Posted: November 19th, 2022

Water Pollution Causes, Effects and Solutions

Water Pollution Causes, Effects and Solutions
“environmental science” ill attach the instructions , the essay should be around 1500 words with minimum of 8 references

Approximately 70% of the Earth surface composes water and 60% of human body contains water (Mason, 2002). Water is an essential component of human body. Water problems such as pollution and inadequacy have drastic impacts on the ecosystem, both in the marine and terrestrial land as it affects human, domestic and wildlife health wellbeing. Water pollution, among other pollutions has disastrous impacts on both human health and the environment. Like other pollution types, water pollution originates from pollutants which harmfully disrupt the ecosystem balance. Pollution affects human, animal and wild life health and sometimes can result in death (Mason, 2002).
The solution towards solving pollution problems is to change our daily habits that impact the environment and pay attention to the consumables. Elimination of water pollution is not as easy as creating it, therefore, prior precautions must be taken to avoid or mitigate it altogether (Harrison, 2001). Pollution may end but the health effects on plants, human and animals are sometimes long-lasting and sometimes lead to destruction and extinction of species. All animals and human depend on water for survival and man must do all that is needed to ensure water is clean. The following paragraphs discuss the causes, effects and solutions in regard to water pollution.
Causes of Water Pollution
Water may become unusable due to contamination from oil, sewage, chemical waste, waste water, metallic elements and plastics. Oil and chemical contaminants are the two major hazards when introduced in water. Petroleum products are toxic to the ecosystem. Chemical and oil wastes pollute waters in rivers, lakes and oceans by accidental spills and leaks from ships, pipelines, tankers, and storage facilities. Oil forms a very thick sludge in water since it does not dissolve in water.
Sewages from households, commercial building and factories are often let into the sea, lakes and rivers. If not treated, sewage can cause a lot of problems to human and marine health. If people flush pharmaceutical and chemical substances town to the toilets, the water pollution effects get become more problematic.
Dumping of solid wastes and littering of items such as plastics, Styrofoam, aluminum, and cardboards into rivers, lakes, and oceans contaminate the waters which would be helpful in various activities. Moreover, industrial wastes from factories, carried by water into the water bodies contaminate water with contaminants such as lead, mercury, asbestos, and petrochemicals. Lastly, burning of fossil fuels is another source of water pollution. Carbon particles from fossil burning accumulate in the atmosphere, and later mix with water vapor resulting into rain water which can harm plants, human, and water inhabitants (Ek & Persson, 2016).
Effects of Water Pollution
Water contaminants are very poisonous to the inhabitants of the affected water bodies, soil microorganisms, human and terrestrial animals who use such waters. Contaminations from pesticides lead to reproductive destruction within wildlife in the environmental systems. Furthermore, runoffs from fertilizers, sewages, and agricultural contaminants discharged into water which results to oxygen depletion due to algae growth (Adam, 2010). Low oxygen amounts cannot sustain natural marine inhabitants hence causing death and ecological imbalance.
Acidic rain and pollution of water due to old roofs not properly maintained have effects on water tables since they result into further pollution. Environmental safety activists encourage green roofs investment or proper maintenance of old roofs to reduce water contamination. Furthermore, drinking and swimming in polluted water can cause typhoid fever, stomach illness, skin rashes and cancer in humans (Mason, 2002). Therefore, water for domestic uses should be very clean with assured safety.
Agricultural pesticides and industrial chemicals that end up in water bodies can accumulate in fish. Fish poisoned with metals, if eaten by human, ultimately affect their health. Mercury metals mainly affect women and interfere with the nervous system development in young children and fetuses (Mason, 2002).
When human throw litter carelessly into water bodies, they endanger marine life. 6-pack rings and plastic bags can entangle and suffocate aquatic animals causing their deaths. Toxic plastic particles contaminate water and soils and enter the food chain when eaten by animals. Plastics are non-biodegradable and not easily eliminated unless through recycling. Consumption of nylons and plastics can cause death of terrestrial and aquatic animals (Harrison, 2001).
Oil spills can also cause death of aquatic animals that encounter it. Oil blocks and affects the proper circulation of oxygen in water since it does not dissolve in water causing suffocation in birds and fish. The worst water pollution disaster in the world was witnessed when oil of about 176 m gallons spilled in the Gulf of Mexico (from nytimes.com on water-pollution). This disaster is one of the most expensive calamities to curb and still continues to use billions of dollars to undo its effects. The accidental spill killed a lot of aquatic life, including fish and birds. Oil attracts fish because they see it as floating food. Birds feeding on fish are as well ultimately attracted and can dive through the dangerous oil for engrossed fish. Oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico posed danger to the people living along the coast because of the polluted air due to smell from oil.
Solution to Water Pollution
Water pollution would not be so much an issue if there were easy ways to solve it. The three broader ways to solve water pollution are through laws, education and economics. These techniques work in harmony.
Education as a method to solve pollution enables people to be aware of its causes, effects and methods to mitigate the problem. Having knowledge concerning water pollution is a major step in solving it. In 1990s when Britain felt tired of suffering from water pollution related illness, they constituted a Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) group which forced the water companies and government act towards the issue. In other instances, people dwelling along the beaches band up and form organized communities that carry out beach-cleaning sessions. In the same note, fishermen who no longer harvest fish campaign for tougher actions and penalties against industries that pollute rivers, lakes and oceans (Farmer, 2013). Public education and awareness have greater impact towards a positive difference.
Nations can enact national and international policies and laws as well as treaties to solve water pollution problems. One big challenge of water contamination and other environmental pollution problems is their trans-boundary nature. Rivers meander across different countries and seas and oceans span the entire continent. Therefore, pollution discharged by a factory from country from poor environmental policies and standards causes problems in neighboring countries regardless of their tougher policies, laws and standards. Setting environmental laws can make it painful for industries to pollute. However, for the laws to be effective, they must operate across regional and international borders (Farmer, 2013). The international laws that govern oceans include the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982 (with over 120 countries), London Dumping Convention of 1972, the MARPOL International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships of 1978, and the OSPAR Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North East Atlantic of 1998. Moreover, there is the European Union regarding water protection directives that all the member states adhere to it. Every country has laws to protect water pollution. For instance, the U.S. has Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 and Clean Water Act of 1972 to solve water contamination issues (Davies & Mazurek, 2014).
The final solution to water pollution is through economics, what the environmental experts call the polluter pay principles. This is a principle where whoever or whichever industry polluting the water environment should pay to clean it up in whatever way (Ambec & Ehlers, 2014). Using the polluter pay principle, tankers owners must pay insurance to cover the probable costs of oil spills. Moreover, shop owners must pay for their nylons, plastic bags, and polythene to encourage waste elimination through recycling. Moreover, factories must have their water inlet pipes in the downstream where they locate their outflow pipes so that in case of any pollution they cause they become the first victims to suffer. Lastly, the design of polluter pay principle deters people from pollution as it is cheaper for them to act in an environmentally accountable way.
In conclusion, there are various causes of water pollution. Pollution causes are as a result of human and industrial activities and poor environmental standards. Water pollutions have various drastic effects on the environmental ecological balance. It has both short and long term impacts that require tough efforts to solve or mitigate. We must protect water by all means because it is a source of life.

References
Harrison, R.M., 2001. Pollution: causes, effects and control. Royal Society of Chemistry.
Harrison, R.M., 2006. An introduction to pollution science. Royal Society of Chemistry.
Ambec, S. and Ehlers, L., 2014. Regulation via the Polluter‐pays Principle. The Economic Journal.
Davies, J.C. and Mazurek, J., 2014. Pollution Control in United States: Evaluating the System. Routledge.
Ek, K. and Persson, L., 2016. The economics of the European Water Framework Directive–A retrospective remark focusing on Sweden (No. 2016: 16). CERE-the Center for Environmental and Resource Economics.
Farmer, A., 2013. Managing environmental pollution. Routledge.
Mason, C.F., 2002. Biology of freshwater pollution. Pearson Education.
Adam Vaughan, 2010. Human impact on world’s rivers ‘threatens water security of 5 billion’. The Guardian. Retrieved from: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/sep/29/human-impact-world-rivers-water-security
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/toxic-waters/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/topic/subject/water-pollution

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Tags: Effects and Solutions, Water Pollution Causes