Question

Write a one-page paper describing water pollution. Share major causes of water pollution, ways of prevention of water pollution, and potential diseases in humans derived from water pollution. Give examples and list references. Double spaced, 12-font, and Times Roman.

Answer 1

What Is Water Pollution?

Water pollution happens when harmful substances usually chemicals or microorganisms contaminates a stream, river, lake, ocean, aquifer, or other body of water, reduces water quality and making it toxic to humans or the environment.

Major Causes of Water pollution are

(1)Agricultural: About 70% of earth’s surface water supplies of global fresh water resource used in the agriculture sector for farming and livestock production. 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 major 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.

(2)Sewage and waste water

Used water nothing is wastewater. Used water 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

(3) Oil pollution: Oil is also naturally released from under the ocean floor through fractures known as seeps. 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.

(4)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.

Potential diseases in humans derived from water pollution are Cholera, giardia, Diarrhoea and Typhoid

The pesticides in the water can damage nervous system and will cause cancers. Chlorides can cause reproductive and endocrinal damage Nitrates in the water are dangerous to babies. It restricts the amount of oxygen in the brain and cause the blue baby syndrome

Lead in the water can damage central nervous system

Arsenic causes skin cancer, liver damage

Fluorides makes the teeth yellow and damage the spinal cord

Petrochemicals causes cancer

Ways of Prevention of water pollution

• Decrease your plastic consumption and reuse or recycle plastic .
• Dispose of chemical cleaners, oils, and non-biodegradable such as plastic or hard materials items to keep them from ending up 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.

Example The Damodar Action plan the river water and its tributaries are the largest sources of drinking water for the huge population that lives in the valley and the major causes are both sand and water are infected by coal dust and waste from these industries.

Reference

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract id. H11E-0825

http://www.roionline.org/books/Industrial%20ecology_chapter09_Damodar_Coal.pdf