Water Crisis

Water for human consumption and other

organisms needs to be…
 Disease-free
 Nontoxic

Half of the world’s major rivers are

Water Pollution & Treatment
seriously depleted and polluted
 They poison surrounding ecosystems
 Threaten the health and livelihood of
people

The invisible pollution of groundwater has

been called a “covert crisis”

Water Pollution
Any chemical, biological and physical change in
water quality that has a harmful effect on living
organisms or makes it unusable for agriculture

 produced by humans, machines, plants,

animals
 limited supply of fresh water into which most
water-destined pollutants are discharged
 growing number of ‘technological pollutants’
released into the environment, i.e.
manufactured synthetic materials

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 Water Quality Definitions Point & Non‐point sources
Contaminant - any constituent in the water Point source water pollution
deleterious to a particular end use regardless of its
origin and whether it occurs in the watershed source discrete locations of pollution
or in a water supply system
 Factory

Pollutant - any constituent in the water source  sewer pipes

deleterious to a particular end use that is of
anthropogenic origin
Pollutant = subset of contaminant
Nonpoint source water pollution
pollution from multiple cumulative inputs over a large
area
 Farms, cities, streets, neighborhoods

Pollutants Contaminants

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 Water pollutants Water pollutants

Heavy metals
Certain radioactive Toxic Chemicals
isotopes Phosphorus
Inorganic Plant Nutrients
Nitrogen

Suspended Material – erosion, soil Toxic Chemicals Nutrients; e.g. nitrogen, phosphorus

Sediment

Pathogenic
bacteria and
viruses
Disease-causing Agents
Fecal coliform
bacteria

Heat electric and nuclear

power plants

Sediment Pathogenic bacteria and  Heat

viruses

1. Toxic Chemicals
From natural and synthetic sources
 Pesticides, petroleum products, synthetic
chemicals
 Acid rain, acid drainage from mines
 Heavy metals, e.g. arsenic, lead, mercury

Effects include: poisoning animals and plants, altering

aquatic ecosystems, and affecting human health
Solutions:
 Legislating and enforcing more stringent
regulations of industry
 Modify industrial processes
 Modify our purchasing decisions

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 Acid Mine Drainage
Water with a high
concentration of sulfuric
acid that drains from
mines.
 Coal mines often
associated with
pyrite (iron sulfide)
 When in contact
with oxygen and
water it produce
weathering product
of sulfuric acid

Acid Mine Drainage

If the acid-rich water runs into natural water source
significant pollution and environmental damage may
result.
 Acidic water toxic to plants and animals of aquatic
ecosystems
 Can also seep in thus polluting groundwater
 Abandoned mine are a continuing problem

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 Leaching of Resources From Mines

2. Nutrients
Two important nutrients that cause water pollution
are phosphorous and nitrogen
 Basically found in fertilizers, and they can contribute
to the process of eutrophication, which can cause
the formation of dead zones
 Nutrient pollution from fertilizers, farms, agricultural
animal waste, sewage, lawns, golf courses
Solutions:
 Phosphate-free detergents
 Planting vegetation to increase nutrient uptake
 Treat wastewater
 Reduce fertilizer application
Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD)
BOD: Oxygen is removed from water when organic
matter is consumed by bacteria.
Low oxygen conditions may kill fish and other
organisms.
Sources of organic matter
 Natural inputs-- bogs, swamps, leaf fall, and
vegetation aligning waterways.
 Human inputs-- pulp and paper mills, meat-
packing plants, food processing industries, and
wastewater treatment plants.
 Nonpoint inputs-- runoff from urban areas,
agricultural areas, and feedlots.

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 Pollution of Streams and Lakes
Flowing water can recover rapidly by dilution and decay

Fish Die

Eutrophication Eutrophication
The process by which a body of water develops a high
concentration of nutrients.
 Human processes that add nutrients to water
 Cause a large growth in aquatic plants and
photosynthetic bacteria and algae.
 The bacteria and algae then die
 As they decompose BOD increases
 Oxygen content is sufficiently low and all other
organisms die

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 Eutrophication
The process where the nutrient content of water increases - When the
supporting a dense plant population; algal bloom. nutrient content
of water
undergoes
 Produce oxygen in the daytime through photosynthesis,
changes, it can
at night, use the oxygen dissolved in water.
disturb the
 Often followed by the death of a large quantity algae, delicate
which are decomposed by bacteria by using oxygen. balance of the
 Increase the murkiness of water. Prevent sunlight from ecosystem
reaching the bottom of the water bodies – bottom
dwelling plants can fail to photosynthesize.
 The entire process of algal bloom can degraded the
ecosystem to such extent that it can no longer support
aquatic life - dead zones.

Eutrophication Eutrophication
Solutions:
Ensure that high concentrations of nutrients do not
enter water
Accomplished by use of phosphate-free detergents
 controlling nitrogen runoff
 disposing or reusing treated wastewater
 advanced water treatment methods

Accelerated results with human input of nutrients to a lake

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 Eutrophication is a natural Ocean Acidification
process, but ….. Human activities dramatically increase
the rate at which it occurs When CO2 is absorbed by seawater, a series of chemical
reactions occur resulting in the increased concentration of
hydrogen ions. This increase causes the seawater to
become more acidic and causes carbonate ions to be
relatively less abundant.

Carbonate ions are an important building block of

BOD is low
low concentration of chemical elements
Clear water
abundance of life – animals are diverse
(mosquitos, fish, aquatic insects and bugs)
structures such as sea shells and coral skeletons. Decreases
in carbonate ions can make building and maintaining
shells and other calcium carbonate structures difficult for
calcifying organisms such as oysters, clams, sea urchins,
shallow water corals, deep sea corals, and calcareous
BOD is high
plankton.
high concentration of chemical elements
mats of algae and murky water
few animals – only algae, bacteria, and
some other higher plant species

3. Sediment Sediment
Sources; Land use changes result in erosion and Sediment consisting of rock and mineral fragments
sedimentation
 Ranging in size from gravel (>2mm) to finer sand, silt
Clear-cutting, mining, poor cultivation practices and clay to even finer particles
Large quantities of sedimentation during  Cause sediment pollution
construction phase of urbanization
 By volume and mass, greatest water pollutant
Effects include;
 Depletes a land resource (soil) at its site of
origin
 Reduces the quality of water resource it enters
 Sediment can impair aquatic ecosystems
 Dramatically changes aquatic habitats, and
fish may not survive
Solutions;
 Better management of farms and forests;
avoid large-scale disturbance of vegetation

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 Oil
Oil discharged into surface water has caused major
pollution problems.
Large spills make headlines, but normal shipping
activities probably release more oil over a period of
years than is released by a single spill.

Exxon Valdez ran aground, ruptured tanks dumped 250,000

barrels of oil into sound in 1989
 Some of the oil was offloaded to another ship
 Spilled into one of the most pristine and ecologically
rich marine environments at Prince William Sound,
Alaska
 Killed 13% of seals, 28% of sea otters and 100,000-
645,000 sea birds

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 Exxon Valdez 4. Disease-causing Agents
Before spill it was believed that the oil industry could Pathogens and waterborne diseases
deal with spills and “self-regulate”
 $3 billion spent in clean up  Enters water supply via inadequately
 Clean was difficult and largely futile treated human waste and animal
 Long term effects of the spill are still uncertain. waste via feedlots
 Causes more human health
problems than any other type of
Solutions: water pollution
Avoiding spills and clean up methods include Fecal coliform bacteria
 Fecal coliform bacteria indicate
 Double hulled ships fecal contamination of water
 Pump the oil out of the tanker as soon as it occurs  The water can hold other
 Collection of oil at sea pathogens, such as Giardiais,
typhoid, hepatitis A
 Cleaning birds and mammals
 Spreading absorbent material on beaches

Disease-causing Agents Waterborne Pathogens

Disease symptoms usually are explosive emissions from
either end of the digestive tract

Giardia sp.*

Escherichia coli

Vibrio sp.

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 Waterborne Pathogens Waterborne Pathogens
Primary waterborne diseases cause: Fecal Coliform – Intestinal bacteria
 Range from an upset stomach to death  Escherichia coli (E. coli)

 In the early 1990s cholera caused widespread  Responsible for human illness and death
suffering and death in South America  Eating contaminated food or drink
Largest outbreak in US history - Cryptosporidium Presence of fecal coliforms may also indicate presence
 (Gastrointestinal parasite that causes flu like of Virus like hepatitis
symptoms)
Fecal Coliform – Intestinal bacteria
 Escherichia coli (E. coli)
 Responsible for human illness and death
 Eating contaminated food or drink
Presence of fecal coliforms may also indicate presence
of Virus like hepatitis
Total coliform Fecal coliform Fecal streptococci
[Endo agar] [m‐FC agar] [M‐enterococcus]

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 Outbreak in Walkerton, Pathogens cause massive
Ontario human health problems
Cow manure washed into water supply by heavy rains
and flooding
 Local utility knew of contamination by May 18th 2000
but did not report it
 By may 26th 5 dead, 20 in ICU and over 500 ill
 If people had been notified earlier the sickness could
have been avoided

Pathogens cause massive 5. Heat: Thermal pollution

human health problems Warmer water holds less oxygen
 Currently, 1.1 billion people are without safe drinking  Dissolved oxygen decreases as temperature increases
water
 Industrial cooling heats water
 2.4 billion have no sewer or sanitary facilities; mostly  Removing streamside cover also raises water
rural Asians and Africans temperature
 An estimated 5 million people die per year
Water that is too cold causes problems
Solutions:  Water at the bottom of reservoirs is colder
 Treat sewage  When water is released, downstream water
temperatures drop suddenly and may kill aquatic
 Disinfect drinking water
organisms
 Public education to encourage personal hygiene
 Government enforcement of regulations

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 Sewage Treatment & BOD

Two approaches to dealing with surface water

pollution are:

1. To reduce the sources

2. To treat the water to remove pollutants or
convert them to forms that can be disposed of
safely.

It is better to prevent pollution It is better to prevent pollution

We should be aware for cleanliness of water because Solutions;

everyone life is water; without it, people can’t live.  The sewage pollutants are subject to chemical
treatment to change them into non-toxic
Solutions; substances or make them less toxic.

 Industries should not be allowed to discharge

untreated chemicals into the water bodies. There  Domestic and industrial wastes should store in broad
should be a mechanism to ensure that only harmless but shallow ponds for some days. Due to the sunlight
substances poured into rivers, lakes, and oceans. and the organic nutrients present in the waste, there
will be mass scale growth of those bacteria which
will digest the harmful waste matter.
 Underground water can be saved from pollution if
the land not exposed to harmful pesticides and
other industrial chemicals. The farmers should be
encouraged for organic farming.

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 It is better to prevent pollution It is better to prevent pollution

Water pollution is more affected for human health.

It should eradicate from the country; then people can

use clean water for drink and not any harmful effect
will happen in the human body.

Thank you
For your attention!

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