05-11-2024
WATER POLLUTION
British poet W. H. Auden once noted, “Thousands have lived without love,
not one without water.” Yet while we all know water is crucial for life, we trash
it anyway. Some 80 percent of the world’s wastewater is dumped—largely
untreated—back into the environment, polluting rivers, lakes, and oceans.
WATER POLLUTION
Water pollution means undesirable changes in physical, chemical or
biological properties of water that makes it unfit for use by human and
other living beings.
There are certain symptoms of water pollution: changed colour,
offensive smell, bad taste, unchecked growth of aquatic weeds, oily
material floating on surface, and death of fish and other aquatic
organisms.
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Important Facts on Water pollution
• Only about 3% surface water is fresh water
• One fifth of the world’s population lacks the access of clean water
• Over 2.6 billion people do not have adequate toilets.
• More than 2 million children are killed by diarrheal diseases each year
• Demand of water will double in next 30 years
Causes of Water Pollution
• Water is uniquely vulnerable to pollution. Known as a “universal solvent,” water is
able to dissolve more substances than any other liquid on earth. That’s why water is
so easily polluted. Toxic substances from farms, towns, and factories readily
dissolve into and mix with it, causing water pollution.
Water pollutants: Types
Organic pollutants: Majority of them are derivatives of living beings while
some compounds are synthetic. They include (a) Natural organic pollutants,
(b) Sewage and industrial effluents, (c) Synthetic organic chemicals (SOCs),
(d) Microbiological pollutants, and (e) Oils.
Inorganic pollutants: These include variety of inorganic chemicals like
mineral acids, bases, salts, metals, heavy metals etc. They come from
natural sources (rocks) as well as man made sources (industries).
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Water pollutants: Types
Water pollutants: Types
Radioactive pollutants: These include different radioactive substances which
are released into water from natural sources (rocks) as well as man made
sources (nuclear waste, weapons etc.).
Suspended solids and sediments: These include insoluble impurities like soil,
sand and other solid particles which either remain as suspension in water or
form sediments. Sources include soil erosion (by agriculture, mining,
construction), sewage and other effluents.
Heat or thermal pollution: Heated water from thermal power plants and
industries is often discharged in water bodies. This increases temperature of
water and decreases dissolved oxygen.
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Water pollutants: Types
Sources of water pollution
Major sources of water pollution include: Nature (death and decay of plants and
animals), soil erosion, agricultural run-off, mining (acid mine drainage), municipal
sewage, industrial effluents, accidental spillage etc.
There are two types of sources of water pollution:
• Point sources: Sources whose location can be identified as single point. e.g.,
sewage and industrial effluent
• Non-point or diffused or area sources: Sources that are scattered over a
large area or that can not be identified as single point. e.g., run-off from
agricultural land, forests, construction etc
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Sources of water pollution
• Chemical characteristics of wastewater:
• Oxygen Demanding Waste:
• The municipal wastewater mostly sewage usually has high
biodegradable organic matter (food waste, vegetable waste and other
waste) which can be measured in terms of biochemical oxygen
demand(BOD) or chemical oxygen demand(COD).
• Non-biodegradable :
• Organic materials like plastic, rubber, etc.
• Toxic and trace organics:
• This includes pesticide residue, detergents, soaps, paints, dyes and
other chemicals. These are toxic and hazardous to health even in
trace quantities.
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Effects of water pollution
Water pollution has following types of adverse effects on properties of water:
• Physical effects: It includes increased temperature, depletion of dissolved oxygen (DO),
increased turbidity, altered colour, oily surface etc. This results in reduced
photosynthesis and loss of aquatic life.
• Oxidation effects: It includes biological and chemical oxidation. As a result of this,
different impurities get oxidized (e.g., sulphides into sulphate, ammonia into nitrite and
nitrates) at the cost of dissolved oxygen.
• Micro-organism effects: Different micro-organisms (e.g., bacteria, virus) found in dirty
water cause a number of water borne diseases e.g., cholera, typhoid, hepatitis,
dysentery etc.
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Effects of water pollution
• Toxic chemical effects: This includes poisonous effects of different compounds which
results into fatal diseases or deaths of living beings. e.g., toxic metals like cadmium,
mercury, chromium cause damage to liver, kidney and brain. Similarly pesticides, acids,
dioxins cause damage.
• Nutrient effects and Eutrophication: Agricultural run-off brings lots of nutrients
(nitrates and phosphates) to water bodies. This results into excessive growth of water
weeds (chiefly algae) all over the surface and death of underlying organisms due to
oxygen shortage. Finally the aquatic ecosystem collapse (destroyed). This is called
Eutrophication.
Eutrophication
• Eutrophication is when a body of
water becomes overly enriched with
minerals and nutrients which induce
excessive growth of algae. This
process may result in oxygen
depletion of the water body after the
bacterial degradation of the algae.
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Industrial Wastes and Effluents
Industrial wastes and their effluents include poisonous materials like acids,
alkalis, salts, phenols, cyanides, zinc, insecticides which make water toxic
and deoxygenated and eventually do not support aquatic life.
Mercury causes Minamata disease
Oils reduce rate of oxygen uptake by water, retards light intensity by 90%
Arsenic causes Black foot disease
Asbestos causes Asbestosis
Beryllium causes Berylliosis
Cadmium causes Itai-Itai disease.
Minamata Blackfoot Itai-Itai diseases
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Insecticides and Pesticides
These are biologically active
chemicals used for pest
control. They include DDT
(Dichloro Diphenyl
Trichloroethane), aldrin etc.
Increased accumulation of
these substances in food
chain at higher trophic level
is called biological
magnification.
Control measures and prevention of water pollution
Following strategies are adopted for controlling water pollution:
• Two approaches are used: input control and output control.
• Input control means ‘reducing generation of pollutants’ while output control
means ‘controlling pollutants after being produced’.
• Output control further involves two strategies: volume reduction and strength
reduction. Volume reduction means reducing total volume of pollutant while
strength reduction means reducing harmful effects of pollutants.
• Both, volume and strength of the polluted water can be reduced by different
types of water treatment plants (WTP). This includes Sewage Treatment Plants
(STP) and Effluent Treatment Plants (ETP).
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Wastewater Treatment
In these treatment plants, pollutants are removed through sequential
steps that include: Preliminary, Primary treatment, Secondary
treatment and Tertiary treatment.
In Primary treatment bigger impurities are removed using physical
processes (sedimentation, filtering, decanting).
In Secondary treatment organic compounds are oxidized by
biochemical oxidation (in presence of bacteria).
In Tertiary treatment, the remaining impurities are oxidized by
chemical oxidants and disinfection is done by UV-rays, ozone etc.
Wastewater Treatment
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Preliminary Treatment
It involves the removal of floating material, settleable inorganic solids and
greasy materials.
Screens- Device with opening and further classified as coarse (75-150mm),
medium (20-70mm) and fine (< 20 mm)
Shredder- Special device that cut and retain floating and suspended material
Grit Chambers- Heavy inorganic material can be removed. Based on
principle of sedimentation
Skimming Tank- Greasy material can be removed using skimming tank
which is divided into 3 compartments.
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Primary Treatment
It is aimed at removal of suspended organic solids that can not be
removed in preliminary treatment. It involves the process of
sedimentation
Sedimentation is the separation from water by gravitational settling
if suspended particles are heavier than water
Sedimentation tank have inlet zone, settling zone, outlet zone and
sludge zone
Chemicals are added to aid sedimentation such as: alum, iron
salts, lime etc.
Secondary treatment/ Activated Sludge Process
(ASP)/ Biological treatment
• Highly active aerobic bacteria added to the aeration tank.
• Oxygen supplied to the bacteria through surface aerator .
• After primary treatment water enter to aeration tank, where
microorganisms are already present.
• In presence of oxygen and organic matter the bacteria oxidized the
organic waste and started growing very fast by utilizing the organic
matter present in wastewater.
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Water Treatment Processes
Common measures to control pollution
Domestic and industrial wastewaters should be discharged into rivers only after proper
treatment through STPs and ETPs.
Solid wastes must not be mixed with liquid wastes and should not be thrown into to water
bodies. They should be separately managed.
Sources of drinking water should be protected from pollution. Polluting activities (e.g.,
industrial use, discharging effluents, bathing, washing, cattle rearing etc.) must be avoided
in vicinity of source of drinking water.
Water bodies should be regularly cleaned of aquatic weeds, plants and other crude
impurities like polythene, metals, garbage etc. Special breeds of fish, which feed on
mosquito eggs and bacteria, can be cultured in water bodies.
Afforestation must be done for reducing soil erosion and improving local soil hydrology.
Use of agrochemicals need to be minimized.
Public awareness regarding water pollution and its control measures should be created.
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