WATER POLLUTION: ITS CAUSES AND REPERCUSSIONS

Water pollution comes from many different sources. It can come from agriculture, industry, and domestic sources. In this blog we will discuss how each type of waste is classified, the methods of detection, repercussions of each, known health risks, and many environmental factors of each type of waste.

Methods of Detection
The methods of detection differ for each type of source. To detect agricultural waste in an environment, the environment is first professionally evaluated for signs of pollution. A sign of eutrophication in an aquatic environment is an algal bloom. The surface of the water appears red and there is little life in the affected area. A sign of biological magnification is a lack of healthy organisms is a specific environment compared to a similar environment in a different location. After the environment has been evaluated using visible signs, water samples are taken to a lab and tests specifically for evidence of eutrophication and biological magnification.
On the other hand, detecting industrial and domestic waste is not as easily detected by sight as agricultural waste. In order to properly detect and identify a domestic or industrial pollutant, water samples need to be tested in a libratory for hazardous chemical compounds and other pollutants.

Common Cause and Affects
Similar to the methods of detection, the causes and affects differ through each type of waste. Agricultural waste is caused by to major farming methods: the overuse of harmful chemicals and pesticides, and the raising of large amounts of livestock in a small and overpopulated area. The affect of using harmful pesticides is that the water runoff from the farms becomes contaminated with the chemicals. When the runoff reaches any body of water; lakes, streams, rivers, oceans, the chemicals from the pesticides than contaminate the water. These chemicals cause an outbreak of phytoplankton, which suffocate and poison the water around them. This process is call eutrophication, and it is very harmful to fish, crabs, and any other living organism in the water. In addition, raising large amounts of livestock in a small area can cause large amounts of methane gas to pollute the water and environment around them.
Domestic waste is caused by untreated sewage being dumped into waterways. The affects of dumping raw sewage into the water can be drastic for the environment. Raw sewage is very high in many harmful chemicals, specifically nitrogen and nitrates. High levels of nitrogen in the water can cause many problems when consumed by humans and other organisms. It can cause infertility and birth defects.
Industrial waste is generally a side product during the manufacturing of goods with a high economic value. Many companies, in order to save money, just dump their hazardous chemical waste into the aquatic environment around the factory. For example, Pharmaceutical companies dump large amounts of drug byproducts into the water, causing birth defects and diseases in the fishes and other organisms in the water. Fireworks and ammunition companies are dumping highly combustible chemicals such as such as potassium nitrate, ammonium nitrate, and sodium nitrate. Such chemicals, especially nitrates, can be extremely harmful to the environment. The affects of dumping hazardous chemicals into the water can range from eutrophication to complete organism dead zones.
Repercussions and Health Risks
The repercussions and health risks of each type of pollutant are severe. Agricultural waste, which results in such things as eutrophication, can have a plethora of negative repercussions across its environment. Eutrophication can poison many shellfish and other organisms in the area, rendering them inedible for the people that rely on them for food and business. This can cause a downturn for the economy in areas reliant on fishing that are affected by eutrophication.
Domestic waste, which results in high levels of nitrogen and other nitrates in the polluted water, can also have many negative repercussions for the people relying on the water to drink, cook, and bathe. When consumed, water with domestic pollutants can have many repercussions on the reproductive system. It can cause infertility in women and birth defects in children. The same affects are felt by the animals drinking the water, having negative repercussions on the farmers that make money off them.
Industrial waste, which has similar results as agricultural waste, has similar negative repercussions. It can cause aquatic dead zones which result in poisoning of shellfish and other fish. Most fish in the affected area either die or relocate, while shellfish, unable to get away, stay in the affected area. This badly affects any economy relying on fishing, and has many other far-reaching negative repercussions.

Preventive Measures or Strategies
Although each type of pollution is very dangerous and harmful to the environment, there are strategies to prevent the pollution in the first place. For Agriculture, preventive measures are easy, but not very cost effective for farmers. To prevent agricultural pollution, farmers could simply grow organically to avoid contaminating the water supply with pesticides. Another way to prevent pesticides from reaching the waterways are to built barriers of earth, sediment, or concrete in between farmlands and bodies of water. This blocks any agricultural runoff from reaching the water. They could also raise fewer animals in a larger space, preventing an inordinate amount of methane gas from getting into the water. Although these strategies are very easy to do and do not require that much time or energy, farmers are reluctant to do these things because it is not cost effective. The use of pesticides can increase the productivity of a farm substantially, and growing organic is very expensive. Also, in order to make as much money as possible, farmers jam pack as much livestock into their fields as possible. If they were to decrease the number of livestock they kept, obviously they would loose money.
The preventive measures for domestic waste are already in effect all over the country, but they just need to be upgraded more widespread. Sewage treatment facilities, which are the main way of preventing domestic waste from reaching the water, for the most part do their job. In some instances though, raw sewage is being spilled into the water without ever being to a treatment facility. The way to prevent this from happening is to built more sewage treatment facilities and upgrades the existing ones. Currently, there are many contaminants in our sewage that most treatment facilities do not filter out, such as prescription drugs and some household cleaners. By upgrading the existing facilities, these contaminants would be filtered out to.
To prevent industrial pollution, the factories and plants in which manufactured goods and energy are produced need to be upgraded to operate in an eco-friendly manor. Many factories and power plants have pipes leading directly from the factory to a local body of water, dumping many untreated and hazardous chemicals into the water ways. By simply improving these factories so that the waste they produce is disposed of correctly and not dumped into the water, a large percent of industrial pollution in the water will disappear.

Environmental Factors
Areas where farms are located next to or close to a lake, stream, or river are much more prone to agricultural pollution then areas where farms are not located near bodies of water. Having the farms located next to bodies of water make it very easy for the pesticide and methane filled runoff to reach the major water ways, therefore these areas are much more susceptible to the affects of eutrophication.
Areas where there are poor sewage disposal systems, like in many third world countries, are much more likely to have domestic pollution in their drinking water then modern countries who have sewage treatment plants. In many African and Asian countries, people go to the bathroom in the same rivers and streams they use to drink out of.
Areas where there are many factories situated around a single body of water are very susceptible to industrial pollution in the water. If one factory is dumping waste into the water it is bad, but withstandable. If many factories, though, are dumping into the same body of water, the results are much worse.

Socioeconomic Considerations
Although many of these forms of pollution are preventable, the preventive measures needed to be taken are often times very costly. For this reason, third world countries are generally the hardest hit by water pollution. Cleaning up the waterways s expensive, but for a modern country there is no excuse for not putting governmental funds into cleaning up the water.

Cultural Beliefs
Unfortunately, many cultures do not place as much importance on keeping the water clean as others. In many Asian and African cultures, it is commonplace to use a river or stream as a bathroom, which is very bad for the cleanliness of the water. Some cultures, like the Hindus, believe that bathing in the Ganges river will cleanse them, while all its doing is damaging them. Because of these individual cultural beliefs, many people are either unable or unwilling to take part in stopping agricultural, domestic, and industrial pollution in water.

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