2010年4月1日 星期四

Causes of Water Pollution

Water is undoubtedly the most precious natural resource that exists on our world, but water pollution seems to be always around us. Water pollution is chemical, physical or biological change in the quality of water that not only has a harmful effect on any living thing that drinks or uses or lives but also harms the natural environment. The reasons to cause water pollution may be various, and it is usually caused by human activities. The major sources of water pollution can be classified into three parts- one is municipality, another is industry, and the other is agriculture.

The first reason to cause water pollution is municipality. Municipal water pollution consists of waste water from homes and commercial establishments. For instance, detergents, insecticide or herbicide that were made by chemical.


Next, industry is another reason for water pollution. The characteristics of industrial waste waters can differ considerably both within and among industries. Some factory facilities generate ordinary domestic sewage that can be treated by municipal facilities. Industries that generate wastewater with high concentrations of conventional pollutants, toxic pollutants or other nonconventional pollutants such as ammonia, need specialized treatment systems.

Finally, agriculture, including commercial livestock and poultry farming that are the source of many organic and inorganic pollutants in surface waters and groundwater. These contaminants include both sediment from erosion cropland and compounds of phosphorus and nitrogen that partly originate in animal wastes and commercial fertilizers.

To sum up, there is only one earth in our world. Three significant cause of water pollution are municipality, industry and agriculture, so finding ways to implement water pollution solutions are the only hope to stem the effects of water pollution on our natural resources, the people and animals that need these resources to survive.