Unit 2: Water Pollution (10hrs)

• Ecological aspect of water

pollution
• Sources and categories of water
pollutants
• Water quality criteria and
standards
• Standard methods of water
analysis
• Water and wastewater treatment
 Ecological Aspect of Water Pollution
• Various water related activities (health,
income raising, food & timber production,
body functions habitat operation) act as
the pollutants transportation into the
aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems .
• The pollution of the aquatic environment
impacts both human health and
socioeconomic development.
• Freshwater ecosystems are losing ground
to runoff, silting, fertilizers, pollution and
invasive species.
 Ecological Aspect of Water Pollution
• Climate change and resulting alterations in
weather patterns, water distribution and
fisheries will impact seriously on marine
ecosystems and small island development
states, and will also threaten poor
populations unable to protect themselves
from flooding, erosion, water shortages and
coral bleaching.
• Dry lands are further degrading due to
desertification, dropping water tables and
over-irrigation
• Aquatic ecosystems are disturbed and living
• Rivers, lakes, and estuaries are among the
most highly invaded ecosystems in the world
and the effects of invasive species on local
aquatic systems can be severe
• There are around 5,000 lakes; 1,380
reservoirs; and 5,183 village ponds in
Nepal. There are about 3,808 glaciers with
a total area of 4,212 sq. km and 1466
glacial lakes (area of 64.75 sq. km) in
Nepal.
• About 20 glacial lakes have been identified
as dangerous ones with the potential risk
of glacial lake outburst floods.
• A water balance analysis of Bagmati river
basin at Kathmandu Valley has shown that
a one-degree rise in annual temperature
may increase the water demand by 3.7%
and reduce the annual river flow by 1.5%
simultaneously (Chaulagain, 2007).
 Ecological Aspect of Water Pollution
• Loss of wetlands has further decreased the
ability of ecosystems to filter and decompose
wastes.
• Rise on nitrate concentration
• Ecosystem modifications associated with
increasing incidence from infectious diseases,
major changes in habitat
• Impact on seasonal river flow exacerbation to
encroach ground water
• Tropical deforestation and desertification
• Species extinction and over harvesting of
medicinal plants is diminishing the availability
 Ecological Aspect of Water Pollution
The temporal variability occurs on a number of ways in water quality.
The temporal variability occurs on a number of ways in
water quality:
• Minute - minute to day - day: from small - scale water
mixing and fluctuation in inputs to the aquatic system.
• Diurnal (24h) variability: related to biological and light -
dark cycles, such as oxygen, pH, and relate to cycles in
pollution inputs (e.g. domestic wastes).
• Days to months: related to climatic factors (hydrologic
regimes, lake) and to pollution sources (industrial wastes,
agricultural activity in the catchments).
• Seasonal: related to climatically driven hydrological and
biological seasonal cycles.
• Year - year: related mostly to human influences in the
catchments (e.g. changing land use, clearing vegetation,
building works).
 Ecological Aspect of Water Pollution
Major problems affecting the water quality of rivers
and lakes arise from inadequately treated
domestic sewage, haphazard discharges of
industrial effluent, loss and destruction of
catchments areas, ill-considered setting of
industrial plants, deforestation, uncontrolled
shifting cultivation, and poor agricultural
practices
Erosion, sedimentation, deforestation, and
desertification have led to increased land
degradation, and the creation of reservoirs has, in
some cases, resulted in adverse effects on
ecosystems
 Ecological Aspect of Water Pollution
The countries in South Asia are facing water crisis on
account of ever increasing demand of freshwater in all
sectors of human activities . Indian sub-continent will
be a water stressed region by 2025 .
Common Effects of Pollutants on Aquatic Life in Natural Waters
Response Cause
Death or migration of intolerant
Change in species composition populations from the area and
colonization by tolerant forms
Decline in populations of previously
Changes in dominant groups dominant forms, increase in other,
tolerant forms
Impoverishment of species Loss of intolerant forms
High mortality of sensitive life
Due to toxicity, lack of oxygen
stages, e.g. eggs
Due to physiological and / or biochemical
Changes in behavior
responses to pollutants
Changes in physiology, metabolism
Due to cellular responses to sublethal,
histological changes and
toxic pollutants
 Ecological Aspect of Water Pollution
Common Effects of Pollutants on Aquatic Life in
Natural Waters
Water abstraction & pollutants spreading effect;
Pathogens threaten economic livelihoods of the local
fishers & WQ; Localized (eutrophication), global or
regional effects (transboundary movement of
pollutants) on the vivid ecosystems; alter natural
biogeochemical fluxes in the environment; endocrine
disruptions , toxicity in embryos, inadequate parental
behavior, malformations, cancerous growths in
reproductive system, and feminization of male
offspring from toxic chemicals; transmission of
cryptosporidium, legionella, Escherichia coli 0157,
rotavirus, hepatitis E virus, norovirus ; damming
impact fish biodiversity local fishing communities
 Ecological Aspect of Water Pollutants
Ecological Impacts of Water Pollutants: Impact of Oil
Pollution; Major Heavy Metals Contamination & Man - made
Organics; Storm Water Runoff Water Pollution; Lake Water
Pollution
Impact of Oil Pollution
• Emotive impact of oil on marine life is the oiling of birds
• Seabirds are at risk
• The damage is caused more by the physical attributes of the oil than
by its toxicity
• Reduces the ability of the birds to maintain their body temperature
due to clogging of feather
• Birds may drown or may die of hypothermia
• In general adult seals, sea lions and whales do not appear to be at
high risk from oil on the sea
• An indirect effect of oil pollution is the tainting of the flesh
• Avoidance of sea food
• May seriously affect the market
• Hamper the livelihood for both the fishing and aquaculture sectors.
 Ecological Aspect of Water Pollutants
Major Heavy Metals Contamination & Man - made
Organics Cadmium; Lead; Organochlorine
Pesticides; Organophosphorous Compounds;
Herbicides; Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
Cadmium:
• No ecological effects have been reported.
• Mollusks are known to accumulate large
concentration of cadmium.
• The people in Tasmania consuming highly metal
contaminated oysters led to nausea and
vomiting.
• Cadmium cause permanent damage to kidney &
can give rise to nephril proteinum, where
proteins are lost in the urine.
 Ecological Aspect of Water Pollution
Lead: Lead aerosols are distributed world - wide
in the atmosphere and enter the sea through rain.
The lead levels are increasing globally in world
seas is apparent. Local levels may be enhanced
by sludge dumping or other special
circumstances.
• Lead can be accumulated in some species
without apparent harm.
• Lead is responsible for serious damage to the
health of humans and birds but does not at the
moment appear to be a problem in the marine
environment.
• The lead nitrate actually enhances the growth of
some diatoms.
 Ecological Aspect of Water Pollution
Organochlorine Pesticides:
The commonest breakdown product of DDT reaching
the sea, which is very persistent and fat soluble. The
evidences were recorded for the damaging effects of
organochlorines on predatory birds.
• Reduces photosynthesis in phytoplankton (primary
productivity).
• Hardy animals concentrate the residues while they
live and pass even more potent doses on to
predatory higher up the food chain.
• A chemical factory near Rotterdam manufacturing
Dieldrin and Endrin was thought to be responsible
for the decline in the size of a Sandwich tern colony
from 20000 to 650 in 1965.
 Ecological Aspect of Water Pollution
Organophosphorous Compounds:
These biocides include malathion, parathion
and diptcrex. But unlike DDT they are not
retained but are slowly inactivated and
excreted.
• They are very toxic to fish, although less
than DDT.
• Fish were found to be dying in an area
around a marine outfall of Danish factory
manufacturing Parathion.
• Lobsters were affected over a much wider
area.
 Ecological Aspect of Water Pollution

Herbicides:
• Most of these are less stable than
organochlorines and have not yet
been recorded as causing damage to
the marine environment.
• Algae including phytoplankton react
to the herbicides in a similar way to
terrestrial plants
 Ecological Aspect of Water Pollution
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs): They are
virtually insoluble in seawater & particularly
stable at temperatures which would
decompose almost all natural and many
synthetic organic compounds. They are
always in greater concentrations than other
chlorinated hydrocarbons, in a variety of
organisms (shrimps, plankton, pelagic and
demersal dish) and marine mammals.
 Ecological Aspect of Water Pollution
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs):
• Once introduced into the environment,
including the seas, these compounds are
exceedingly persistent.
• Being fat soluble they move readily
through the environment and within
tissues or cells.
• Seals (second order carnivores) have
been shown to acquire the highest tissue
levels of PCB of any marine mammals.
 Ecological Aspect of Water Pollution
Storm Water Runoff Water Pollution
Sedimentation, contaminant loadings, hydrologic
instability, oxygen depletion & temperature
increases - not only threaten individual animals,
but also reduce the diversity of life living in water
bodies.
• Stream biological health declines as watershed
imperviousness increases. As the amount of
impervious cover in an urbanizing watershed
passes 10 or 15% a sharp drop in the diversity
of insect population.
• Variety of fish species drops as well, with the
disappearance of sensitive fish such as trout
and salmon
 Storm Water Runoff Water Pollution
• Changes in land use lead to flooding, erosion,
habitat degradation, and water quality
impairment; affect the shape & dimension of
river channels, thereby altering aquatic habitat
and channel stability.
• Sediment has harmful effects on aquatic life. It
increases infection and disease among fish by
irritating their gills. A number of endangered fish
species (including log perch or blue shiner) are
intolerant to high sediment levels, and get
disappeared. Sediment settling can bury and
smother bottom-dwelling insects and reduce the
survival rate of fish eggs as well as loss
 Storm Water Runoff Water Pollution
• Nutrient Enrichment: Seasonal
eutrophication leads to elevated growth of
algae & aquatic vegetation due to excess
phosphorus . Excess nitrogen can have a
similar effect in marine waters.
Lake Water Pollution
Submerged and shore vegetation directly limit the
growth of algae. Pike and other predators mainly
eat planktivorous fish like bream. A good pike
stock restricts the number of planktivorous fish.
Water fleas feed on algae. Lakes with a high
number of fleas contain hardly any algae.
Modified Version of OECD Classification Scheme Based on Values for Annual Maximum
Concentration of Chlorophyll - a (Indicators related to water quality and probability of
pollution)
Annual
Degree of Impairment of
Trophic Maximum Algal Probability of
Deoxygenation Multipurpose
Category Chlorophyll - a Growth Pollution
in Hypolimnion use of Lake
(mg/m3)
Ultra -
oligotrophic / Probably
<8 Low Low Very Low
Oligotrophic None
(O)
Mesotrophic
8 - 25 Moderate Moderate Low Very Little
(M)
Eutrophic:
May be
Moderately 26 - 35 Substantial May be high Significant
appreciable
(m - E)
Eutrophic:
Strongly 36 - 55 High High Strong Appreciable
(s - E)
Eutrophic:
Highly 56 - 75 High Probably total High High
(h - E)
Hypereutrophic
> 75 Very High Probably total Very High Very High
(H)
 Ecological Aspect of Water Pollution

Effects on Physical, Chemical & Biological Parameters

 Species diversity decreases and the dominant biota
change
 Plant and animal biomass increases
 Turbidity increases
 Rate of sedimentation increases, shortening the life
span of the lake
 Anoxic conditions may develop
Problems
 Treatment of potable water may be difficult and the
supply may have an unacceptable taste or odor
 The water may be injurious to health
 The amenity value of the water decrease
 Increased vegetation may impede water flow and
navigation
 Conclusion
• Each year some 3300 km3 of water are removed
from the earth's rivers, streams, and groundwater
systems to irrigate crops.
• Such diversion and redistribution of water has
had a profound impact on the earth’s ecology.
• Much wetland habitat has been lost due to
reduced river and stream flows, surface water
supplies have become contaminated with salts
and agri-chemicals, groundwater aquifers have
been depleted and overlying lands have subsided
due to excessive extraction, and fish and fowl
have been poisoned by toxic salts released
through irrigation and drainage.
 Conclusion
• Water chemistry may also have an indirect
effect on mosquito populations, when it
favors organisms on which larvae feed, or
when it affects potential biological control
agents of mosquitoes.
• Hard (calcium-rich) water favored the growth
of a macrophytic algae, Chara, whose
presence is positively correlated with the
abundance of Anopheles freeborni and Culex
tarsalis larvae.
• Physical, chemical and biological parameters
of water quality may all influence the
 Conclusion
Ecological Risk Priorities due to Water Pollution
Risk Nature of Water pollution
Priority
Highest Biological depletion, DO
Higher Herbicides & pesticides
contamination
High Toxic in surface water
Medium BOD, Nutrients, Turbidity
Low GW contamination, radio nuclides
and solid waste contamination,
Acid input into the surface water
 Conclusion
UNEP / GEMS water Program Framework for Water Quality of
Surface & Groundwater Ecosystem, 2005
Service & Uses Ecosystem stability, Structure &
(Drivers) Health
Human activities; Climate change and
Pressures
variability
Temperature; pH; Conductivity; Major
Parameters (State) ions; Oxygen; Nitrogen; Phosphorus;
Suspended Solids; Biodiversity
Loss of species; Altered food webs;
Impact Increased/decreased; biological
productivity
Appropriate treatment; facilities for point;
Response sources but limited; responses for
climate; change and variability