Environmental Pollution and Its Effects For Living Things Based On Water Pollution # Part 2

Hello all steemians. Today i want share to you about water pollution based on the types environmental pollution. Which is in previous post i was explain about environmental pollution. Hope usefull for us.

All organisms are dependent on water. Many organisms live in water. Some water organisms breathe aerobically, so they need oxygen from their environment.

At some places in this earth, fresh water is a limited natural resource. The amount of fresh water is only 2.5 % of the total amount of water on earth. Out of 3%, only 0,3% of it is clean, safe and available for human consumption.

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Water can be contaminated by oil, industrial waste, garbage and even heat. If Electricity generator uses water from a river for a cooling purpose, the temperature of the flow that returns to the river is higher than the original. Organisms cannot quickly adapt to this change of temperature; as result they could probably die.

Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies (e.g. lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers and groundwater). This form of environmental degradation occurs when pollutants are directly or indirectly discharged into water bodies without adequate treatment to remove harmful compounds. Source

Water contaminated

Water can also be contaminated by pesticides and fertilizers used by farmers. Chemical substances in the ground are washed out by rainwater. After water is a renewable source, to clean contaminated water needs a lot of money. Another practice that we usually find in Indonesia is that people always throw garbage into rivers or seas. This behavior can obviously destroy natural resources, not to mention other damaging effect such as flood.

Two pollutants that reduce the content of oxygen in water are follows:

1. Fertilizers
   Fertilizers which are given to plants by farmers to make them grow well contain nitrate and phosphate. Part of the fertilizers is washed away or swept off the ground surface by the rain and goes into the nearest pond.

2. Trash
   Trash contains organic materials which are good food for bacteria as well as phosphate and detergent. Water is said to be polluted when the content of dissolved materials such as O₂, CO₂, NO₂, N₂, dust and other particles exceeds the limit that has been determined. Water pollutants may take the form of detergent, chemicals, pesticides, organic waste, chemical fertilizer, heavy metals and pathogenic microorganisms.

Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) is a colorless, tasteless, and almost odorless crystalline organochlorine known for its insecticidal properties and environmental impacts. Source

Another example of water pollutant is insecticide, such as DDT (Dichloro Diphenyl Trichloroethane). One of the properties of DDT is that it does not dissolve easily in water and is difficult to be decomposed by microorganisms but easily dissolves in fat. Consequently, DDT can get accumulated in the tissue of organisms through food chain. The highest content of DDT is found in the last carnivore of a food chain. The accumulation of compounds in the tissue of organisms through the processes of eating and being eaten is called biological magnification.

The Impact of Water Pollution

If water cannot be used for industrial needs, it means the effort to improve human life quality will not be successful either. For example, oily water (because of oil contamination) cannot be used anymore as a solvent in chemical industries.

Water which has high level of hardness because of containing too much metal icon, cannot be used any longer as water in boilers.

Contaminated water cannot be used for irrigation to water rice fields and fish ponds, because it contains organic compound that causes drastic changes on water acidity. Too acid or too base water is also deadly for plants and animals. Besides, there are many organic compounds that are deadly for living organisms. Many fish die because the river or pond is contaminated.

Conclusion

Water pollution can even cause bigger loss that is death. Death is possible to happen when the water is so contaminated that it becomes the source of various kinds of diseases. Contaminated water can be the cause of infectious diseases, because water is a good place for microorganisms to live, including pathogenic ones.

Contaminated water cannot be used as clean water. Meanwhile, the amount of clean water available is insufficient for human needs. Consequently it is getting more difficult to maintain human and environmental cleanliness. This finally leads to a condition where humans are vulnerable to diseases.

Sources :

Water_pollution

Effects-of-water-pollution

Water-limited-resource

Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane

Best regard @draw-art