Harmful Effect Of Water Pollution - Free Essay Example

Water pollution is the contamination of water by chemicals, pathogens and other elements. When the water is polluted to a certain degree it can become undrinkable and unusable. Developing countries, like India, are the most affected by water pollution. It is an ongoing human-caused problem that changed waterways, such as lakes, and rivers. In the 1970s the Congress passed the Clean Water Act which stopping the dumping of sewage and garbage in bodies of water, but the waters are still being polluted. The plant may seem to have infinite amounts of freshwater, but it does not. There is not just one type of water pollution, there is either point or nonpoint. Point Source water pollution means that we know exactly where the pollution is coming from, and a Non point source means you dont know exactly where the pollution is coming from (Gale). We use it, we need it, so why not keep the water clean? Water pollution is a serious problem that is happening all around the world. Water pollution is bad because it cause4s a lot of diseases, it kills animals and effects the food web, and it causes a limited amount of drinking water. People all over the world rely on water in order to survive, and without it we will see a large number of people die off. Water pollution causes a lot of diseases that are harmful to everyone. Take Flint for example, they have lead in their water and at first they did not know about it so people were drinking the water and getting sick from it. Dirty water and poor sanitation can also cause malnutrition. Bad nutrition means bad nourishment Malnutrition is when the body does not get enough nutritions that a person should have and they often get diarrhoea or other illnesses. Malnutrition increases the risk of disease and early death. Nutritional status is compromised where people are exposed to high levels of infection due to the unsafe water supply. A cause of this is our water irrigation that is used for the production of crops. Which means, when we contaminate the water the water eventually makes it back to our drinking water (Haerens). The second reason I am against water pollution is because it kills animals. New evidence is showing that wildlife is threatened by pharmaceutical residues that are escaping into the waterways. Around the world many freshwater habitats have been contaminated by synthetic estrogen, which is used in different kinds of birth controls. The United States and Canadian government scientists contaminated an experimental lake in Ontario with 5 nanograms per liter of ethinyl estradiol. They were studying the effects on the lakes fathead minnow population, which is a common species that lake trout and northern pike feed on. The scientists found the male minnows testicular development was damaged and they started making early-state eggs instead. The mating season is horrendous. In just two years, the minnow population crashed, which caused the food chain to crash because the trout and northern pike were experimenting starvation and would have to find something else to eat which disturbed other fo od webs (Shah). The last reason I am against water pollution is because it is causing a limited amount of drinking water. Water is limited due to the amount of freshwater that is polluted and the increasing population growth. Agriculture is the biggest polluter. Groundwater and surface water supplies are limited which is causing dehydration of crops and of humans in many countries. The use of water also has a geopolitical dimension. Water moves in upstream to downstream users. If the upstream becomes polluted it will affect the water quality and quantity downstream. Global warming (which is caused by pollution) is affecting the water levels and rainfall which makes a scarcity to water (Famiglietti). There are those who say that water pollution is not a problem. For example people who support fracking dont see the serious effects that fracking can have on our water supplies. People who are for water pollution are often for fracking as well. Fracking is the process of injecting liquid at high pressure to subettacean rocks, often to extract oil or gas, which can contaminate the water (Freeman). In conclusion, water pollution is harmful to the environment and humans are the only one that can fix it. We are causing the damage to the earth and we need to stop it. Water pollution is bad because of the diseases, it kills animals, and it causes a limited amount of water supply. Without water on Earth no living organism would be able to survive.