Our planet is composed of 70% water and 30% of land. Our body is also composed of 2/3 of water. In other words life without water is INPOSIBLE. Imagine what would happen if amount of water in nature would be drastically reduced? I believe we all know the answer and the consequences. The entire flora, fauna and the entire human being will die slowly. Now a day, we have a lot of amount of water in our planet but that is a big paradox because a big part from that water is polluted. Basically living the life without water or with polluted water is the same.
Just for example if we have a glass full of water, and if someone put poison in that glass what would happen? The answer is completely the same but in this case the poison was added into the glass by the human being which actually gives us a clear picture of what is exactly happening around us. In other words people are destroying the planet and I think that if this process of self destruction continuous life on the earth is hopeless. However water pollution must be stooped because the water ismore important than anything. We can survive without oil or gold but we can’t survive without water. We need water for everything.
The Greek philosopher Plato said: ”Water is something most needed for sustain life, and that easily destroyed. It is therefore a need protective law” . His statement is not lost actually. Even Plato in 2500 B. C was writing about the water pollution and how we influence over our life. If we like to stop the water pollution, we must know the sources of the pollution. Water pollution “Water pollution occurs when a body of water is affected, in a bad way, by the addition of large amounts of a material. That material might be oil, garbage, animal wastes, fertilisers and other chemicals, sewage or litter. When water can’t perform its basic function, we say that it is contaminated. Contamination of the water can be dividing in three parts: chemical, biological and human contamination. Biological and chemical contamination pollutes the water naturally, while human contamination is result of people’s behavior and their errors. Water is not used only for drinking but it is our application in everyday activities. Water pollution can be directly, by direct discharge of harmful substances in the water or also known as point pollution and indirectly trough changes in the environment, known as nonpoint pollution.
An example of this type of water pollution is when fertilizer from the fields is done in a stream of rain, in the form of a circle which in turn affects aquatic life. Most of the pollution in rivers and lakes comes from this source of pollution because it is very difficult to regulate the indirect pollution. Most of the sources contain nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates. Nutrients stimulate the process of growing on the aquatic plants and algae. The abnormal growing of these plants affects the respiration ability of the fish and other invertebrates in the water. Another type of water pollution is eutrophication.
We all have been in some river or lake where there are lots of death algae, which make the water to become more polluted. This process or situation, when algae grows rapidly and water has lack amount of oxygen is known as – eutrophication. In spring and fall the body of the water can deal with those amounts of eutrophication, because than is developing the natural cycles of this type of pollution. The death algae go on the bottom of the water, where they decompose, using the oxygen from the water. This process makes big damage, because with depleted oxygen the lake or rivers become shallower or through the time it can totally dries up. In the summer of 1971 at the Chicago South Water Filtration Plant on the coast of Lake Michigan, the filters were clogged with so many algae it had to be removed by hand. In the winter the turbidity(sediment in the water) was so high that the water wasn’t drinkable. ” From this we can see that when europhication rich the high rank in polluting the water, which reflect that that water is not drinkable and it isn’t usable anymore. In order to stop this process and to save our lives we need to find out some new system which will clean up the sewage and released back into the environment without catastrophe.
As we can see now days, oil becomes the biggest enemy to the water. Spills from tankers, ships and off-shore oil somehow pollute the water in direct way. This type of pollution make big catastrophe because we speak about big amount of water as lakes or oceans, in which all aquatic life will be damage. ” Workers use special nets to clean up a California beach after an oil tanker spill. Tanker spills are an increasing environmental problem because once oil has spilled, it is virtually impossible to completely remove or contain it. Even small amounts spread rapidly across large areas of water” .
As we know oil and water can’t mix, so oil floats on the surface of the water till some coast, where pollute it. In some situations when oil goes down in the water can become a bigger problem, which result is death to the whole ecosystem. Some people may think that this type of pollution, throughout the oil is not connected to them or not make effect to their lives, but they are totally wrong. All substances that lack from cars, tracks, motors including petrol and oil are washed with the rain and go up in the atmosphere where they continue with their water cycle.
This process of “washing” the streets is also known as Storm sewage. Water pollution also has some common sources which can be classified as: municipal, industrial and agricultural. Municipal water pollution occupies wastewater from homes, factories or some commercial enterprises. This source also included sewage from the toilets or housekeeping which is also known as Foul sewage. Agriculture includes farming which is origin of many organic and inorganic pollutants in the water. Third and the last is the industrial source, which is the most dangerous now a days.
Today we have big technological development for which is needed technical water, and with that rang of the water pollution is increasing. Today we all confront with the term, known as global warming. It influences not just to us but also to whole aquatic life. It influences not much as form of pollution to the water but in form of “killing” aquatic organisms. This global warming first attack the coral bleaching, and then indirectly according to that, all organisms start to die slowly. People also are included in this process, because they increase the temperature in the atmosphere throw bearing the gasses, including the carbon dioxide.
As we see before not just climate changes and natural catastrophes pollute our “life”-water, but also people play big role in it. One of the biggest problems, which can be stopped only with human conscience, is throwing the plastic. This is big problem because plastic need long time, so can decompose in the water. Water pollution is one of the biggest global problems. Today on the earth we have approximately 1. 5 billion people who live saving the water and 5 million people in one year who die because of lack of water or polluted one.
This numbers are huge and we all need to think about it, because that is our future. “In 1972 UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) only 11 counties have their environment agencies, but today this number rich in 106” This number also is not so good, because the amount of water pollution can’t be compare with this “small” number. The amount and the quality of the water also depend of the economy of the country, and how much the government takes it in consideration. Throughout the World War when chemical age is developed water is under consideration of the industrial and agriculture chemicals.
This problem exists also today because many countries are in the process of developing. Today people know very good how to pollute the water, but they didn’t know how to stop that. Or know but they don’t want to do it, which makes them to become unmoral and inhuman person. For the beginning we can turn off the water when it is not needed, because we need to save it. Today people around the world pass so many kilometers in one day to come with contact with the water. Another think that we can do in order to prevent the water pollution is to use ecological products in our homes, because all this thinks goes in the water.
And at the end the most important think that we need to do is not to throw garbage in the rivers, lakes and even in the marshland, which are very useful, because when it rains water accumulate there and goes directly in the soil where is used by the organisms. This process is called denitrification which prevents leaching the nitrates from the soil. As well as people today filters also can clean the pollution of the water. These filters usually are composed of three parts or three stages. First stage is known as physical, and it clean all dirtiness from the water.
Second one is the chemical stage, which clean the chemical substances from deep water, although they are not so harmful to people’s lives. And at the end is biological stage, which cleans surface water, which sometimes is full with some bacteria and algae. Conclusion People, animals and the plants are depended of the natural water cycle on the earth. However, this cycle is conditioned by many factors such as: the constant population growth, raising the consumption of quantities of fresh water. “According to data from the United Nations, in 2025th every third person could suffer from acute water shortage”.
In addition to this now a day’s only 1 billion people are drinking clear water. That is only one sixth of the population. The rest of the population doesn’t even have sanitary systems. Because of the diarrhea diseases and infections that comes from contaminated water, every day more than 5000 people are dying and most of the population are children under age of 5. In general, pollution of the earth is caused by the industrial and technological development. Also the continuining increase in human population is related to the water pollution.
However, there are a lot of causes that influences the pollution. We must try to protect our planet and also to stop the pollution of the water immediately. The Government can not solve the problem alone. It is ultimately up to us to be informed, responsible and involved when it comes to the problems we face with our water. We must be familiar with our local water resources and learn ways of disposing harmful household wastes so they do not end up in sewage treatment plants that cannot handle them or landfills not designed to receive hazardous materials.
Joint responsibility is a good motto, because when it comes to the future of our planet, we are responsible for all of us together – as a global society. While political institutions are imposing task, to create adequate framework conditions for sustainable development, the task of educational institutions is to create awareness about the responsible handling of natural resources and the environmental bearable shaping our World of living.
