Pinnacle Engineers
Increasing Water Pollution
Over 2/3 of Earth is covered under water bodies. Due to increase in population and heavy industrialization, we are exerting ever-increasing pressure on the planet's water resources. In a sense, total water bodies are being damaged by all our activities. By way or other we are drastically decreasing the quality of the water resources provided to us by the environment.
Irresposible oil excretion in open atmosphere diverted in to water flow.
Before the 19th century Industrial Revolution, people lived more in harmony with their immediate environment. Due to the spread of industrialization the problem of pollution has spread with it. When Earth's population was much smaller, question of water pollution had not evolved as a serious threat. We used to think that the oceans were far too big to be polluted. Today, with the tremendous increase in population on the planet, the limits have emerged. Pollution is one of the signs that we have exceeded those limits.
How serious is the problem? According to the environmental campaign organization WWF: "Pollution from toxic chemicals is threatening life on this planet. Every ocean and every continent, from the tropics to the once-pristine polar regions, is contaminated."
Loads of polluted water is dumped every day.
Causes of water pollution
Around 80 % of ocean pollution enters our seas from the land. All our activities have an effect on the quality of our water environment. Chemicals utilized as fertilizers are gradually washed by rain into the groundwater or surface waters nearby. Chemicals released by smoke (chimneys) enter the atmosphere and then pollute the rain. This is called atmospheric deposition. In similar ways we also leave harmful chemicals from land and let them dissolve in land water.
Chemical Deposition for a prolonged period.
Sewage
Due to the increased population on planet, disposing of sewage waste has become major problem. According to World Health Organization, some 780 million people don't have access to safe drinking water, while 2.5 billion don't have proper sanitation (hygienic toilet facilities). although there have been great improvements in securing access to clean water, relatively little progress has been made on improving global sanitation. Sewage disposal affects people's immediate environment and leads to water-related illnesses such as diarrhea. World Health Organization estimates that water-related diseases could kill 135 million people by 2020. In developed countries, most people have flush toilets that take sewage waste quickly and hygienically away from their homes.
Yet the problem of sewage disposal does not end there. After flushing the toilet, the waste has to go somewhere. Even after it leaves the sewage treatment works, there is still waste (Sludge) to be disposed off. Sometimes sewage waste is pumped untreated into the sea.
Water Channels left open for irresposible deposition of garbage.
Chemical Waste
Waste water heaviliy mixed with hazardous chemicals is daily disposed in to land water. In a classic example traces of these chemicals have even been found in birds and fish in the Arctic. They were carried there through the oceans, thousands of miles from where they originally entered the environment.
Toxic pollution carries waste of heavy metals, such as lead, cadmium, and mercury. Mercury and cadmium are still used in batteries. Until recently, a highly toxic chemical called tributyltin (TBT) was used in paints to protect boats from the ravaging effects of the oceans. Ironically, however, TBT was gradually recognized as a pollutant: boats painted with it were doing as much damage to the oceans as the oceans were doing to the boats.
The best known example of heavy metal pollution in the oceans took place in 1938 when a Japanese factory discharged a significant amount of mercury metal into Minamata Bay, contaminating the fish stocks there. It took a decade for the problem to come to light. By that time, many local people had eaten the fish and around 2000 were poisoned. Hundreds of people were left dead or disabled.
