{"id":5179,"date":"2017-09-13T08:49:43","date_gmt":"2017-09-13T08:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aquaread.com\/?p=5179"},"modified":"2019-08-27T16:10:46","modified_gmt":"2019-08-27T16:10:46","slug":"what-are-the-biggest-sources-of-water-pollution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aquaread.com\/blog\/what-are-the-biggest-sources-of-water-pollution\/","title":{"rendered":"What Are The Biggest Sources of Water Pollution?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Water pollutants can come in many different forms and can have dramatic impacts on fragile ecosystems and aquatic life. <\/span><\/p>\n

There are a huge number of different sources of pollutants and each can have very different levels of harmfulness and environmental impact. In order to explain this further this article explains why water pollution is such an issue, as well as some of its main causes.
\n\"Water<\/p>\n

What classifies as water pollution and why is it an issue?<\/span><\/h2>\n

The UN declared 2005-2015 as the International Decade for Action \u2018Water for Life\u2019. Yet each day thousands of people still die as a result of contaminated water. This does not even take into account the millions of organisms that perish every year thank to polluted water sources.<\/span><\/p>\n

Water pollution is a huge issue that is made more so by the fact that unfortunately, water is easily solvent. This means that most chemicals are capable of breaking down within it, <\/span>causing contamination. <\/span><\/p>\n

Water pollution is the environmental degradation of water bodies via contamination, usually as a result a lack of effort to remove harmful man-made chemicals before pollutants are discharged. Of all sources marine pollutions, 80% comes from the land.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are two main classifications of water pollution; point and nonpoint. Point pollutants come from a single sources, such as a leak, whilst non-point contamination are the results of an accumulation of pollutants from various sources.<\/span><\/p>\n

We also need to take into account the different types of water. When thinking of water, most will automatically consider the obvious surface waters; lakes, rivers and oceans. But Earth\u2019s water doesn\u2019t solely consist of liquid existing in these locations. There is also groundwater: water held underground in aquifers which feed into these surface waters. Therefore anything that contaminates the groundwater in the aquifers will also likely contaminate the surface water. <\/span><\/p>\n

Surface water pollutants are often more obvious; the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico, whilst an extreme example, shows how much more obvious superficial pollutants can be. Yet pollutants, however they enter the system, can be detrimental to life on the planet, thanks to our dependency on clean water. <\/span><\/p>\n

According the <\/span>2010 report, \u2018Sick Water<\/span><\/a>\u2019, more people die from contaminated water than from war.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Polluted<\/p>\n

Whilst not all water pollution is organic, with some coming from trees, plants and other organic sources, the biggest offenders are man-made and do not seem to be decreasing. Global warming is also intensifying the problem. During heavy rain or floods, pathogens – disease causing bacteria – <\/span>like Leptospira, hepatitis, norovirus and cryptosporidium become increasingly problematic<\/span><\/a>. As the human population increases, so too does the pressure on the environment.<\/span><\/p>\n

The most common non-organic pollutants<\/span><\/h2>\n

The most commonly recognised non-organic pollutants are:<\/span><\/p>\n