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Water Pollution

No one feels happy to hear this word – Pollution. The first thing which come to our mind as soon as we hear this word is sadness. Alas, we all have to cope with it, thinking that we alone cannot do anything about it. Pollution is of many types. The major ones being – Air pollution, Water pollution, Land pollution and Noise pollution.

Water is an essential part of our life. No living creature on this earth can survive without water. Even plants which cannot move, need water to grow. We have seen plants die if they don’t get adequate water, and the same goes with animals, birds, humans and all living creatures on this earth. You might be thinking that our earth has 70% water and just 30% land. Still we are so concerned about water. The reason behind this is that we all need pure water. Can you drink a glass of water if we mix some rubbish into it from your kitchen bin? The answer will be a big no. Right? So, now you understand the importance and need of pure water. (C. Michael Hogan, 2010)

Polluted water has affected the lives of so many people in the world. Typhoid, skin diseases, respiratory infections, stomach ache are a few diseases which are caused when we intake polluted water. The ill-effects of water are not just limited to humans, but plants, animals, insects and all other living creatures suffer major problems due to polluted water.

You might still wonder that how come our drinking water gets polluted? Well, there are many ways but the major cause of water pollution all over the world is from the industrial waste. Water is used in industries for various production processes and then it is discharged out. This waste water contains salts, poisons, acids, alkalis, oils and other dangerous components. The water from industries comes out into small rivulets which lead to big rivers. This water also gets soaked by the soil and polluter our ground water.

Other water pollution causes include domestic waste, sewage disposal and spray of pesticides and insecticides in agricultural farms, which washes away into water bodies.If we talk about the ways by which water pollution can be stopped, then there can be some pros and cons to each way. Some people might think an idea to be good while others might think it to be useless. Governments of many countries have already taken the first steps to curb water pollution and give pure water to their citizens. Let’s discuss the main causes of water pollution and how it can be controlled.

Back in the old times when there were no industries, no electricity and no inventions were made, there was no pollution. Just imagine living in those times. These days you just can’t imagine your life without smartphones, laptops, automobiles etc. I guess there is no need for me to make such a list. Just turn around yourself and imagine your life without all these things.

Do you know from where these things come? Yes, they are manufactured in industries. Now we all have seen that black coloured smoke going up from an industry’s chimney. Well that is air pollution. But, another aspect that we don’t pay much attention to is water pollution from these industries. Water is used in almost every industry for various purposes. This water gets mixed with acids, chemicals and other dangerous substances and is finally thrown out of the industry through pipelines into small rivulets. Now the question arises –why don’t we stop these industries? But think again… what closing down industries can do to us!

If there will be no industries then nothing will be manufactured. And, if there will be industries then they will definitely have some industrial waste, chemicals, processed waste water etc. which needs to be thrown away.So, one thing is clear that we need industries… and why not, after all this is the 21st century and we are centuries ahead of that early man age.

The first thing which we might think is that yes, we should stop its use. After all, they are not good for our health and now we also know that they cause water pollution. So, why don’t our governments ban them? (C. Michael Hogan, 2010)

Ok, let’s answer this. Imagine yourself to be a farmer. You have a vegetable farm. You bought seeds, worked for so many months on your farm and you did not spray any fertilizers. Suddenly a plant disease grasps your vegetable plants and all plants die. There are no vegetable to sell and you are in huge loss. To save our farmers from this situation, governments can’t ban the use of fertilizers in agricultural farms.

And we all know that vegetables, grains, pulses, nuts, fruits etc. are grown by our farmers. It is true that these pesticides flow into the water bodies easily and hence pollute the whole water body. This polluted water is like poison and can cause worse effects on the health of humans and animals who consume it. Banning the use of fertilizers will not serve the purpose as it might affect the vegetable and fruits grown in the farms, but we need to come with some alternative to these chemical sprays. (Schueler, Thomas R, 2000)

So, another thing is cleared out that we cannot stop using pesticides, insecticides and other fertilizers in agricultural farms. Our scientists and governments need to promote organic sprays which do not have any side effects on our health, do not result in any type of pollution and save the crops from diseases.

No matter wherever you live, there is a lot of domestic waste which comes out our house every day. We have our kitchen, where water is not just used for cooking, but also to wash utensils. This water gets mixed with detergents and flows down the drain pipe. Then we have our washroom where we take bath and wash clothes. Again water is needed. We use soaps, shampoos and this waste water flows down the drain pipe. Then we have toilet, which again is a source of water pollution through sewage waste. (Schueler, Thomas R, 2010)

Now comes the question, what shall we do to curb this? Shall we stop taking bath? Or there can be an alternative that we can stop using soaps and shampoos while bathing. First of all, we won’t do this and even if we do then what about washing utensils and what about sewage waste? Using less soap or shampoo will not serve any purpose. And we also can’t curb this by taking bath just once a week. That’s not ethical! We need to think of a way by which this water pollution can be controlled.

This can be done by setting up water treatment plants. You might be familiar with a common term called recycle. (Schueler, Thomas R,2000). Water treatments plants do the same thing. They recycle water by treating it with various processes. By this the waste water from our domestic household gets purified and is again used for various purposes. We do not mean to say that this water can be used for drinking. However this treated water is excellent for agricultural use. (Schueler, Thomas R, 2000)

Well, we know that we need industries and we are also aware that they will result in water pollution. Still we don’t want them to be closed down. The alternative here is that we can set up water treatment plant and the waste water coming out of each industry should be treated before discharging them into rivulets.

We know that we can’t stop the use of fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals in agricultural fields, but we can surely come up with alternatives. Banning these chemicals will not serve our purpose, but what needs to be done is to introduce organic spray products which do not cause water pollution.

We have seen that domestic waste water is also a major cause of water pollution. We can’t stop taking bath or using water for our other household activities like washing clothes or utensils. In fact minimizing the use of water by taking bath once a week will also not help as we don’t want to become unhealthy. So the only way out of this situation seems to be water treatment plants, which should be set up for each village, town and city.

Work Cited

1) C. Michael Hogan "Water pollution."Encyclopedia of Earth.Topic ed. Mark McGinley; ed. in chief C. Cleveland. National Council on Science and the Environment, Washington, DC. 2010

2) Clean Water Act, section 502(14), 33 U.S.C.

3) Schueler, Thomas R. "Microbes and Urban Watersheds: Concentrations, Sources, & Pathways." Reprinted in The Practice of Watershed Protection. 2000. Center for Watershed Protection. Ellicott City, MD

4) Kennish, Michael J. Ecology of Estuaries: Anthropogenic Effects. Marine Science Series. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. pp. 415–17. ISBN 978-0-8493-8041-9. 1992

My prof note

For this essay I want you focus mostly on water. Water pollution is perfectly fine to focus on but try to keep the ideas central to water issues. I also want to see more outside sources as well as a revised thesis that is more centered around water pollution and why it is such a huge problem.