Water Pollution

Valentina Castiblanco Monroy

February 19, 2013

Water pollution

Water pollution is the contaminations of the lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers and groundwater. It is any chemical, physical or biological change in the quality of water.

Water pollution is a very worrying problematic, because all the people need clean water to live, and if it is all polluted we should die in some years. When humans drink polluted water it has serious effects on their health.

The mayor water pollutants

There are several classes of water pollutants:

-Disease causing agents: These are bacteria, viruses, protozoa and parasitic worms that enter sewage systems and untreated waste.

-Oxygen demanding wastes: These are the wastes that can be decomposed by oxygen-requiring bacteria.

-Water-soluble inorganic pollutants, such as acids, salts and toxic metals. Large quantities of these compounds will make water unfit to drink and will cause the death of aquatic life.

-Nutrients; they are water-soluble nitrates and phosphates that cause excessive growth of algae and other water plants, which deplete the water's oxygen supply. This kills fish and, when found in drinking water, can kill young children.
Water can also be polluted by a number of organic compounds such as oil, plastics and pesticides, which are harmful to humans and all plants and animals in the water.
A very dangerous category is suspended sediment, because it causes depletion in the water's light absorption and the particles spread dangerous compounds such as pesticides through the water.
Finally, water-soluble radioactive compounds can cause cancer, birth defects and genetic damage and are thus very dangerous water pollutants.

These are some of the most polluted rivers on the world.

Citarum river, Indonesia

Image source

Surprised? That’s the Citarum river  in West Java, Indonesia. While this river may look like garbage pool to you but is actually the main source of water for agriculture and water supply for the people. The river is heavily polluted by the human activity and has  no aquatic life breathing beneath the floating wastes. In December 2008, the Asian Development Bank approved a $500 million loan for cleaning up the river but as we see it will take years to get back the dead river back to life.

Yamuna River, India

Yamuna the largest tributary river of the Ganges  is one of the most polluted rivers in the world where 58% of the waste from the Indian capital New Delhi is dumped  into the river. Its very surprising to note that a total of Rs 1,700 crore has been spent on cleaning Yamuna as well Ganges but with all efforts turning to vain, government has finally laid its hands down.

Buriganga river, Bangladesh

Image source

The Buriganga River is the main river flowing beside Dhaka city, capital of Bangladesh. The biological dead river owns its plight to the 80% is untreated directly flowing into the river and  polythenes deposited beneath water .

Yellow river from Lanzhou, China

Image source

The Yellow River is China’s second longest river and is  the main water supply for millions of people in northern China. But the river with primarily  Lanzhou which is the prime source of  drinking water for the two million local residences,  is heavily polluted with oil spills taking place every now and then due to  industrial contamination.

Marilao river, Philippines

Photo credit should read JAY DIRECTO/AFP/Getty Images)

Plastic wrappers, rubber slippers, banana trunks and a bloated carcass of a dog, that’s few of the things you may find floating in the Marilao river. The waters contain toxic chemicals such as chromium, cadmium, copper and arsenic making the water very dangerous. Despite campaigns by the local government and imposing fines,  households still throw their garbage, and factories release their effluents into the river resulting in highly contaminated water.

Ganges river, India

AFP PHOTO/Prakash SINGH

Ganga is the most sacred river for Hindus that emerges from gangotri glacier. An estimated 2,000,000 people ritually bathe daily in the river, inspite of being unsafe as chemical wastes, sewage and corpses remains float fearlessly   across the water body.

Songhua river, China

REUTERS/Vito Lee (CHINA)

The Songhua is a river in Northeast China, and is the largest tributary of the Heilong River.  In November 2005, the river was contaminated with benzene, that lead to a shutdown of Harbin’s water supply.

The Mississippi river, USA

The Mississippi River is a major economic and natural resource for the heartland of the United States. The river drains nearly 40% of the continental United States, including its central farm lands and carries an estimated 1.5 million metric tons of nitrogen pollution into the Gulf of Mexico each year.

The Sarno river, Italy

The Sarno is a stream that passes through Pompeii to the south of the city of Naples. It is considered the most polluted river in Europe. The situation is aggravated by large-scale dumping of untreated agricultural and industrial waste into the river. The polluted basin waters flowing into the Bay of Naples also increase the sea water contamination.

The King River, Australia

The King River is arguably Australia’s most polluted river that suffers severe acidic condition related to mining operations.. About 1.5 million tonnes of sulfidic tailings entered the river system each year up to 1995 with total of more than 100 million tonnes until date.

References :

http://zuzutop.com/2010/02/10-ugly-rivers-of-the-world/