Water pollution

What is water pollution ? The main types of water pollution; The causes of water pollution; The effects of water pollution; Statistics and expert's opinion; How can we stop water pollution?

What is the 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. 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

Categories
1.Point source water pollution refers to contaminants that enter a waterway from a single, identifiable source, such as a pipe or ditch. Examples of sources in this category include discharges from a sewage treatment plant, a factory, or a city storm drain. The U.S. Clean Water Act (CWA) defines point source for regulatory enforcement purposes. 2.Nonpoint source pollution
refers to diffuse contamination that does not originate from a single discrete source. NPS pollution is often the cumulative effect of small amounts of contaminants gathered from a large area. A common example is the leaching out of nitrogen compounds from fertilized agricultural lands

Causes
Sewage and Wastewater
Domestic households, industrial and agricultural practices produce wastewater that can cause pollution of many lakes and rivers. Sewage is the term used for wastewater that often contains faeces, urine and laundry waste. Untreated sewage water in such areas can contaminate the environment and cause diseases such as diarrhoea. Sewage in developed countries is carried away from the home quickly and hygienically through sewage pipes. Sewage is mainly biodegradable and most of it is broken down in the environment. In developed countries, sewage often causes problems when people flush chemical and pharmaceutical substances down the toilet. When people are ill, sewage often carries harmful viruses and bacteria into the environment causing health problems

Nuclear waste how it is produced

Nuclear waste is produced from industrial, medical and scientific processes that use radioactive material. Nuclear waste can have detrimental effects on marine habitats. Nuclear waste comes from a number of sources: >Operations conducted by nuclear power stations produce radioactive waste. Nuclearfuel reprocessing plants in northern Europe are the biggest sources of man-made nuclear waste in the surrounding ocean. Radioactive traces from these plants have been found as far away as Greenland. >Mining and refining of uranium and thorium are also causes of marine nuclear waste. >Waste is also produced in the nuclear fuel cycle which is used in many industrial, medical and scientific processes.

Oil pollution
Oceans are polluted by oil on a daily basis from oil spills, routine shipping, run-offs and dumping. Oil spills make up about 12% of the oil that enters the ocean. The rest come from shipping travel, drains and dumping. An oil spill from a tanker is a severe problem because there is such a huge quantity of oil being spilt into one place. Oil spills cause a very localised problem but can be catastrophic to local marine wildlife such as fish, birds and sea otters. Oil cannot dissolve in water and forms a thick sludge in the water. This suffocates fish, gets caught in the feathers of marine birds stopping them from flying and blocks light from photosynthetic aquatic plants.

Atmospheric deposition
Atmospheric deposition is the pollution of water caused by air pollution. In the atmosphere, water particles mix with carbon dioxide sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, this forms a weak acid. Air pollution means that water vapour absorbs more of these gases and becomes even more acidic. When it rains the water is polluted with these gases, this is called acid rain. When acid rain pollutes marine habitats such as rivers and lakes, aquatic life is harmed.

Effects

The effects of water pollution strongly impact the balance of nature, which ultimately impacts all humans. With proper care and consideration, many of the situations that cause water pollution can be stopped or decreased.

Expert's opinion and statictics

Every day, 2 million tons of human waste are disposed of in water courses. In developing countries, 70 percent of industrial wastes are dumped untreated into waters where they pollute the usable water supply. Half of the world's wetlands have been lost since 1900. Contribution of the food sector to the production of organic water pollutants: - High income countries: 40 percent - Low-income countries: 54 percent Projected increases in fertilizer use for food production and in wastewater effluents over the next three decades suggest there will be a 10-20 per cent global increase in river nitrogen flows to coastal ecosystems. Source: Global Environment Outlook: environment for development (GEO-4) Between 1991 and 2000 over 665,000 people died in 2,557 natural disasters of which 90 percent were water-related events.

Thanks for your attention!

Project made by Amariei Irina Bocanci Ovidiu