Table of content

1. Introduction of water pollution ············································································3

2. Causes of water pollution ················································································3-4

3. Effect of water pollution on human health

4. Effect of water pollution on marine life

5. Effect of water pollution on agriculture

6. Effect of water pollution on the food chain

7. Effect of water pollution on economics

8. Oil spills example

9. Radioactive pollution example

10. Banning of sunscreens

11. Ways to prevent water pollution

12. Conclusion

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Introduction of water pollution

Water is one of the most common and essential sources on the Earth, it sustains life on the Earth. It
covers the Earth for almost 70% of its total surface area. For a human, water is the second most
important substance after oxygen. It makes up of about 70% of the mass of an adult and is vital for
survival. Water is also important to plants because they are made up of about 90% of water. Water is
pure, tasteless, colourless and odourless transparent liquid under normal pressure. Water is used for
drinking, transportation, agriculture, generation of electricity, domestic uses and more. Fresh water
can be found in rivers, lakes, oceans and underground. However, as the human population increases,
the improvement in technology, urbanisation and industrialisation had reduced the quality of water.
Water can be polluted by microorganisms, toxic chemical substances, organic and inorganic
substances. Water pollution is the change in biological, chemical and physical characteristics of
water and this alteration can lead to damaging effects on human and aquatic life. It has become one
of the major threats to life on the Earth including humans and plants. Although water pollution is
one of the toughest challenges faced by all countries in the world, it seems to be more serious
yearly. The ignorance of the severity of the water pollution has made water pollution like an
unexploded bomb.

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Causes of water pollution

It is common knowledge that water is a universal solvent, hence many substances can dissolve in it.
As a result, water is easily contaminated when pollutants dissolve in it. The sources of water
pollution are as below:

1. Industrial wastes
Due to the high speed of technological improvement and the increase in population,
industrialisation arises to maintain the living quality of humans. Since the 1760s, many factories
have been set up for production and manufacturing. During the manufacturing process, a massive
number of wastes like toxic chemicals such as heavy metals, untreated wastewater and extremely
high-temperature water were produced at the same time. To lower the cost of making, some
industry factories with improper waste management would dispose wastes in the freshwater system
such as rivers, lakes and oceans. As mentioned above, these wastes are readily dissolved in water
and cause water pollution.

2. Agriculture
Food is an essential need for a human to survive. As the human population increases, the demand
for food increases, therefore more crops need to be planted to provide food. Farmers use chemical
pesticides and fertilisers to ensure the quality of the crops and prevent them to be harmed by insects
and bacteria. The toxic components in the pesticides and fertilisers will pollute underground water
when the pesticides are applied to the soil. Water pollution is further serious when these
components dissolve in rainwater and flow into rivers and oceans.

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3. Domestic sewage
Domestic sewage is the main source of water pollution which contains human faeces and urine,
used water for bathroom, washing and other waste product from daily life. It contains a high
number of organic substances, phosphorus and nitrogen. It also contains a large number of
microorganisms that can cause various diseases. Domestic sewage that is dumped directly into
freshwaters is the major cause of water pollution in the world, it pollutes the water chemically and
physically.

4. Radioactive waste
The waste is produced from nuclear power plants, the production of nuclear weapons and also
uranium mining. Some irresponsible facilities would dispose the radioactive wastes improperly
without any treats and directly into the environment such as rivers and oceans. Radioactive wastes
pollute water because there is dangerous radiation emitted by unstable nuclei of an element or
radioisotopes such as uranium.

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5. Oil spills
It is the major cause of water pollution in oceans. As oil is insoluble in water, it contaminates water
by floating above the surface of the water. Water transportation is an essential element in the
logistics field. Huge ships containing tons of petroleum will cause serious water pollution when
there is an accident that results in oil leaks or oil spills in the ocean. Petroleum also plays an
important role as a source of energy, the number of oil platforms in the ocean is always increasing
so that more petroleum can be mined to provide energy and support the economy of a country such
as Saudi Arabia. Oil leaks during the oil drilling operations also contribute to water pollution in the
oceans.

Effect of water pollution on human health

As mentioned above, water plays a vital role in human survival as it contributes about 70% of the
body mass of a human. Humans need water to maintain body temperature and carry out various
chemical reactions like cell respiration. Humans need to consume enough amount of water to stay
hydrated and survive. Although 70% of the Earth is covered by water and about 3% of Earth’s water
is freshwater, but there is only about 0.3% of the Earth’s water is drinkable because there is a
portion of water locked up in glaciers, ice caps or extremely underneath the Earth’s surface. So the
availability of drinking water on the Earth is very limited. Water can be easily polluted by
dissolving harmful substances or containing pathogens. It would be dangerous if human drinks
polluted water in daily life. In this modern era, drinking clean and safe water is not a big deal for
people who have high living quality because the water is treated and free from harmful substances
and microorganisms, but people with lower living quality are in danger because the water they
drink everyday may be polluted and is not safe to drink at all. If the drinking water contains heavy
metals such as lead, mercury and cadmium, these hazardous chemicals can cause chronic toxicity,
damage to the liver and kidney and even cancers. It is more dangerous if a pregnant woman drinks
water contaminated by these heavy metals as they drastically increase the chance of miscarriage. On
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the other hand, water can also be polluted by harmful microorganisms like bacteria and viruses. The
intake of water polluted by these pathogens would lead to the spread of waterborne diseases, for
instance, cholera, diarrhoea, thyroid and hepatitis. The spread of these diseases can be extremely
fast if the population shares one source of water. There are over 2 million people in the world who
suffer from drinking faeces-contaminated water. According to WHO, there are 485000 deaths
caused by the diseases mentioned above and most of them were children aged 5 years old and
below.

Effect of water pollution on marine life

Rivers, lakes, ponds and oceans are the habitat for all aquatic life. Once their habitats are polluted,
they would be affected by different aspects. If the water is polluted by chemical wastes, radioactive
wastes or heavy metals such as mercury, leads and arsenic, the aquatic life would undergo
mutations or even death. As mentioned above, sewage or organic substances that contain high levels
of phosphorus and nitrogen encourage the growth of algae and aquatic plants and this phenomenon
is known as eutrophication. When these plants die and decay, they are decomposed by aerobic
bacteria. It uses the oxygen in the water for living. As a result, this causes a depletion of the
dissolved oxygen content of the water and an increase in biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) level.
The algae growing on the surface of the water and oil spills floating on the surface of the water
prevent oxygen from dissolving into the water, eventually lowering the oxygen content level in the
water. Therefore, aquatic life will suffer from insufficient oxygen and eventually die. On the other
hand, these substances that covering on the surface of the water also prevents the penetration of
sunlight into the sea. Aquatic plants living under the water cannot carry out photosynthesis due to
the lack of sunlight, so they will die. When these aquatic plants die, aquatic life that consumes
plants would also die because there is no food for them. Oxybenzone in sunscreens is highly toxic
to coral reefs, causing coral bleaching and DNA damage.

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Effect of water pollution on agriculture

Water is essential to plants as it makes up 90% of a plant. The growth of plants is influenced when
they are watered with polluted water. Water containing heavy metals like lead and mercury affects
enzymes that are used to synthesise chlorophyll, causing a decrease in photosynthesis rate.
Consequently, the plants will die due to the lack of food. Heavy metals also reduce the viability of
seed and pollen, resulting in reproduction being affected. Some toxic chemicals lead to soil acidic
and the solubility of mineral salts, for example, calcium, iron and magnesium. They are important
to ensure the growth of plants and the synthesis of chlorophyll. When the soil is acidic, they are
removed quickly by water into rivers and lakes. Without these nutrients, the growth of plants will be
halted or die. Hence, the quality and the number of crops decrease.

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Effect of water pollution on the food chain

The toxin can be moved from one trophic level to another higher level. For example, when seawater
is polluted, the fish inside the sea carries the toxin in its body. When humans consume the fish, the
toxin can be transferred from the fish to humans. Also, green plants are the producer, they are in the
first tropic level. When they are dead due to the uptake of contaminated water, the organisms in the
second tropic level as known as a primary consumer, like herbivores will lose their food they die.
The organisms in the upper trophic levels such as carnivores and omnivores will consequently die
due to the loss of food.

Effect of water pollution on economics

Water pollution can affect the economy of a country directly or indirectly. For some tourism-based
economy countries such as Maldives and Hawaii of the United States, clean sea water and beaches
play an important role in supporting the economy. Every year, millions of tourists from all around
the world come to these places to enjoy the beautiful views and the clean seawater. When the
seawater is polluted, fewer tourists will come to visit these places. As a result, the unemployment
rate in these places will increase and affects the country’s economy. On the other hand, the quality
and quantity of crops will be reduced when the water used for agriculture is polluted. Hence, the
domestic economy will be affected in agriculture-dependent countries such as Liberia, Somalia and
Guinea-Bissau. Also, countries that export agricultural products such as Indonesia, China and the
United States will be affected drastically due to the drop in quality and quantity of crops. Next, the
contaminated water needs to be managed properly and goes through a series of treatment processes
before it is discharged or used. The management and treatment of polluted water take a high cost for
a country. For instance, it is estimated to cost 400-550 billion dollars for Japan to dispose and
decontaminate the nuclear reactor and the radioactively polluted water by the Japan Center for
Economic Research. Last but not least, the fishing industry will be affected indirectly by water
pollution due to food safety and the quantity of seafood. When the sea is polluted, the health of the
aquatic life will be threatened, some of them may not be safe for humans to consume. As a result,
the quantity of seafood caught by the fishermen will be reduced drastically. Consequently, the
fishermen will loss their job, the number of seafood to be exported will decrease and affects the
economy of a country.

Oil spills example

One of the largest and most serious oil spills in the history is Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It
happened on 20 April 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico. It was caused by a blowout and explosion of a
deep-sea drilling platform called Deepwater Horizon rented by The British Petroleum Company
(BP), resulting in an oil spill. The accident killed 11 staff members and injured 17. In the next 87
days, there are 3.2 million barrels of oil being released into the ocean. As a result, at least 2500

9
square kilometres of seawater are covered by oil. After the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, BP paid
sky-high compensation due to neglecting industrial safety and ecological security and the
accumulated "recovery support funds" in 10 years exceeded $69 billion. This accident caused a
massive negative impacts on fish, birds and plants. Large number of marine life died due to
suffocation or being poisoned by toxic chemicals in the oil. The toxic substances absorbed into the
body of the fish caused damage to the liver. Although the offshore fish farm in the Gulf of Mexico
has recovered well, the number of small deep-sea fish has decreased by 60 to 80% a year after the
disaster and the number has not recovered since then.

Radioactive pollution example

On 11 March 2011, the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami that happened in Japan caused large-scale
damage to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The radioactive substances leaked from the
nuclear power plants seriously contaminated the water around them. There are high levels of
radioisotopes found in the sample taken from the seawater around the nuclear power plant such as
caesium-134, caesium-137 and iodine-131. These radioisotopes are harmful and can be
accumulated in the body of some marine organisms. Some seafood was highly contaminated and
was unsafe to eat. Hence, the Japanese government has instituted strict regulatory restrictions on
fish caught for food preventing fish that exceeds the specific radioactive levels from entering the
local market and not being exported. There is 125 tonnes of radioactively polluted water that needs
to be treated, it is estimated to take 20-30 years to complete the whole process. Although Tokyo
Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO) has taken measures to reduce wastewater production,
but 140 tonnes of wastewater will be produced every day and the storage will reach saturation in
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2022. On 12 April 2021, the Prime Minister of Japan decided to release the treated water into the
ocean. Although the Japanese government emphasises the wastewater to be released is treated so
that the radioactive level is lower than that in drinking water and strictly under control, but local
fish industry and environmentalists strongly oppose this decision as they believe that the pollutants
would pollute other parts of the Pacific Ocean, affecting the marine life.

Banning of sunscreens

As mentioned above, sunscreens that contain oxybenzone are highly toxic to coral reefs as they
cause coral bleaching and damage to coral DNA. Oxybenzone is a common substance in sunscreens
as it can prevent UV degradation effectively. Since the 1980s, nearly 90% of coral reefs have
disappeared in the Caribbean. The coverage of coral reefs at Honolua Bay, Maui has dropped from
42% to 9%. To make sure the sea is free from pollutants and protect the coral reefs, some countries
that are famous for coral reefs and tourism had set up laws to ban sunscreens on the beaches.
Hawaii is the first state in the United States to ban sunscreen in the world as it is believed that the
sunscreens applied to tourists contain a high level of oxybenzone that is endangering the coral reefs.
The law is passed in 2018 and is effective in 2021. The first country that banned sunscreen
nationwide is Palau.

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Ways to prevent water pollution

1. Avoid the usage of detergent containing a high level of phosphate

We are encouraged to use phosphate-free detergent or soap to reduce the amount of phosphate being
released into freshwaters through sewage. Eutrophication can be reduced by decreasing the amount
of phosphate released into the freshwater.

2. Dispose of wastes properly

Toxic chemical wastes such as pesticides, bleach and batteries should not be flushed down the
toilet as they will contaminate underground water, they should be recycled safely in recycling
centres. Moreover, medical wastes should not be flushed down the toilet or dumped into drains
because the drugs will pollute the water and affect the health of the aquatic organisms. Pills and
capsules should be thrown into trash bags while liquid medicines should be poured into sealed bags
containing tea leaves, newspapers or toilet papers before disposing. Chemotherapy anticancer
drugs, sedative sleeping pills, narcotic pain relievers, hormones and antibiotics should be returned
to hospitals or pharmacies for recycling. Then, fat and grease should not be poured into drains as
they are insoluble in water and will clog the pipes and drains. They should be kept in a ‘fat jar’ for
disposal with solid wastes. Lastly, the easiest way to reduce water pollution is to avoid littering in
rivers, lakes and seas.

3. Beach, river and ocean clean-up activities

These activities not only encourage people to remove the rubbish in the surroundings but also raise
the awareness of water pollution among people. These activities can get more exposure when they

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are promoted by influencers like MrBeast and Mark Rober who launched a campaign called
#TeamSeas to remove 30 million pounds of waste from the ocean, rivers and beaches.

4. Law and regulations

Strict laws should be set against people who polluted water. Violators will be punished by fining or
jailing so that the oceans and rivers can be protected effectively. For example, the law that bans
sunscreens in Hawaii and Palau.

Conclusion

It is the major cause of water pollution in oceans. As oil is insoluble in water, it contaminates water
by floating above the surface of the water. Water transportation is an essential element in the
logistics field. Huge ships containing tons of petroleum will cause serious water pollution when
there is an accident that results in oil leaks or oil spills in the ocean. Petroleum also plays an
important role as a source of energy, the number of oil platforms in the ocean is always increasing
so that more petroleum can be mined to provide energy and support the economy of a country such
as Saudi Arabia. Oil leaks during the oil drilling operations also contribute to water pollution in the
oceans.


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Journal/ Articles
XLIV.Water Pollution: Causes, Consequences, Prevention Method and Role of WBPHED with
Special Reference from Murshidabad District, Rozina Khatun, Volume 7, Issue 8, International
Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, page 269-272
XLV.A glance at one decade of water pollution research in Iranian environmental health journals,
Aram Tirgar, Zahra Aghalari, Mika Sillanpää, Hans-Uwe Dahms, Article number:2, Tirgar et al.
International Journal of Food Contamination, page 1-8
XLVI.Health impact of river water pollution in Malaysia, Rafia Afroz, Ataur Rahman, International
Journal of ADVANCED AND APPLIED SCIENCES, page 1-11
XLVII.Water pollution Its causes and effects, Suaad Had Hassan Al-Taai, IOP Conference Series
Earth and Environmental Science , page 1-7
XLVIII.Water Pollution: Causes, Negative Effects and Prevention Methods, Zeyneb Kılıç, Issue 3,
Number 2, Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University Journal of the Institute of Science and
Technology, page 1-3
XLIX.Water Pollution: Causes and Prevention, Abambagade Abera Mitiku, Article number:17, Int.
J. Pharm. Sci. Rev. Res., page 94-101

Book
L. Water Pollution: Effects, Prevention, and Climatic Impact, Adejumoke Inyinbor, Babuunde
Olufemi Adebesin, Abimbola Oluyori, Tabitha Adelani-Akande, Adewumi Oluwasogo Dada,
Oreofe Toyin A., INTECH, page 33-46


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