Water pollution

                                                                 WATER POLLUTION  

               Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies (e.g. lakes, rivers, ocens, aquefers and groundwaters). Water pollution occurs when pollutents are discharged directly or indirectly into water bodies without adequate treatment to remove harmful compounds.

Water pollution affects plants and organisms living in these bodies of water. In almost all cases the effect is damaging not only to individual species and populations, but also to the natural biological communities.

Water pollution is a major global problem which requires ongoing evaluation and revision of water resource policy at all levels (international down to individual aquifers and wells). It has been suggested that it is the leading worldwide cause of deaths and diseases, and that it accounts for the deaths of more than 14,000 people daily. An estimated 700 million Indians have no access to a proper toilet, and 1,000 Indian children die of diarrheal sickness every day. Some 90% of China's cities suffer from some degree of water pollution, and nearly 500 million people lack access to safe drinking water. In addition to the acute problems of water pollution in developing countries, developed countries continue to struggle with pollution problems as well. In the most recent national report on water quality in the United States, 45 percent of assessed stream miles, 47 percent of assessed lake acres, and 32 percent of assessed bays and estuarine square miles were classified as polluted.

         Water is typically referred to as polluted when it is impaired by anthropogenic contaminants and either does not support a human use, such as drinking water, and/or undergoes a marked shift in its ability to support its constituent biotic communities, such as fish. Natural phenomena such as volcanoes, algae blooms, storms, and earthquakes also cause major changes in water quality and the ecological status of water.

 

Water pollution comes in many forms. It can be as blatant as a factory dumping tons of chemical       waste directly into a body of water or it can be something more ‘subtle,’ such as oil that gets           washed into the water ways with storm water runoff or waste water from your shower that contains chemicals from shampoos and soaps. None of it can really be considered ‘subtle.’ According to Jay   Manning, Director, Wash. Dept. of Ecology, runoff from the streets of Seattle dump the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez oil spill into Puget Sound every two years. (5.4 million gallons per year).                

We all contribute to water pollution in one way or another. Our water quality and the ecosystems        that depend on healthy water, the way nature intended, are not just suffering but dying completely.