The definition of water pollution:

What is water pollution actually? In my opinion water pollution is anything which makes the water inhospitable or undrinkable. Pollution makes the water, no matter what was intended with it, unable to fulfill its vital duty of sustaining life on this planet.

Sources of pollution:

-Algae: this is the most underestimated form of water pollution, although algae can make a pond inhabitable within weeks.

-Temperature: who would think warming or cooling a pond or lake would be pollution? In fact a slight change in temperature can cause entire ecosystems to abruptly fail.

-Synthetic pollution: by growing crops the plants use up the soils natural minerals. So we as smart humans decided to synthetically replace these nutrients. Because of the sheer amount of nutrients used, makes them leak into the groundwater, which in high concentration harms the ecosystem if released into ponds or lakes.

Pathogens: water which has been contaminated with dangerous pathogens is unsafe as drinking water and can also infect the habitants of the water.

Sewage: not only does sewage contain high amounts of pathogens, but it reacts in the water (a chemical process called decomposition) causing the oxygen to be removed. After the removal of oxygen life becomes virtually impossible in the water.

Causes and consequences of water pollution

What are the causes of water pollution?

There are different factors in the world that cause water pollution. Here is a list of the main causes:

Sewage and wastewater

Industrial waste

Oil pollution

Atmospheric deposition

Radioactive waste

Global warming

Sewage and wastewater
Every household has its own connection to the sewer, and also has its own waste, that has to go through the sewer. If you only pick out the waste of one household, its not that much, but if you add up the waste of every household together, you will get enough to fill a whole country! Of course nowadays we have ways to filter out bad stuff from the waste that has to go through the sewer, but not all bad things can be filtered, and these are just dumped into the sea. This causes water pollution.

Industrial waste
The industries around the world is a very big source of water pollution. Every industry has its waste, and a lot just dump it in a nearby river, which mounds into the sea. The stuff that is dumped into the rivers by industries is dangerous to the environment and also to humans, because these are not natural, sometimes chemical substances. They cannot just disappear, and they have to loss it, thats why they just dump it into the water, which has bad consequences.

Oil pollution
There are many ships sailing on the ocean, and all of them carry oil. Some ships may spill it, which already causes pollution, but others just dump it in the ocean, which also causes pollution!

Atmospheric deposition
Atmospheric deposition means that the water gets polluted as a consequence of air pollution. The air is polluted by a lot of carbon dioxide (that comes from cars for example), and this carbon dioxide mixes with clouds, which later on will turn into rain. This means that the water that rains down is polluted.

Radioactive waste
Radioactive waste is produced by industrial, medical or scientific processes that use radioactive material. When this spreads, it can end up in the water, and this is very harmful for the environment and people.

Global Warming
Global warming is also a main issue that plays part in the world, and it can also cause water pollution because when the temperatures rise in the sea, some organisms in the water cannot survive anymore, including the coral. When this happens, some important substances in the sea that keeps the water clean will be gone, and this will cause faster pollution of the water.

source: http://www.water-pollution.org.uk/causes.html

What are the consequences of water pollution?

There are three main factors that water pollution has consequences on. These are:

Health

Environment

Economy

Health
Water pollution is bad for our health. When water pollution has occurred, some substances can be located in the water that are dangerous for our bodies, and also for animals. As explained above, there are several causes of water pollution, including radioactive waste, which is extremely harmful for organisms (like us)!

Environment
There are also substances that can be located in the water that is harmful for our environment. Some substances, like acid from industrial waste, can be harmful for nature, and trees and other things from the environment can die.

Economy
Yes, water pollution is also bad for the economy, and thats because we do not want that the water in our world is polluted just that easily by us. We want to prevent water pollution, and we can only do this by developing new technologies and build solutions, which all cost money, lots of money. There are a lot of causes for water pollution, and it happens all around the world, so if we want to prevent it, we have to come up with solutions all over the world, so all over the world it will cost money, which isnt that good for the economy.

What can be done about water pollution

You can conserve water by turning off the tap when it is not necessary. By this you prevent water shortages and you reduce the amount of water that is contaminated.

Do Not throw rubbish into your sink or toilet, like paint and oil.

Try to use as much as environmentally friendly household products so you will not pollute the water when it is washed away.

Do Not throw rubbish into rivers, lakes and oceans. Collect litter you find on beaches or in rivers and throw them away in the bin.

Try to educate the worlds population about water pollution.

Penalties when polluting water without reason.

Clean up nuclear waste and toxic chemicals so they do not leak into groundwater.

Treat industrial

What is already being done about water pollution

Everywhere in the world government are making their inhabitants clear to stick to the solutions given above to control water pollution. However there are also some laws made to control water pollution. The major law on global scale on water pollution legislation is the act set up in1988 which banned ocean dumping in 1988. In 2000 the European Union required all European Countries to have their quality of ground and surface water at a high level by the end of 2015. In the Netherlands the water quality is controlled by “Waterschappen” locally and on more broad scale by “het ministerie van Verkeer en Waterstaat”. The Netherlands adepts the European legislation because they think it is fair enough. There is a specific law for prohibits people and companies to discharge polluted water without permission. There are no specific further laws on water pollution in the Netherlands.

In what countries is water pollution most likely to happen?

Africa:

Southern Africa is on top of the worlds most water polluted countries. This is because of the agricultural and industrial activities. Waste products and other poisoned materials are unloaded into the nearest lakes or rivers which causes serious water pollution and a lack of clear drinking water.

Europe:

The most polluted coasts in Europe are of Lithuania and Estonia. 70% of all surface waters in the Czech Republic are polluted due to industrial activities. Hungarys tap water is contaminated for 40%. Poland has a high rate of water pollution which causes even a lack of water for industrial use. The Baltic Sea is one of the most polluted in the world.

Asia:

In Asia the most polluted waters are to be found in China. About 360 million people lack access to safe drinking water. Almost 70% of Chinas water is heavily polluted. This is due to industrial influence and untreated sewages. About 2 million people in china have suffered from serious diseases caused by the drinking of the polluted water.

America:

Approximately 40% of the nations surveyed lakes, rivers, and estuaries were too polluted for such basic uses as drinking supply, fishing, and swimming. The pollutants include grit, asbestos, phosphates and nitrates, mercury, lead, caustic soda and other sodium compounds, sulfur and sulfuric acid, oils, and petrochemicals.

Australia:

Australia has a very low rate of water pollution which is continually declining. There are many water projects going on in Australia and the people are really enthusiastic to help solve the problem of water pollution.

Local water pollution:

Algae in the Erensteiner ponds caused by an overdose of phosphate (the phosphate originated from the fields next to the ponds. It was used as synthetic nutrient for the field but leaked into the pond) the overdose caused the fish to die and the ecosystem to collapse. It took several years for the 3 ponds to recover and fish had to be inserted to get the population going again. Other water plants soon followed suit as many of them started to spread again.

National water pollution:

In Liege (Luik) Belgium there are chemicals being poured into the Maas causing this river to be inhospitable for fish and water plants alike. The pollution in the river the Maas was caused by dumping of mercury and nuclear radiation along with pesticides from surrounding fields. In 2000 a study showed that the Maas was the most polluted river since the water protection act in 1970. As the Maas approaches the Dutch border at Liege, Belgium the pollution gets worse as the many factories of Liege are dumping waste illegally. Sampling further downstream shows that the water quality gets better as the Maas water is processed into drinking water and has been through filtering screens.

The Groningen peat colonies:

From 1850 onwards the Groninger peat colonies were the largest suppliers of peat in the Netherlands. But this had a devastating impact on the surrounding waters which lost all their inhabitants because of the strong pollution. The peat winning at the fields created such amounts of dirt and the pumps pumped out dirty water into canals that surrounding canals where full of dead fish. In the 20th century the Dutch government wanted this problem which engulfed nearly all of Groningen to be stopped. It was not until 1987 that the mining of peat was seized (because of the low demand) and the problem needed no further solving.

International:

The Exxon Valdez was an oil tanker which spilled 11 million gallons of oil after ramming a coral reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska.

Although 11 million gallons is a small amount compared to other oil spills around the world, but the remote location and surrounding wildlife made this disaster the worst environmental catastrophe in human history. The oil eventually covered 3400 square kilometers of ocean.

This spill so close to the Alaskan shore caused half a million seabirds to die as a consequence, together with 1500 otters and 22 orcas. Even unborn wildlife was destroyed as this area was a known breeding ground for salmon which was completely destroyed.

The Shell company ( A Dutch company) used Nigeria as their biggest oil well which provided them with 80% of their crude oil. Shell has paid the workers there well, so what is the problem?

The problems are that the money which shell gave to the government which promised to better the infrastructure was used for personal spending by politicians. Other problems were the pollution of groundwater, ponds and freshwater-wells. This second issue has left over half a million people in Nigeria lost their accessibility to safe drinking water, which resulted in a huge water deficit killing hundreds of people. The Nigerian government tried to cover up this situation but environmental activist protested fiercely against this unfairness. But after the Nigerian government hanged 9 people in 1995, which caused massive uprising around the world, the government could no longer hide the disaster they had gotten themselves into. This caused a major boycott of the shell company and it took years before shell redeemed the trust of customers.

(Amnesty international volunteers protesting the unfairness of the exploitation in Nigeria)

Solutions:

There are no solutions to accidents such as system failures on an oil tanker or incidents like such. But there should be a higher sentence for people illegally dumping toxic waste in bodies of water which sustain life. Not only is it no longer useable for us humans when such incidents occur but the entire ecosystem of this body of water is disrupted or vanishes completely. When somebody goes about and pollutes water on purpose, then he should be held responsible for the death of wildlife and not only for contaminating the water so it cannot be used for human purposes.

Project Water Pollution made by:

Sabrina Hein

Martijn Wennekes

Bram Gootzen

Rendy Jansen

Luca Vello