Water Disturbed I
Water gone Wrong
We look around and notice that what was once crystal clear now looks like chocolate milk. We walk around and notice that what we were abundant of, now we dearth of. Are these the consequences that we have to face? Drinking contaminated water and dealing with limited water supply? How can we live with this?
One of the world’s biggest problems deals with water becoming polluted. Why? because water isn't just two molecules of hydrogen and one molecule of oxygen. Water is needed in almost anything that we do. Bathing, cooking, cleaning, drinking, we can't do all these without safe, clean water.
Water pollution occurs when bodies of water are contaminated by human activities. Do you know that only 1% of world’s water is drinkable? What if one day, we wake up and find that these precious and scarce 1% potable water is gone and we are forced to drink the “undrinkable”?
In this page we will uncover what lies behind the contamination of water. Knowing these we will be able to give solutions and prevent further destruction of various bodies of water.
What is Non Point Source Pollution?
It is called “Non Point Source” because the source of discharge of pollution is unidentifiable and unspecific since they could come from various natural and human processes. The pollutants are caught by rainfall, snowmelts or any form of water that flows through land and reaches rivers, lakes, beaches, and groundwater. When pollutants are set down into a body of water, they start altering the natural balance of the water.
Here are examples of Non Point Sources of water pollutants:
CAUSES and EFFECTS
1. Unsafe Farming
CAUSE--Farmers apply fertilizers for nutritional supplements of plants but when excess fertilizers hit the groundwater (water just beneath the soil) and this water flows into a nearby river or lake it could be dangerous.
EFFECT-- Groundwater contaminated with fertilizers flows into the river which doesn’t need too much nutrition to keep aquatic life balance and when there is too much phosphorus and nitrogen in the river, it triggers algae and aquatic plants to overgrow causing algal gloom and leads to unbalanced normal oxygen content of the water making it insufficient for drinking and also kills most of the marine life that most probably lacked oxygen and did not survive. Ecological balance is very important.
2. Human Customs
CAUSE--Most of the time, even simple human ways contribute to decrease of safe and clean water, which includes parking cars and spilling oil and chemicals on the ground. Throwing your trash on the streets and using detergents in washing your clothes and discharging them on your lawn is not good.
EFFECT--When all these pollutants (oils, grease, detergents, salt) are picked up by flowing rain or storm water, snowmelts or irrigation. They reach a fresh body of water and from there starts another contamination of clean water which leads to bad effects, like perpetual murky waters in nearby rivers or lakes where the run offs end.