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Water Pollution: Everything You Need to Know

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

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What is water pollution?

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

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

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

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

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

Agricultural

Toxic green algae in Copco Reservoir, northern California

Aurora Photos/Alamy

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

Sewage and wastewater

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

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

Oil pollution

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

Radioactive substances

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

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

Where is the pollution coming from?

Point source pollution.

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

Nonpoint source

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

Transboundary

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

What type of water is being impacted?

Groundwater pollution.

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

Surface water pollution

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

Ocean water pollution

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

On human health

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

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

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

Todd McInturf/The Detroit News/AP

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

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

On the environment

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

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

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

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

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

With your actions

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

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

With your voice

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

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

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

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

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Water pollution: an introduction

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

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

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

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

What is water pollution?

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

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

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

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

What are the main types of water pollution?

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

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

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

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

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

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

How do we know when water is polluted?

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

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

What are the causes of water pollution?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Waste water

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

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

Chemical waste

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

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

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

Radioactive waste

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

Oil pollution

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

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

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

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

Alien species

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

Other forms of pollution

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

What are the effects of water pollution?

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

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

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

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

How can we stop water pollution?

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

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

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

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

Our clean future

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

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Home / Free Education Presentation templates / Free Water Pollution PPT Template and Google slides

Free Water Pollution PPT Template and Google slides

About the Template

Today one of the most pressing environmental concerns is water pollution. Download this water pollution ppt template and outline your thoughts on water pollution and what can you do to prevent it.

Today water pollution, Air Pollution is becoming a serious concern. Our Free Water Pollution PowerPoint Template features a thoughtfully crafted blend of eye-catching visuals, data-driven charts, and easy-to-read text. With a color scheme that evokes the tranquillity of clean waters and the urgency to protect them, this template sets the stage for impactful storytelling.

Key Features of this free Water Pollution Presentation template:

• Stunning Visuals: From polluted water bodies to images of eco-friendly practices, this PPT on water pollutions provides you wide range of high-quality visuals to support your message.
• Clear and Concise Text: The template’s text sections are formatted for maximum readability, making it easy to create informative content without overwhelming your audience.
• Environmental Icons: Included icons help in reinforcing environmental themes and are easily customizable.
• Section Breaks: Well-structured section breaks allows you to organize your presentation seamlessly, ensuring your content flows naturally.
• Editable and Customizable: The template is fully customizable, so you can tailor it to your specific needs, whether you’re a student, researcher, educator, or environmental advocate.

According to recent research conducted by Environment Protection Agency (EPA), water in many nations’ rivers and lakes and the reservoir is far from pure. Plus, the quality of the water tested is far from pure.

Water pollution is a massive global problem. Every year, millions of pollutants are dumped into our oceans, lakes, and rivers. This contamination can cause serious health problems for both people and wildlife. Thankfully, there are ways to help prevent water pollution from happening. With this water pollution PowerPoint presentation slide , educate your audience and make them understand the causes and essential steps to be taken to reduce the impact.

Water pollution can have a devastating impact on aquatic life and the environment. But together we can protect our waters and preserve our planet! So, what you are waiting for is to get this presentation on water pollution and create awareness in society for preserving the environment.

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What Is Water Pollution?

Watch this brief, video picture of practice that captures everyday classroom life and provides real-life examples of how students learn and think about freshwater topics.

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When asked what water pollution is, most students can readily explain pollution as trash thrown away by humans that enters our water. Students can readily identify items visible to the naked eye, such as cigarette butts, plastic bottles, and bags. This type of debris is certainly a water-pollution problem. However, when students are asked about other sources of water pollution, they may be lost or not able to identify invisible pollutants. Chemical released by manufacturing, cars, and lawns and farms are large contributors to water pollution but can be hard for students to identify because they may not be visible, or the source of the pollution is not easily connected to the area that is impacted. For example, yard fertilizers and pesticides run into storm drains and simply "disappear" from students' world. Likewise, if students are asked how pollution gets into water, they may point to littering but not identify different types of runoff. It is important that students understand that there are many pollutants that get into the water—in different ways—so they can better understand how to prevent pollution from entering the water systems in the first place. Watch this video of 6th grade students in San Diego, California—a coastal community. The purpose of this classroom video is to see students share their ideas about water pollution. For additional classroom context, video analysis, and reflection opportunities, read the Picture of Practice page for "What Is Water Pollution?" in the Earth's Freshwater Educator Guide , page 80.

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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.

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• GROUNDWATER
• WATER QUALITY
• WATER RESOURCES

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• In PowerPoint Downloads
• On June 9, 2021

Water Pollution PPT Free Download | 10 Slides

Table of contents.

Water is one of the inevitable elements in our daily life. One of the studies conducted in Archiv Fur Kriminologie concluded like this. Humans will not be able to live more than 8 to 21 days without water. This conclusion points out the necessity of saving and conserving water. As we all know, almost 71 percent of the earth’s surface is water-covered. But in this, only 1 percent is freshwater which is accessible to us. This reality again emphasizes the importance of saving water and preventing water pollution.

“Water is Precious. Save Water”

Here we are focusing on the causes of water pollution and its remedies. In addition, we will discuss things that we can do to prevent water pollution. First, let’s look into what is water pollution?

What is Water Pollution?

In simple words, it is the contamination of usable water by harmful substances like chemicals or microorganisms by any means. On the other hand, activities reducing the quality of water are called water pollution.

Freshwater sources like rivers, lakes, and ponds are getting polluted in the name of industrialization. For instance, domestic wastes, food processing wastes, livestock operations can leads to the contamination of freshwater sources. Apart from all these, we humans pollute freshwater sources like ponds, rivers, and water streams by throwing household wastes and scraps into them.

How does the water get polluted?

Without any doubt, we can say that freshwater sources around us are getting polluted every day. Industrialization is one of the reasons for water pollution. The majority of the factories are dumping wastes, garbages, and sewages into nearby rivers, ponds, or lakes. The minority reprocess and resues the wastewater and substandard water.

Corporate industries are not worried about the surroundings and people living nearby. The ignorance and irresponsibility of the municipality and responsible people make the situation even worse.

In some places, the household sewage is connected to the rivers since they do not have proper sanitation and septic tank facility. It leads to one of the worst water pollutions where we knowingly pollute usable water. Earlier, urban areas were ahead in water pollution when comparing to rural areas. But now, things have changed a lot. The rate of water pollution has increased by 5x in both urban and rural areas. One of the reasons for this massive increase in pollution is the emergence of industries and factories in urban areas.

One of the practices seen in villages is washing clothes and feeding animals in the small rivers and ponds. At the same time, they wash these cattle and animals in the pond. It can directly harm the water sources when activities like this happen in a massive volume. And the other, people throw wastes into the rivers and ponds. In rural areas and villages, people even food wastes into water streams. Whatsoever, water is getting polluted every day. Here are some of the popular ways of water pollution around the world. Let’s look at some of the common causes of water pollution. Here are they.

Wastewater from factories & industries

Industries and factories use water for many purposes. Without water, manufacturing and production can’t exist. They use water for cleaning, cooling, washing, dyeing, and treatments for manufacturing and production processes. Water pollution is happening behind all industrial activities. In that, textile industries are the biggest polluters on the planet. Studies say that one-fifth of the world’s industrial water pollution comes from textile mills. For example, in China, 25% of water pollution happens through textile dyeing and treatments. Almost more than 25000 types of chemicals are mixed and used in the dyeing process of fabrics. These mixed chemicals are thrown away from the facility to any of the flowing water bodies.

The reason behind not building proper recycling and reusing units is because of high maintenance costs and implementing costs. If the companies and factories do the right thing, the pollution will come down to half. None of the government authorities check these requirements while approving the factories to operate.

Some factories produce mixed water as a byproduct of the chemical reactions that happened from their day-to-day industrial activities. This water contains chemicals substances that can be dangerous to us.

Oil leaks & spills

It is common knowledge that oil and water never dissolve completely. But it can be together like that for a long time. Oil act as a cover when it spilled on water. It can remain as long they want and thereby making it polluted. Oil spills and leakages happen very often in oceans. Sometimes from the ships that transport oil or from drilling and mining operations held underwater or seashores. These are also some of the main causes of water pollution.

Use of chemicals & pesticides in agriculture.

It is rare but happens often. When it comes to the massive use of pesticides and chemicals in agricultural lands. It becomes one of the causes of water pollution. The chemicals and pesticides dissolve in the soil after a couple of weeks. Through this, the loam gets saturated with chemicals and pesticides. When the monsoon comes, these chemicals and pesticides come out with rainwater and flows to any of the water resources like wells, ponds, rivers, and sea. It causes one of the dangerous water pollutions if we consume this water.

Why do we need to save water?

Humans cannot survive without drinking water. So it is our duty and responsibility to save and protect water from being polluted. Without drinking water, humans and animals will die. What will happen if we do not do anything? Well, right now we might have enough water resources and backups. But in the coming future, there will be a scarcity of drinking water even if we have hundreds of water purification or processing plants. So it is better to save water resources and water right now when we can.

Do you think we can survive on the earth without water? No, we cannot. It is an essential factor that holds our life. Even animals will die if the freshwater sources are over. There will be no animals and living organisms left if the water pollution rises on a huge scale. So, it is our responsibility to protect freshwater sources from being polluted.

As said earlier, the volume of fresh water on the earth is decreasing every single day. It is better to save water being wasted and polluted whenever we can. For instance, think about you are walking on a road and see a broken public water pipeline and leaks water leaks heavily. As a man who understands the value of water, we should call the respective authorities and inform them. Because they may not know about the broken pipe and water is being wasted.

How can we prevent water pollution?

By implementing proper waste management facilities, we can reduce water pollution to a considerable amount. The cause of the continuous increase in water pollution is the indigent waste management systems in factories, companies, and homes. As well as a brainy human being, stop throwing wastes mainly into water sources like ponds and rivers.

As a single human being, we have limited control over the rate of water pollution. But as a group of human beings, we can control the rate of water pollution to a substantial amount. So what we need can do is, we can aware people around us about water pollution and its future outcomes.

What each one of us can do?

It is our duty to conserve water from pollution. The fun fact is, nobody is even thinking about saving or protecting it for the coming generation. There might be plenty of water resources right now. But if its keeps getting polluted at a rapid rate, it is sure that these water streams would not last much in the future.

It is effortless to say that save water and prevent water pollution. But when it comes to daily practicality, none of us think about protecting water. We all do things that pollute our precious water sources. For instance, we all throw household garbages and plastic wastes into nearby rivers and ponds. Sometimes, we throw garbages into lands where it somehow reaches the water bodies through rain or water flow after a couple of months or years. In short, each one of us is responsible for water pollution in some ways with or without knowledge.

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How the pollution is ruining our water

The water pollution

This poem speaks of a man who has known the most ancient rivers, comparing them to a human body. This man built a hut that rocked him to sleep. Has been to observe the various rivers hearing the song of the mississippi

by Langston Hughes

The poem "the negro speaks of rivers".

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

What is the water pollution?

The water is polluted by toxic substances such as: Radioactive substance is generated by nuclear power plants, uranium and also by hospitals that use radioactive materials

Toxic and Radioactive substance

What it caused by.

-agriculture is the main cause of contamination of rivers and Aquifers, because when it rains waste pour substance (such a viruses into waterways) used and waste water that come from our shower, sinks and also rain water, which occurs when rain carries oil and grease into waterways -Oil Pollution which is increasing more and more today also due to the petrol leaking from the machines, but in marine environments the pollution comes from the factomes.

Oil pollution and Waste of water

How it is dengerous for the human....

The consequences of the water pollution are the alteration of the environmental balance, due to the circulation of viruses and bacteria, both the animal and vegetable word, the ingestion of dangerous substances which can lead to development of serious disorder and pathologies. Pollution water can affect human health and contain of toxic and harmful chemical substances, the proliferation bacteria responsible for diarrhea, hepatitis and cholera

What it causes?

Marine pollution is one of the most urgent emergencies to deal with. in the last century the sea has become an immense landfill where all sorts of waste ends up, from industrial waste to plastic bottles, up to harmful substances used in agriculture. The effects of plastic pollution are beaches cluttered with debris, marine fauna that is fearfully decreasing and the appearance of harmful substances in fish flesh.Every year the list of whales, turtles or seabirds that die from suffocation or from gastrointestinal blockage due to the ingestion of plastic objects, or that are trapped there, is growing.

...but not only the human.

What it causes.

Point source pollution: When contamination originates from a single source. Examples include wastewater discharged legally or illegally by a manufacturer, oil refinery, as well as contamination from chemical and oil spills, and illegal dumping. Nonpoint pollutiom: Nonpoint source pollution is when contamination derived from diffuse sources. Nonpoint source pollution is the leading cause of water pollution in U.S.A waters, but it’s difficult to regulate, since there’s no single, identifiable reason. Transboundary Pollution: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.

Kind of water pollution

We are all responsible to some extent for today's pollution problem.Fortunately there are some simple ways you can prevent water contamination. Reduce your plastic consumption or recycle plastic. Properly dispose of chemical detergents, oils, etc. down the drain. Keep the car so that it doesn't lose oil. If you have a yard, avoid applying pesticides and herbicides.

How stop the water pollution

Don't rinse your medicines so they don't go into the watercourses. And many others Or with your voice you can speak to support the clean water act that helped polluters not to pollute or you can tell the federal government united states etc that they support water protection.

by: Cosimi, Milani, Perrotta, Potenza and Zingoni

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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.

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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. 

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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. 

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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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Fast Fashion and Its Environmental Impact

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The Environment

Water pollution.

• Pollution in the water can reach a point where there isn't enough oxygen in the water for the fish to breathe. The fish can actually suffocate!
• Sometimes pollution affects the entire food chain. Small fishes absorb pollutants, such as chemicals, into their bodies. Then bigger fishes eat the smaller fishes and get the pollutants too. Birds or other animals may eat the bigger fishes and be harmed by the pollutants. One example of this was the use of the insecticide (bug killer) DDT. When birds of prey ate fishes that were infected with it, they would lay eggs with thin shells. The population of birds of prey began to drop until DDT was banished.
• Sewage can also cause major problems in rivers. Bacteria in the water will use oxygen to break down the sewage. If there is too much sewage, the bacteria could use up so much oxygen that there won't be enough left for the fish.
• Water pollution from major events like acid rain or oil spills can completely destroy marine habitats.

• Sewage - Even today sewage is flushed directly into streams and rivers in many areas around the world. Sewage can introduce harmful bacteria that can make people and animals very sick.
• Farm animal waste - Waste from large herds of farm animals such as pigs and cows can get into the water supply from the runoff of rain and large storms.
• Pesticides and herbicides - Pesticides are often sprayed on crops to kill bugs and herbicides are sprayed to kill weeds. These strong chemicals can get into the water through runoff of rain storms. They can also contaminate rivers and lakes through accidental spills.
• Construction, floods, and storms - Silt from construction, earthquakes, floods, and storms can lower the oxygen content in the water and suffocate fish.
• Factories - Factories often use a lot of water to process chemicals, keep engines cool, and for washing things away. The used waste water is sometimes dumped into rivers or the ocean. It can be full of pollutants.
• Save water - Fresh and clean water is a precious resource. Don't waste it! Take shorter showers, ask your parents not to water the lawn, make sure the toilet isn't running, and don't leave the faucet running.
• Don't use weed killer - Ask your parents if you can pull the weeds in the yard so they don't need to use weed killer (an herbicide).
• Scrape your plates clean into the trash and don't put grease into the kitchen drain.
• Trash - Always pick up your trash, especially when at the beach, lake, or river.
• Soap from washing your car can run down the street drain and cause water pollution.
• Only around 1% of the Earth's water is fresh water. The rest is salty and we can't drink it.
• Around 40% of the rivers and lakes in the United States are too polluted for fishing or swimming.
• The Mississippi River carries around 1.5 million tons of pollution into the Gulf of Mexico each year.
• Between 5 and 10 million people die each year from water pollution related illnesses.
• Take a ten question quiz about this page.
• Listen to a recorded reading of this page:

What is water pollution?

Sep 14, 2014

1.67k likes | 6.24k Views

What is water pollution?. Any chemical, biological, or physical change in water quality that has a harmful effect on living organisms or makes water unsuitable for desired usage. Water Pollution Statistics. WHO: 3.4 million premature deaths each year from waterborne diseases

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• law governs water pollution

Presentation Transcript

What is water pollution? Any chemical, biological, or physical change in water quality that has a harmful effect on living organisms or makes water unsuitable for desired usage.

Water Pollution Statistics WHO: • 3.4 million premature deaths each year from waterborne diseases • 1.9 million from diarrhea • U.S. 1.5 million illnesses • 1993 Milwaukee 370,000 sick

Infectious Agents: - bacteria and viruses often from animal wastes Oxygen Demanding Wastes: - organic waste that needs oxygen often from animal waste, paper mills and food processing. Inorganic Chemicals: - Acids and toxic chemicals often from runoff, industries and household cleaners Organic Chemicals: - oil, gasoline, plastics, detergents often from surface runoff, industries and cleaners Plant Nutrients: - water soluble nitrates, ammonia and phosphates often from sewage, agriculture and urban fertilizers Sediment: - soils and silts from land erosion can disrupt photosynthesis, destroy spawning grounds, clog rivers and streams Heat Pollution and Radioactivity: mostly from power plants What causes our water to be polluted?

Point sources • Nonpoint sources • Water quality Sources of Water Pollution

NONPOINT SOURCES Rural homes Cropland Urban streets Animal feedlot POINT SOURCES Suburban development Factory Wastewater treatment plant Point and Nonpoint Sources Fig. 22-4 p. 494

Point Source Pollution: - There is one major source of the pollution and it can be identified. - Examples: Pipe coming out of a factory directly into a river. Nonpoint Source Pollution: - There can be many sources for a body of water being polluted. - Example: A river being polluted due to urban runoff. Point and Nonpoint Sources

Major Sources of Water Pollution Agriculture:(A.K.A: Farms) • Sediment: Heavy rains cause soil erosion. • Fertilizers and Herbicides: Farmers use these on their crops for bug and weed control. They runoff during rain. • Bacteria from livestock: Animals use the land as their bathroom. Their feces contains nitrates which pollute river during rain runoff. • Salt from soil irrigation

Major Sources of Water Pollution Industrial: • Clearing of land for businesses to be built can cause soil erosion. • Waste and sewage dumping by factories. • Big power plants use rivers, streams, and lakes to dispose of waste heat. • Fort Meyers, Florida Manatee Park • http://www.leeparks.org/panoramas/panoramas-parks-i-n.html#manatee • Factories dump toxic or radioactive materials. • Burning fuels causes “acid rain”.

Major Sources of Water Pollution Home: • Sewage and septic leak in water source. • Fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides used for lawn maintenance. • Putting hazardous chemicals down the drain. • Oil and antifreeze leak from cars onto the driveway.

The Story of Two Worlds Developed Countries U.S. and other developed countries sharply reduced point sources even with population and economic growth • Nonpoint still a problem • Toxic chemicals still problem • Success Cuyahoga River, Thames River

The Story of Two Worlds Developing Countries: Serious and growing problem • Half of world’s 500 major rivers heavily polluted • Sewage treatment minimal $$$ • Law enforcement difficult • 10% of sewage in China treated • Economic growth with little $$$ to clean up

India’s Ganges River • Holy River (1 million take daily holy dip) • 350 million (1/3rd of pop) live in watershed • Little sewage treatment • Used for bathing, drinking etc. • Bodies (cremated or not) thrown in river • Good news is the Indian government is beginning to work on problem

How successful has the U.S. been at reducing water pollution? • What law governs water pollution in the United States? Prevention and Reduction

What laws govern water pollution in the United States? Most developed countries use laws to set water pollution standards. Federal Water Pollution Control Act (Clean Water Act 1972, ’77, ’87) • Regulates navigable waterways..streams, wetlands, rivers, lake

Clean Water Act • Sets standards for key pollutants • Requires permits for discharge • Requires sewage treatment • Require permits for wetland destruction • Does not deal with nonpoint sources well • Goal All Waterways fishable and swimable

The Good News • Between 1972 – 2002 fishable and swimmable streams 36% to 60% • 74% served by sewage treatment • Wetlands loss dropped by 80% • Topsoil losses dropped by 1 billion tons annually

The Bad News • 45% of Lakes, 40% streams still not fishable and swimmable • Nonpoint sources still huge problem • Livestock and Ag. Runoff • Fish with toxins

How is waste water cleaned? • How is drinking water purified? High tech way. • How can we purify drinking water in developing nations? • Is bottled water a good answer or an expensive rip-off? • How do sewage treatment plants work? Waste and Drinking Water

Septic Systems • ¼ of all U.S. homes have Septic tanks • Septic tanks are used primarily outside city limits. • How does it work? • The Septic Tank — A septic tank's purpose is to separate solids from the wastewater, store and partially decompose as much solid material as possible, while allowing the liquid (or effluent) to go to the drainfield. ...more • The Drainfield — After solids settle in the septic tank, the liquid wastewater (or effluent) is discharged to the drainfield, also known as an absorption or leach field. ...more • The Soil — The soil below the drainfield provides the final treatment and disposal of the septic tank effluent. After the wastewater has passed into the soil, organisms in the soil treat the effluent before it percolates downward and outward, eventually entering ground or surface water. The type of soil also impacts the effectiveness of the drainfield; for instance, clay soils may be too tight to allow much wastewater to pass through and gravelly soil may be too coarse to provide much treatment. How is waste water treated? Fig. 22-15 p. 510

Sewage Treatment Plant http://www.sandiego.gov/mwwd/general/kids/learnit/virtualsewage.shtml Technological Approach: Sewage Treatment

Technological Approach: Using Wetlands to Treat Sewage Fig. 22-18 p. 513

Purification of rural drinking water There can be simple ways to purify water: • Exposing to heat and UV rays • Fine cloths to filter water • Add small amounts of chlorine (remember that chlorine can be toxic – making this process less than ideal)

Bottle Water U.S. has the world’s safest tap water due to billions of $$$ of investment Bottle water 240 to 10,000 times more expensive than tap water 25% of bottle water is tap water

Bottle Water 1.4 million metric tons of bottle thrown away each year Toxic fumes released during bottling Bottles made from oil based plastics Water does not need to meet SDWA

Stewardship • Stewardship – Protecting or being responsible for something, in this case, the environment • The goal of Clean Water Act and other legislation is to ensure the health of humans and the environment by protecting the water supply

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Water Pollution Presentation Theme

Water Pollution Powerpoint Template tells us how we exploit our natural and the most important reserve which helps in sustaining life that is: “Water”. This template argues with the narrow thinking of people to dump their wastes in the water, which results in the accumulation of wastes inside and beneath the surfaces of water resulting in the death of fisheries. This free Water pollution Google Slides help you to provide cute and awesome presentations for your ppt projects. To make Learning a Good Experience for the Students Presentations are very helpful. This PPT can be used by Schools, Colleges, etc.

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