The earth provided us with every kind of resource we needed for survival – we had water to consume and cleanse, we had air to breathe, we had land to walk on – all of these elements would work in complete harmony with each other. Together they would provide for us.
However, this ideal scenario of a perfectly synced world is a thing of the past. Times have changed and so has the familiar air, water and land.
As the world population grew to 1.9 billion, so did the human need and intervention in the processes of nature. The quantity of water needed for consumption and survival grew and so did the wastewater.
Similarly, the need for things grew while their supply was limited. Hence began the age of industrialization. This wave of matching the demand and supply resulted in contamination of the environment on all fronts. The pollution spread like wildfire and engulfed our most precious resources. Consider the water – it was contaminated in ways we couldn’t even imagine.
Till date, water pollution remains a serious concern for the environmentalists and civil society alike. There is a dearth of fresh drinkable water because each and every reservoir of water has been infected with chemicals, sewage, wastewater or worse – radioactive substances.
Think of the water bodies around you – lakes, streams, rivers, seas or oceans. Their shores are laden with plastic and canned foods which we consume. But that is just a small fraction of water pollution.
From leaking oil tankers to drainage systems which let untreated sewage into our water bodies, from 1 billion automobiles to routine ships which shed their oil and grease into the oceans, from chemical wastes of factories to radioactive substances let loose, everything infects our precious waters.
Facts
Only one-third of its wastewater in India is currently treated, meaning raw sewage flows into rivers, lakes and ponds – and eventually gets into the groundwater.
Read more fact : Water pollution in India
And these are just the ones which are visible to the naked eye. Water pollution goes a step further with groundwater pollution. Whatever chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides our farmers use to cultivate crops seep deep into the soil and contaminate our groundwater. As a result of this and the fact that only 1% of the world’s freshwater is fit for consumption, an acute water crisis is glaring at us.
This does not end here. Along with human beings, the worst hit are the marine animals and plants. The very medium which hosts life for them has been poisoned.
Studies reveal that remains of plastics and chemicals (which are generally used in factories) have been found in the bellies of certain dead aquatic animals. When the composition of water is changed, the aquatic life suffocates due to the inadequacy of oxygen. Do they have an alternative habitat? Sadly, no. The only way forward for them is to die a miserable death, while we build more industries and satiate our greed masked as basic need.
Water contamination has adverse effects and dangers which are classified as below:
Needless to say, all human beings need water for their survival. Doctors recommend drinking 8 – 10 glasses of water everyday. But what if our drinking water was contaminated, untreated and its composition affected by chemicals and sewage.
Would the doctors still advise us to consume it? The answer is a big NO. Sadly, all of the sources which provide us drinking water are contaminated today – lakes, streams, seas, oceans and groundwater alike. This in turn affects human health. In countries where the purification and screening process of water is rather poor, people are more prone to be affected by water-borne disease outbreaks such as cholera and tuberculosis.
Facts
30% of the wells in Israel are closed due to industrial pollution, almost all of then located on the Coastal aquifer.
Read more facts : Water pollution in Israel
World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 3–5 million cholera cases and 100,000–120,000 deaths due to cholera are reported every year. In addition to this, the study reveals that only 5-10% of the cases are reported. In remote areas, where accessibility to a hospital is still not available, the cases are not even detected before the patient’s death.
However, this does not mean that people in developed countries do not suffer. Despite the fact that their water purification methods are better and that their systems are better quipped, water contamination still affects people’s health.
It is reported that the creation of nuclear weapons in Washington in the United States of America led to billions of tonnes of radioactive waste. This health hazards of this waste are expected to linger on till 2060. Also, developed countries have a lot more industries (and hence industrial waste) associated with them.
The wastes and chemicals from these industries is ruthlessly thrown into the waters. Another example would be the toxins emitted by algae growth. They have the ability to cause excessive stomach aches and rashes.
Another menace is the excess of nitrogen and phosphorus in our drinking waters. The excess of these two in water is known to increase infant mortality rates and also poses a serious health threat to infants.
Read : How to prevent Water pollution
Now let’s take a look at some facts: In 2010, EPA conducted a study called the National Lakes Assessment. The assessment revealed that almost 20 per cent of the nation’s lakes were contaminated with very high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus. The report went on to suggest that due to the poor lake conditions related to nitrogen or phosphorus pollution, the likelihood of a poor ecosystem in the near future was doubled.
The numbers have not improved since then. So hasn’t the level of nitrogen and phosphorous.
Let us analyze the health hazards of water pollution:
Read : Waste water recycling methods
Facts
Planet Earth has now around 500 “dead zones,” the equivalent to the territory of the United Kingdom.
Read : Causes of water pollution
Water feeds and breeds the ecosystem. Naturally, when water is contaminated, so is the ecosystem. Consider the nutrient pollution. From upstream (creeks and streams), it travels miles and merges into other larger water bodies. Because of excessive nutrients, algae and microorganisms bloom in the waters.
This algae attack affects fish and other aquatic animals because it absorbs their share of oxygen. Algae is also known to clog the gills of fish. This clearly alters the aquatic ecosystem in a negative way.
Water contamination to a certain extent is treated by natural processes itself. Taking this into account, humans exploited all of the water resources for which they are now repenting because clearly nature has a limit. Animals, especially aquatic ones die when water is contaminated beyond measure. Those who do not die, are stressed and their populations largely endangered.
A classic example of this was seen in the United States of America when 16000 miles of US coastline was polluted by an oil spill. That water pollution that followed caused immense death and destruction within the waters. It is estimated that over 8,000 animals (birds, turtles, mammals) died just 6 months after the spill and many of them were already endangered species.
When water is polluted, measures have to be taken to clean it because of the fact that it supports life. This causes some serious financial implications for the governments. As they say, prevention is better than cure. Preventing water pollution would have been a more economic solution but because we are heedless, we have to purify waters AFTER contamination and that definitely costs more.
Take for example, the United States of America – its tourism industry bears a loss of approximately $1 billion each year because of losses in recreational activities (thanks to nutrient pollution).
In Mississippi alone, tourism constitutes about $1.6 billion which is then used in visitor expenditures, 32 percent of state travel and tourism tax revenues, and 24,000 direct jobs.
Clearing up radioactive wastes also costs billions of dollars to developed countries.