Water Pollution

Water Pollution

Contamination of water bodies as a result of human activities is known as water pollution. Contamination of water bodies occur when harmful substances such as chemicals, sewage and waste are released into them. It produces physical, chemical and biological change in the quality of water. It degrades the water quality and renders it toxic to living organisms. Drinking polluted water has serious negative effects on human health.

1. Water Resource in Tamil Nadu

Fresh water resources are the sources of water that are useful to society for domestic, agricultural or industrial uses. These include surface and groundwater. Examples of surface water include rivers, reservoirs, lakes and tanks. There are 17 major river basins in Tamil Nadu with 61 reservoirs and approximately 41,948 tanks. Lakes and tanks are traditionally used in Tamil Nadu to collect rainfall during the monsoon which can be used throughout the year. Groundwater sources are called aquifers. Aquifers are layers below the ground made of coarse sand and gravel that contain spaces allowing rainwater collection. The use of groundwater is possible through open wells and bore wells.

About 90% of the available surface water has already been tapped mainly for agriculture and irrigation.

2. Sources of water pollution

When you look around you can see polluted water bodies in your surroundings. You can see lot of unwanted and harmful substances such as waste and sewage thrown into them. These substances are called pollutants. These pollutants are released by various activities from different sources. In general, sources of water pollution are classified as natural sources and man-made sources. Some of the sources of water pollution are explained below.

a. Household detergents

Household and cleaning detergents are a major cause of water pollution. Synthetic (non-biodegradable) detergents have chemicals that do not break down and can end up polluting both surface and groundwater. Excessive use of detergents adversely affects fish and other organisms. Some shampoo, face wash, shower gel and toothpaste have small round pieces of plastic added to them. These are called microbeads. They are added for different reasons like scrubing and cleaning your skin, polishing your teeth etc. When we use products with microbeads, they go down our drain and pollute water bodies. Fish and other animals feed them by accident and get sick.

Activity 7

Take a shampoo, shower gel or other product you think might have micro-beads in it. Mix two tablespoons of this in a glass of water and stir it well. Pour the water in a black t-shirt filtering the micro-beads out.

b. Domestic Sewage

Wastewater that is disposed of from households is known as domestic sewage. Domestic sewage should be treated before being disposed of into water bodies like river, lake, etc. Untreated sewage contains impurities such as organic matter from food waste, toxic chemicals from household products and it may also contain disease-causing microbes.

The largest source of wate pollution in India is untreated sewage. On an average, a person uses 135 litres of water per day for washing clothes, cooking, bathing, etc.

c. Domestic waste and plastics

Solid waste including plastics are disposed of or end up in water bodies such as lakes, rivers and the ocean. Plastics block drains spreading vector borne diseases such as malaria and dengue. Waste in water bodies, negatively impact aquatic life.

Plastic sheets are used inagriculture to grow vegetables. At the end of the season, these plastic sheets are ploughed back into thesoil. The plastic sheets break into tiny pieces and get eaten by earth worms, which is harmful to their health and that of soil.

d. Agricultural activities

Fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides used in agriculture can dissolve in rainwater and flow into water bodies such as rivers and lakes. This causes an excess of nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates as well as toxic chemicals in water bodies. It is called Eutrophication. These sunstances can also be harmful to aquatic life.

e. Industrial waste

Many industries release toxic wastes such as lead, mercury, cyanides, cadmium, etc. If this waste is unregulated and is released into water bodies it has huge impact on humans, plants, animals and aquatic life.

f. Oil spills

There are large crude oil and natural gas reserves below the sea bed. With the increasing exploration of crude oil in the oceans, accidents in drilling and transporting oil have also increased. Oil spills cause water pollution which is harmful to aquatic life. The oil which remains floating on the water surface blocks sunshine, reduces the dissolved oxygen in water and suffocates marine organisms.

g. Thermal pollution

Large amount of water is used for cooling purposes in thermal and nuclear power plants and many industries. Water used for cooling purposes is discharged back to a river or to original water source at a raised temperature and sometimes with chemicals. This causes rise in temperature and decreases the amount of oxygen dissolved in water, which adversely affects the aquatic life.

3. Common pollutants

Pollutants are generally classified as domestic pollutants, agricultural pollutants and industrial pollutants. The sources and effectsof various water pollutants are shown below in Table 13. 1.

Micro-plastics can be found in almost every freshwater source. They have been found from the freezing waters of the Arctic andAntarctic to the bottom of the deep-sea floor upto 5,000 meters deep. Micro-plastics have been found in bottled water and tap water around the world.