Site Title

Water Pollution and the Solution

Abstract

The report is to aim at the causes of water pollution and the solution. It is showing what the causes of water pollution are, what the effects of water pollution are, and what the solution to the problem of water pollution is. In addition, it describes how and why water is polluted. With the general information to give the knowledge of the purpose, the report shows the pollutants that cause wastewater, the effects that harm the environment, human health, and the economy. More importantly, the report gives readers the understanding of the water conservation. If they can figure it out, then they can do something to contribute to keeping water clean. Finally, the report shows the solution that can help prevent water from pollution and help conserve water. 

​Introduction

Water pollution results in the lack of clean water in many countries in the world. The problem is not new to many people. However, if people just know it and do nothing to contribute to solving the problem, then people in the countries such as India, Libya, and South Africa must still suffer from the shortage of clean water. They are dying and dying every day since they have to use dirty water. In an article of the Vietnam News Agency, Long writes, “On World Water Day March, 22 2020, the Secretary-General of United Nations (UNSG) Antonio Guterres has issued a warning that if the countries do no more efforts for help, then between 3.5 and 4.4 billion people worldwide will suffer from the scarcity of clean water by 2050.” The writing that adds more, “About 2.2 billion people right now have no clean water for their daily use …” makes this report appeared. The purpose of the research is to find out what the causes of water pollution are, and why and how the causes happen. Then, it works on the solution to see what should be done to make water clean. The point in the report is to show the readers the problems so that they can understand why water is polluted, how water pollution affects the environment, human health, and the economy. The report will also show many ways of the solution, from which the readers may think about what they should do to contribute to the solution. The following steps are the causes of water pollution, the effects of water pollution, and the solution.  

The Causes of Water Pollution

There are many causes of water pollution coming from industrial zones, domestic sewage, and agricultural areas. The wastewater with poison substances released from those sections makes water polluted. According to Amadeo, untreated water kills more than two-million people each year. (2019, November 11). It seems more dangerous for people when the United Nations estimates that 80% of sewage in the world is untreated. Additionally, all pollutants such as metal, pesticides, dyes, pathogens, fluoride, and even pharmaceuticals are the worst causes of water pollution. In a writing of Environmental Pollution Centers Organization, the author says that “The main sources of pollution are all resulted from the disposal of chemical substances coming from medical, industrial and household waste, and chaotic agricultural fertilizers disposal.” Thus, this shows that the causes of water pollution clearly arise from industrial zones, domestic sewage, and agricultural areas.

​Industrial zones discharge most of pollutants such as toxic chemicals, sediments, heat, petroleum waste, sulfur dioxide, and radioactive substances. All of them cause water to be polluted. These pollutants are likely to cause people many diseases such as cancer, birth defects, neurological diseases, and respiratory diseases. 

  • ​Domestic sewage is one of the worst causes, from which water is badly polluted. Nathanson says in his article that domestic sewage is the primary source of pathogens and putrescible organic substances. (March 13, 2020). Wastewater from the sinks, showers, and toilets flowing into stream of water without going through wastewater treatment system is the source of many diseases such as diarrhea, gastrointestinal disorder, etc. Moreover, domestic trash causes ocean extreme pollution, and damages water environment.
  • ​Agricultural areas are also the cause of water pollution. Agricultural farmers protect their products with too much plant nutrients and fertilizer. As a result, they pollute water. Therefore, not only domestic sewage and industrial waste are the causes of water pollution, but agriculture is also one of them. Additionally, pollutants in farms coming from animal waste runoff and livestock nitrogen waste kill clean water supplies.
  • The causes of water pollution can obviously appear everywhere. However, people do not care about it, or they just look at it as if it were normal in the daily life. A disregard of it is also one of the causes of water pollution.

​Why water being polluted has been showed, and the following step is to see how the effects of water pollution on environment, on human health, and on economy are in danger.

​The Effects of Water Pollution

The effects of water pollution critically jeopardize the environment, human health, and the economy. How can a country be developed with the bad condition of environmental damage, unhealthy people, and economic vulnerability? That is why the description of the effects of water pollution will be in details, and the readers can see the heart of the problem.

  • Environmental pollution is a serious problem. Water pollution damages seriously environment. Because water pollution causes algae bloom in a marine environment, they grow up and reduce oxygen levels in water. Chemicals and metals from industrial wastewater contaminate waterways. (Denchak, Melissa May 14, 2018). Environmental pollution also causes the lack of clean water to many countries in the world. Amadeo describes in her article that the Mississippi River dumps tons of nitrogen from fertilizer into the Gulf of Mexico each summer. This creates “dead zone”. When environment is polluted, it affects badly human health. 
  • ​Clearly, the effect on human health is drastically. The result of serious illness from water pollution and environmental pollution is even worse. Many kinds of diseases from using contaminated water cause a large number of death, while billions of people get sick every year. Cancer, birth defects, respiratory effect, neurological effect occur in people because of water pollution. (Denchak, Melissa May 14, 2018). Since water is polluted, many countries in the world have no clean water for their daily use. It greatly occurs in India, Libya, and South Africa, where too many people have to use dirty water. A huge amount of sickness is so fearful. In an article of Environmental Pollution Centers Organization, the writer depicts, “The health effects of drinking contaminated water may range from simple intoxication and stomach aches to deadly diseases or sudden death.”
  • ​Economy is not exclusive from the effects of water pollution. An article of Water Pollution Resource Organization describes that water pollution can damage the economy as it is expensive to treat and prevent contamination. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the increase of drinking water treatment costs drastically. For example, nitrate-removal systems in Minnesota caused supply costs to rise from 5-10 cents per 1000 gallons to over $4 per 1000 gallons. Additionally, Amadeo says that water pollution affects the economy in the four main areas. It costs the treatment of drinking water. It obviously damages tourism. In fact, tourists cannot enjoy swimming, snorkeling, and boating in the polluted water areas. It kills fishing breeding and commercial. It decreases the value of houses, too.

​As the effects of water pollution on the environment, on human health, and on the economy are obvious, the solution to the problem must be highly considered. Many people cannot do as much as they want to help clean water supplies, but they can do as much as they can. The next step is the solution that can help people understand what they can do to reduce water pollution. 

The Solution

There are many ways of the solution. One is the prevention of water pollution that includes wastewater treatment systems and green agriculture. Moreover, storm water management and water conservation are also the significant ways of solution.

  • ​Prevention

Prevention of water pollution is very important. Every day, people use clean water, and they change it into wastewater that flows to rivers and streamlines, and makes natural water polluted. Industrial zones cause water to be polluted more than anywhere else does, even though they all have the wastewater treatment systems, thanks to the law. In addition, it is much better if every house has the water treatment system at home. Before wastewater going to rivers, it should go through treatment center. It must significantly reduce water pollution. All farms should also have the systems of wastewater treatment, because those areas mostly discharge a large number of pollutants.            

– Wastewater treatment is one of the ways to prevent water from pollution. Not only the industrial zones that should set up wastewater treatment systems, but domestic sewage and agricultural areas are the place where people must concern about setting up the wastewater treatment systems. “Wastewater treatment consists of removing pollutants from wastewater through a physical, chemical or biological process,” explained Sedlak. Thus, it must be better to clean up wastewater with the treatment system before it comes to water lines.                  

– Green agriculture is very important in the role of prevention of water pollution. Farmers should manage the less use of fertilizer, pesticides, and herbicides to keep soil from poison and reduce pollutant in the farms. A writing in Solarimpulse Foundation notes, “Agriculture has impact on water pollution due to the use of chemicals such as fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, and insecticides …” Today, people tent to consume organic food, and it is the good way to reduce water pollution. The more people consume organic food, the greener agriculture would be. It is so important that people call upon, “protect plants, protect life”.

  • Stormwater management

Stormwater management can also prevent water pollution. If people can set up a system to store stormwater, they have no waste of water. Sometimes, people do not pay attention to stormwater management because they have no knowledge of its usefulness. In fact, it can help consume fewer water supplies, and cost less money from payment for water supplies. Sedlak investigates methods to recycle stormwater into water that is safe to drink, reducing the burden of urban water consumption on traditional source. (2018, October 9). In addition, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “Storm water management is the effort to reduce runoff of rainwater or melted snow into streets, lawns, and other sites and the improvement of water quality”. These clearly show the benefit in stormwater management.

  • ​Water conservation

In an article, Sedlak says, “Without water conservation, we won’t go very far. It is central in making sure the world has better access to clean water.” Reusing waster is one of the ways to prevent water pollution. Agricultural areas can reuse water through wastewater treatment system. Besides these, everyone should have knowledge of water conservation. This is the easy way for people to do. If they try to conserve water, they are contributing to the prevention of water pollution and they can save many lives in the world. In an article of Earth Eclipse page, Madaan depicts, “Water is a limit resource, and a rapidly growing global population leads to a growing global water crisis. While at least 75% of the planet is covered in water, only 1% of it is available for usage. The rest is either saline water or frozen. That is why water conservation is essential.”

​The solution must be the priority of consideration as it is very important for many countries to access to clean water supplies. People in the rich countries have no worry about clean water, because they are supplied everything they want. On the other hand, people in the poor or developing countries have no clean water. If most people think about contributing to the solution to water pollution, then clean water supplies will be no longer the hope and wish of poor people. It is because they do have it.

​Conclusion

Billions of people in the world cannot access to clean water, and more often than not, the serious diseases occur in those people. The statistic of diseases and death makes the rich countries concern about the solution to water pollution. If people know that water pollution is causing drastically illnesses, then the solution is the most important thing to help those poor countries access to clean water for their daily lives. However, sometimes other people have ignored the problem, or they have had no knowledge of it, they are not trying to contribute to the prevention of water pollution and the process of wastewater treatment. With the expansion in detail of the causes, of the effects, and of the solution in the report, the readers can understand how and what those matters are, so they can do their best to help clean water supplies. Consequently, the solution and the prevention of water pollution will reach the excellent result.

​Recommendation for Future Research

After researching information to work on the report, I would like to recommend we should propose new research on wastewater treatment systems for Vietnam. Like many Asian countries, Vietnam has the bad sewage systems. Although the people can comfortably access to the clean water supplies, the wastewater treatment systems are still necessary. The water lines are badly polluted. The high cost of clean water is the big concern.

​I understand that many horrible kinds of waste damage water. The sanitation workers soak themselves in sewage to clean up the drains to prevent streets from flood when the rains come. The government greatly considers the problem since many of the workers died of cancer. Therefore, the practical research on the wastewater treatment systems for home in Vietnam must be helpful for them.

​I also need to work with Vietnamese architects and engineers to figure out how to design the system to be suitable for the Vietnam houses.

I am willing to work on the next research with description of details.

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