NASC 1001 week 3 Assignment Essay
Water Pollution
Water is the most important resource for survival on a planet. It is the essence of life on our planet – Earth. Yet if you ever see a river or lake around your city, it would be evident to you that we are facing a very serious problem of Water pollution. Let us educate ourselves about water and water pollution. Two-thirds of the Earth’s surface is covered by water, seventy-six perfect of your body is made up of water.NASC 1001 week 3 Assignment Essay
Water and Water Cycle
As you already know water is everywhere and all around. However, we have a fixed amount of water on earth. It just changes its states and goes through a cyclic order, known as the Water Cycle. The water cycle is a natural process that is continuous in nature. It is the pattern in which the water from oceans, seas, lakes, etc gets evaporated and turns to vapor. After which it goes through the process of condensation, and finally precipitation when it falls back to earth as rain or snow.
What is Water Pollution?
Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies (like oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, aquifers, and groundwater) usually caused due to human activities. Water pollution is any change, minor or major in the physical, chemical or biological properties of water that eventually leads to a detrimental consequence of any living organism. Drinking water, called Potable Water, is considered safe enough for human and animal consumption.
Sources of Water Pollution
- Domestic Waste
- Industrial effluents
- Insecticides and pesticides
- Detergents and Fertilizers
Some of the water pollution’s are caused by direct Sources, such as factories, waste management facilities, refineries, etc, that directly releases waste and dangerous by-products into the nearest water source without treating them. Indirect sources include pollutants that infuse in the water bodies via groundwater or soil or via the atmosphere through acidic rain.
Effects of Pollution of Water
The effects of Water Pollution are:
Diseases: In humans, drinking or consuming polluted water in any way has many disastrous effects on our health. It causes typhoid, cholera, hepatitis and various other diseases.
Eradication of Ecosystem: Ecosystem is extremely dynamic and responds to even small changes in the environment. Increasing water pollution can cause an entire ecosystem to collapse if left unchecked.
Eutrophication: Chemicals accumulation and infusion in a water body, encourages the growth of algae. The algae form a layer on top of the pond or lake. Bacteria feed on this algae and this event decreases the amount of oxygen in the water body, severely affecting the aquatic life there
Effects of the food chain: Turmoil in food chain happens when the aquatic animals (fish, prawns, seahorse, etc) consume the toxins and pollutants in the water, and then the humans consume them.NASC 1001 week 3 Assignment Essay
Prevention of Water Pollution
The best way to prevent large-scale water pollution is to try and reduce its harmful effects. There are numerous small changes we can make to protect ourselves from a future where water is scarce.
Conserve Water: Conserving water should be our first aim. Water wastage is a major problem globally and we are only now waking up to the issue. Simple small changes made domestically will make a huge difference.
Treatment of sewage: Treating waste products before disposing of it in water bodies helps reduce water pollution on a large scale. Agriculture or other industries can reuse this wastewater by reducing its toxic contents.
Use of environment-friendly products: By using soluble products that do not go on to become pollutants, we can reduce the amount of water pollution caused by a household.
Conclusion
Life is ultimately about choices and so is water pollution. We cannot live with sewage-strewn beaches, contaminated rivers, and fish that are poisonous to drink and eat. To avoid these scenarios, we can work together to keep the environment clean so the water bodies, plants, animals, and people who depend on it remain healthy. We can take individual or teamed action to help reduce water pollution. As an example, by using environmentally friendly detergents, not pouring oil down the drains, reducing the usage of pesticides, and so on. We can take community action too to keep our rivers and seas cleaner. And we can take action as countries and continents to pass laws against water pollution. Working together, we can make water pollution less of a problem—and the world a better place.
The devastation of water-bodies has been a popular issue today. There are various of causes which are responsible for this adversity. Thus, the effects to human and animal are detrimental. There are many considerations to discuss to be able to learn more about this major catastrophe.
One of the many causes of water pollution is the point source pollution which are industrial plants scattered on the different parts of the world. These plants have been discharging by-products passing through the industrial pipes, straight directly to water bodies such as sea, lakes, and ocean. Thus, affects a major concern to the marine life environment.
Another cause is the sewage leakage underground amid a poor construction and engineering. Hence, this issue may contaminate the waste system underground. In addition, the oil spill from boats on the ocean is also a huge contributor to water pollution, because it is harmful not only to fishes but also to the sea plants which are the sources of oxygen in the ocean.NASC 1001 week 3 Assignment Essay
The effects of contamination of heavy metal content like lead, mercury, and magnesium to the water surface, affects the marine animal due to lead poisoning. This is the primary reason for the high mortality rate of fishes as a result of the polluted water environment, and then affected fish enters in the food chain. Consequently, the effects in human’s health are crucial nd severe.
To sum up, although these causes which contribute major effects to the water pollution are difficult to overcome, people can still mitigate this adversity by being disciplined and responsible member of the community. Hence, people must realize that water is one of the essential sources of life.
Everyone knows the phrase “water is life”. You may use it as a hook for water pollution essay. At present, this problem is the most urgent. Without water, a human cannot live more than three days. But even realizing the importance of the role of water in his life, he still continues to rigidly exploit water objects irrevocably changing their natural regime due to a negative impact of wastes.
The tissues of living organisms consist of 70% water. There is a lot of water on the Earth. But 97% is the salt water of the oceans and seas, and only 3% is fresh water. Three-quarters of this 3% are almost inaccessible to living organisms since this water is “conserved” in glaciers of mountains and polar zones. It is a reserve of fresh water. As for the water available to living organisms, the bulk is in their tissues.
Describe in a water pollution cause and effect essay that before the development of civilization the cycle of water in the biosphere was balanced. The ocean received from rivers as much water as was consumed during its evaporation. If the climate did not change, the rivers would not dry and the level in the lakes would not be lowered.
With the development of civilization, the natural cycle was violated. As a result of irrigation of crops, evaporation from soil increased. The rivers of the southern regions have become shallower. The pollution of the oceans and the appearance of an oil film on their surface have reduced the amount of water evaporated by the ocean. All this worsens the water supply of the biosphere. Droughts become more frequent, and centers of ecological disasters appear.
In addition, fresh water which returns to the ocean and other water bodies from land is often polluted, practically unsuitable for drinking. The relevance of your water pollution research paper should be substantiated by the fact that previously inexhaustible resource becomes exhausted. Today, in many parts of the world, there is not enough water suitable for drinking, industrial production, and irrigation. If you are to give up and buy assignment online, just read this guide and change your mind.NASC 1001 week 3 Assignment Essay
Classification for an essay on pollution’s
1.Chemical pollution
This is the most common and maleficent type of pollution. It can be organic and inorganic, toxic and non-toxic.
1.1 Toxic organic compounds
Due to the toxicity and resistance, pesticides have become an effective tool for controlling pests and weeds. With their help, a human protects crops and improves yield. At the same time, there are many negative aspects which should be described in a “Pesticide water pollution” essay.
Pesticides cause enormous damage to the environment. Because of their accumulation, natural chains of exchange are disrupted, biological and chemical processes slow down. Due to the lack of natural decomposition, various poisons accumulate in the organisms of animals, plants and reach maximum concentrations. When predatory species of animals eat infected prey, they receive a significant dose of toxic substances which continue to develop in their bodies.
Chemicals, dissolved in rainwater and absorbed by soil particles, fall into the groundwater, and then – in rivers of farmland, where they are accumulated in fish and smaller aquatic organisms. Although some creatures have adapted to these harmful substances, there have been cases of mass death of individual species, probably due to poisoning with agricultural pesticides. For example, insecticides rotenone and DDT, pesticides 2,4-D, etc. caused a severe harm to the ichthyofauna.
Even if the concentration of toxic chemicals is non-lethal, these substances can lead to animal death or other harmful consequences at the next stage of the food chain. It’s worth mentioning in an essay on diseases caused by water pollution that gulls died after eating large amounts of fish containing high concentrations of DDT. Some other fish-eating bird species, including the bald eagle and pelican, were threatened with extinction due to reduced reproduction. Because of the pesticides that got into their bodies, the eggshell became so thin and fragile that the eggs were damaged, and the embryos of the chicks died.NASC 1001 week 3 Assignment Essay
1.2 Toxic Metals
Write in a “Problems of water pollution” essay that lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium and other toxic metals also can accumulate in the water environment. With a prolonged, gradual increase in the dose, the same damage is caused as when receiving a single large dose.
A high level of mercury is observed in industrial effluents, lakes, and rivers. Passing through the organisms of bacteria, the toxic substances become even more harmful. Getting into the bodies of people and animals, these poisons cause dysfunctions of the nervous system, brain, and even mutational processes.
Today, fish contaminated with methylmercury regularly gets at our dining tables. Even if the fish does not die due to the absorbed substances, it performs an intermediary role. A human can suffer from poisoning. Also, a lethal outcome is possible.
Another poison that accumulates in the water bodies is arsenic. The scientists found it in cleansers, dyes used in the production of toilet paper, napkins.
Lead was found in industrial waters. It is used in the metal industry, in the manufacture of batteries, gasoline, glass, insecticides, and paints. The same applies to cadmium which is used at battery factories.
1.3 Other inorganic pollutants
Inform the readers of a water pollution argumentative essay that, in the intake basins, some metals (such as iron and manganese) are oxidized in a result of chemical or biological (under the influence of bacteria) processes. For example, rust is formed on the surface of iron and its compounds. Soluble forms of these metals exist in different types of sewage. They were found in the waters leaked from mines and dumps of scrap metal, and also from natural bogs.
Salts of these metals, oxidized in water, become less soluble and form solid residues from solutions. Therefore, the water acquires an unnatural, muddy color. For example, the drainage water of iron ore mines and scrap metal dumps is painted in a red or orange-brown color due to the presence of iron oxides (rust).
Such inorganic contaminants as sodium chloride and sulfate, calcium chloride, etc. (i.e. salts formed during the neutralization of acidic or alkaline industrial effluents) cannot be processed biologically or chemically. Stress in an “Effects of water pollution” essay that, although these substances themselves are not transformed, they affect the quality of the water in effluents. In many cases, it is undesirable to use “hard” water with a high salt content, since it forms a sediment on the walls of pipes and boilers.
Such inorganic substances as zinc and copper are absorbed by muddy bottom sediments of watercourses which take wastewater. Then, together with these fine particles, they are transported by the current. In an acidic environment, their toxic effect is stronger than in a neutral or alkaline environment. In the acid wastewaters of coal mines, zinc, copper, and aluminum reach concentrations that are deadly to aquatic organisms. Some pollutants, even if they are not very toxic, are transformed into harmful compounds during interaction (for example, copper in the presence of cadmium).NASC 1001 week 3 Assignment Essay
2. Biological pollution
2.1. Generation of gases
Use the following biological water pollution facts for an essay. Ammonia is the main product of microbiological decomposition of proteins and animal secretions. Ammonia and its gaseous derivative amines are formed both in the presence and in the absence of oxygen dissolved in water. In the first case, ammonia is oxidized by bacteria with the formation of nitrates and nitrites. In the absence of oxygen, ammonia is not oxidized and its content in water remains stable.
With a decrease in the oxygen content, the formed nitrites and nitrates are converted into nitrogen gas. This often occurs when water draining from fertilized fields and already containing nitrates gets into standing ponds, where organic remains also accumulate. In the bottom sediments of such reservoirs, anaerobic bacteria develop in an oxygen-free environment. They use oxygen present in sulfates and form hydrogen sulfide.
When there is not enough available oxygen in the compounds, other forms of anaerobic bacteria develop. They ensure decay of organic substances. Depending on the type of bacteria, carbon dioxide (CO2), hydrogen (H2) and methane (CH4, a combustible gas without color and odor, which is also called a swamp gas) are formed.
2.2 Biodegradability
It should be mentioned in an essay on water pollution for school students that artificial materials that decompose biologically increase the burden on bacteria, which, in turn, leads to increased consumption of dissolved oxygen. These materials are purposely created in such a way that they can be easily processed by bacteria, i.e. they can decompose. Natural organic substances are usually biodegradable.
In order to endow artificial materials with this property, the chemical composition of many of them (for example, washing and cleaning substances, paper products, etc.) has been changed. The first synthetic detergents were resistant to biodegradation. But when huge masses of soap bubbles began to flow downstream or to accumulate in the municipal sewage treatment plants and disrupt the work of enterprises (because they were saturated with pathogenic microorganisms), this fact attracted public attention.
Manufacturers of detergents solved the problem by making their products biodegradable. But it’s worth noting in an essay on water pollution that such a decision provoked negative consequences, as it led to an increase in the BOD (biochemical oxygen demand) of watercourses that received wastewater, and, consequently, to accelerating the rate of oxygen consumption.NASC 1001 week 3 Assignment Essay
2.3 Eutrophication
Eutrophication is the process of enriching reservoirs with nutrients (especially nitrogen and phosphorus), mainly of biogenic origin. The water body gradually turns into a swamp filled with silt, decomposing plant remains. As a result, it completely dries. In natural conditions, this process takes tens of thousands of years, due to anthropogenic pollution, it proceeds very quickly. For example, under the influence of human, it ends in just a few decades in small ponds and lakes.
Explain in a water pollution essay for students that eutrophication increases when plant growth in the reservoir is stimulated by nitrogen and phosphorus which are present in the fertilizer-containing drains from agricultural land, in cleansers and detergents, other wastes. The water of the lake that receives these effluents represents a fertile environment. There is a rapid growth of aquatic plants which capture the space in which fish usually live.
Dying off, seaweeds and other plants fall to the bottom and decompose due to the influence of oxygen-consuming aerobic bacteria, which worsens the habitat of fish. The lake is filled with seaweeds and small animals eating them. Blue-green algae (or cyanobacteria) make the water look like pea soup with a bad smell and fishy taste, cover the stones with a mucous film. NASC 1001 week 3 Assignment Essay