Impacts and Causes of Water Contamination

Understanding Water Pollution

Water pollution is any chemical, physical, or biological change in water quality that has a damaging effect on anything living that consumes that water. When humans drink contaminated water, they often have health problems. Water contamination can also make it unsuitable for its intended use.

Common Types of Water Pollutants

There are several kinds of water pollutants. The first of these are disease-causing agents. These include bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and parasitic worms that are incorporated from sewage systems and raw sewage.

Oxygen-Consuming Agents

A second category of water pollutants are oxygen-consuming agents; these are residues that can be decomposed by oxygen-consuming bacteria. When the bacterial populations are large, the decomposition of the waste takes place and a lot of oxygen is consumed, which can exhaust the dissolved oxygen in the water. This can impact other organisms that live in the water, such as fish.

Inorganic and Nutrient Pollutants

A third class of water pollutants are water-soluble inorganic pollutants, such as acids, salts, and toxic metals. Large amounts of these compounds will make the water unsuitable for drinking and can kill aquatic life.

Another class of water pollutants are nutrients and water-soluble phosphates that cause the overgrowth of algae and other aquatic plants, which deplete the oxygen source of the water. This kills fish and, when present in drinking water, can kill children.

Organic Compounds and Sediments

Water can also be contaminated by a number of organic compounds such as oil, plastics, and pesticides, which are harmful to humans and to aquatic plants and animals.

A very dangerous category is suspended sediment, because it causes a decrease in the absorption of light by water, and the particles carry dangerous compounds such as pesticides through the water.

Radioactive Compounds

Finally, radioactive compounds soluble in water can cause cancer, birth defects, and genetic damage; they are therefore very dangerous pollutants in water.

Human Activities and Environmental Impact

Water pollution is generally caused by human activities. For example, factories usually discharge waste into rivers, making fresh drinking water polluted and toxic. Another very common practice is to dispose of plastic waste and other elements, causing plastic to decompose in water, making it polluted and toxic.

In my opinion, this is a very serious problem for society since water is a non-renewable resource. It can run out across the whole world, and when that moment comes, all living things in the world will die.