the Devon area.

By Dylan Donnelly, news reporter

Thursday 16 May 2024 16:07, UK

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South West Water has apologised for a waterborne disease outbreak in Devon after a parasite was found in a key reservoir.

Residents in parts of Brixham and Alston were told to boil their drinking water on Wednesday after the water firm found "small traces" of the parasite cryptosporidium - which causes cryptosporidiosis - in the Hillhead reservoir.

At first, they said the water was safe to drink, but then had to issue a boil notice to 16,000 households and businesses in Brixham, Boohay, Kingswear, Roseland and North West Paignton.

What is the parasite found in Devon drinking water?

Hundreds of people have reported symptoms of cryptosporidiosis on a local Facebook group over the last week.

Amid the chaos caused by the parasite-ridden water, one primary school has closed its doors due to not having drinking water.

The local council confirmed that Eden Park Primary School shut their doors Thursday - but said they were thought to be the only school to have done so.

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South West Water has set up two bottled water collection points in Brixham and Paignton - with cars queuing for more than half a mile to reach the front of the line in Brixham.

Chaz Attwood, who lives near the affected reservoir, told Sky News his wife has diabetes and has been ill for 16 days after drinking contaminated water.

"My wife has been drinking water to keep hydrated because she's diabetic and the insulin that she's had to have has doubled, and basically that affected her to start with," he said.

"So that's made her worse. We're in a dreadful state. She was so weak I even phoned 999, and told the guy what was happening because she'd collapsed."

David Sneyd, who also lives in the Devon town and is immunosuppressed, said he noticed "absolutely nothing until it was announced".

He added he had stomach cramps "for just over a week" and "didn't think anything of it until a couple of days ago when it all sort of blew up through social media".

The cause of the issue is a damaged air valve which may have allowed animal waste or contaminated ground water to enter the water supply, Totnes MP Anthony Mangnall said.

The Conservative MP added: "South West Water believe they have located the source of the issue and initiated a fix but are continuing their investigations and will be testing their network to ensure water is safe.

"The boil water notice is therefore likely to be in place for at least a further six or seven days, with bottled water available throughout this period."

Leaflets reminding locals in the affected areas to boil their tap water have been sent, but Mr Sneyd told Sky News he only received his on Wednesday night.

Those at most risk are "quite severely immunocompromised" or are children who "do get more problems" from the disease.

The UK Health Security Agency said 22 people are confirmed to have the disease, and as many as 70 other cases of diarrhoea and vomiting in residents and visitors to Brixham are also under investigation. More confirmed cases are expected.

Reporting from Brixham, Sky News' West of England correspondent Dan Whitehead also found one woman had to rush her son, 13, to the hospital over the outbreak.

He said earlier that GPs in the area have also seen an increased number of calls, and at points run by South West Water, families are only allowed a maximum of six litres of water.

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'We sincerely apologise'

The leaflet also promises that customers affected will automatically receive a £15 payment from South West Water.

In a statement, the company announced they would increase the compensation to £100 "to say sorry for the stress and worry the situation has caused".

Laura Flowerdew, South West Water's chief customer and digital officer, also said "we sincerely apologise for the impact this is having".

The company also said it is still working with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and others "to urgently investigate how cryptosporidium is getting into its network".

Month-long symptoms 'not unusual'

Professor Paul Hunter, a specialist in medical microbiology at the University of East Anglia, also told Sky News the issue for water supplies could last at least a week, and that "it's not unusual to be ill for a month" with the disease.

He explained if the parasite cryptosporidium is "a continuous thing" present in water supplies for a prolonged period, then "you'd expect to see more cases".

Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News

Prof Hunter added there is "no specific treatment" for the disease, which causes diarrhoea symptoms, and "there's nothing we can do to shorten the length" of time people battle the illness.

He also said most people "will get over it in two to four weeks" and swimming in the ocean is not likely to cause infection.

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One dies, several fall ill after drinking contaminated water in Karnataka village; CM orders probe

Mysuru: A youth is suspected to have died and many others fell ill after drinking contaminated water in a village here on May 20. The deceased is Kanakaraj (20). The affected persons were admitted to the hospital, police said on Tuesday. Taking serious note of the incident, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday directed authorities concerned to investigate the matter and ensure proper treatment to those in the hospital. 

"The CM instructed the officials to ascertain the cause of water pollution and take appropriate action," the CM's office said in a statement.

According to police, Kanakaraj died after consuming the contaminated water in Salundi village under Chamundeshwari Assembly constituency. He was admitted to a private hospital in the city on Monday with symptoms of vomiting. He died without responding to treatment. 

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A few others with similar symptoms have been admitted to the hospital. On learning about the incident, Siddaramaiah spoke to the Deputy Commissioner and the District Health Officer over phone regarding the death.  (With PTI inputs)

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