What Is Water Pollution?: One-Third Greater

 What Is Water Pollution?
Water pollution occurs when harmful substances—often

chemicals or microorganisms—contaminate a stream, river, lake,
ocean, aquifer, or other body of water, degrading water quality
and rendering it toxic to humans or the environment.
This widespread problem of water pollution is jeopardizing our

health. Unsafe water kills more people each year than war and all
other forms of violence combined. Meanwhile, our drinkable
water sources are finite: Less than 1 percent of the earth’s
freshwater is actually accessible to us. Without action, the
challenges will only increase by 2050, when global demand for
freshwater is expected to be one-third greater than it is now.
 What Are the Causes of Water Pollution?

Water is uniquely vulnerable to pollution. Known as a “universal
solvent,” water is able to dissolve more substances than any
other liquid on earth. It’s the reason we have Kool-Aid and
brilliant blue waterfalls. It’s also why water is so easily polluted.
Toxic substances from farms, towns, and factories readily
dissolve into and mix with it, causing water pollution.
Here are some of the major sources of water pollution worldwide:
Agricultural
Toxic green algae in Copco Reservoir, northern California

Not only is the agricultural sector the biggest consumer of global
freshwater resources, with farming and livestock production
using about 70 percent of the earth’s surface water supplies , but
it’s also a serious water polluter. Around the world, agriculture is
the leading cause of water degradation. In the United
States, agricultural pollution is the top source of contamination in
rivers and streams, the second-biggest source in wetlands, and
the third main source in lakes. It’s also a major contributor of
contamination to estuaries and groundwater. Every time it rains,
fertilizers, pesticides, and animal waste from farms and livestock
operations wash nutrients and pathogens—such bacteria and
viruses—into our waterways. Nutrient pollution, caused by excess
nitrogen and phosphorus in water or air, is the number-one threat
to water quality worldwide and can cause algal blooms, a toxic
soup of blue-green algae that can be harmful to people and
wildlife.
Sewage and wastewater
Used water is wastewater. It comes from our sinks, showers, and

toilets (think sewage) and from commercial, industrial, and
agricultural activities (think metals, solvents, and toxic sludge).
The term also includes stormwater runoff, which occurs when
rainfall carries road salts, oil, grease, chemicals, and debris from
impermeable surfaces into our waterways
More than 80 percent of the world’s wastewater flows back into

the environment without being treated or reused, according to
the United Nations; in some least-developed countries, the figure
tops 95 percent. In the United States, wastewater treatment
facilities process about 34 billion gallons of wastewater per day .
These facilities reduce the amount of pollutants such as
pathogens, phosphorus, and nitrogen in sewage, as well as heavy
metals and toxic chemicals in industrial waste, before discharging
the treated waters back into waterways. That’s when all goes
well. But according to EPA estimates, our nation’s aging and
easily overwhelmed sewage treatment systems also release
more than 850 billion gallons of untreated wastewater each year.
Ocean water pollution
Eighty percent of ocean pollution (also called marine pollution)

originates on land—whether along the coast or far inland.
Contaminants such as chemicals, nutrients, and heavy metals are
carried from farms, factories, and cities by streams and rivers
into our bays and estuaries; from there they travel out to sea.
Meanwhile, marine debris—particularly plastic—is blown in by the
wind or washed in via storm drains and sewers. Our seas are also
sometimes spoiled by oil spills and leaks—big and small—and are
consistently soaking up carbon pollution from the air. The ocean
absorbs as much as a quarter of man-made carbon emissions .
 What Are the Effects of Water Pollution?

On human health
To put it bluntly: Water pollution kills. In fact, it caused 1.8 million

deaths in 2015, according to a study published in The Lancet.
Contaminated water can also make you ill. Every year, unsafe
water sickens about 1 billion people. And low-income
communities are disproportionately at risk because their homes
are often closest to the most polluting industries.
Waterborne pathogens, in the form of disease-causing bacteria
and viruses from human and animal waste, are a major cause of
illness from contaminated drinking water. Diseases spread by
unsafe water include cholera, giardia, and typhoid. Even in
wealthy nations, accidental or illegal releases from sewage
treatment facilities, as well as runoff from farms and urban areas,
contribute harmful pathogens to waterways. Thousands of people
across the United States are sickened every year by
Legionnaires’ disease (a severe form of pneumonia contracted
from water sources like cooling towers and piped water), with
cases cropping up from California’s Disneyland to Manhattan’s
Upper East Side.
A woman using bottled water to wash her three-week-old son at

their home in Flint, Michiga n
How we can reduce Water Pollution?

 Reduce your plastic consumption and reuse or recycle
plastic when you can.
 Properly dispose of chemical cleaners, oils, and
nonbiodegradable items to keep them from going down the
drain.
 If you have a pup, be sure to pick up its poop.

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 What Is Water Pollution?

Water pollution occurs when harmful substances—often

This widespread problem of water pollution is jeopardizing our

 What Are the Causes of Water Pollution?

Here are some of the major sources of water pollution worldwide:

Toxic green algae in Copco Reservoir, northern California

Sewage and wastewater

Used water is wastewater. It comes from our sinks, showers, and

More than 80 percent of the world’s wastewater flows back into

Ocean water pollution

Eighty percent of ocean pollution (also called marine pollution)

 What Are the Effects of Water Pollution?

To put it bluntly: Water pollution kills. In fact, it caused 1.8 million

A woman using bottled water to wash her three-week-old son at

How we can reduce Water Pollution?

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