Mitigation Strategies and Solutions: Water Pollution
Crystal Miller
University of Phoenix
January 18, 2009
On planet earth life would be impossible without water. All forms of life including plants, animals, and bacteria contain water. Humans are composed of approximately sixty percent of water by body weight. Humans depend on water for everything in life including our survival.
Water is one of the most abundant compounds found in nature. 1.4 billion cubic kilometers of water exists on earth and covers seventy percent of our planets surface.
Water pollution is the contamination of bodies of water such as lakes, rivers, oceans, and groundwater caused by human activities, which can be harmful to organisms and plants that live in these bodies of water. Water pollution is a major problem in the global context. Water pollution is the leading worldwide causes of deaths and diseases. More than 14,000 people die daily due to water pollution. Water is typically referred to as polluted when it is impaired by contaminants and does not support a human use, mainly serving as drinking water, or unable to support its constituent biotic communities, such as fish. Water pollution has many causes and characteristics. Natural phenomena such as volcanoes, algae blooms, storms, and earthquakes cause change in the water quality and the ecological status of water. Sources of surface water pollution generally are point source pollution and non-point pollution. Point source refers contaminants that enter a waterway through a discrete conveyance, such as a pipe or a ditch. Non-point source refers to diffuse contamination that does not originate from a single source. Non-point pollution comes from storm water washed off parking lots, roads, and highways, and construction sites. Ground...