poster on river pollution
Answers
Explanation:
River pollution
River pollution is damaging to the environment and to human health. We can help you to capture harmful pollutants before they ever reach a river.
In many parts of the world no regulations exist to protect the water quality and environmental integrity of rivers, and in those parts of the world where rules do exist they are often not enforced effectively or consistently. As such, many rivers suffer acutely from a range of pollutants that present risks to plant and animal life, the environment and human health.
The effects of river pollution
Rivers are integral both to human society and to the wider environment, and pollution of those rivers can cause a range of adverse effects to plant, animal and human life. The riverine ecosystem both accumulates and transports pollution, concentrating organic and inorganic pollutants in ways that damage flora, fauna and human health, as well as transporting them, ultimately, to the sea.
In addition to the environmental impact, one aspect that should not be overlooked is the economic one - rivers are both a way of life and a livelihood for huge numbers of people, providing income via fishing and aquaculture, and a polluted river will have depleted stocks of fish, crustaceans and other aquatic life on which some economies rely.
Types of river pollution
Trash and gross solids
The most obvious type of pollution is perhaps trash and gross solids. Consisting of materials such as styrofoam, metal containers and plastic packaging, these are unsightly and persist in the environment. They can clog waterways and also present risks to bird and fish life that may swallow or become entangled in them.
Sediment and fine solids
Sand, grit and other fine solids are carried in stormwater and wash into the river, where they accumulate. This siltation of total suspended solids (TSS) can clog rivers, and deposition can adversely affect invertebrate life and fish egg survival.
Chemicals
Damaging chemical pollutants can enter rivers from a number of sources, from the more obvious such as waste from industrial facilities, to the less obvious such as runoff from farms and roads. These chemicals can damage the environment immediately and catastrophically, or can build slowly, accumulating in plant and animal life in such a way that environmental and human health effects are not realized for many years. Nutrient pollution can imbalance ecosystems, causing algal blooms that can produce toxins that damage other aquatic life.
Typical chemical pollutants:
Ammonia
Fertilizers such as nitrates and phosphates
Detergents and surfactants
Oils and hydrocarbons
Organic and other solvents
Heavy metals such as cadmium, mercury, lead and arsenic
Biological contaminants
Where sanitation is poor, wastewater treatment is ineffective or absent or people live in close proximity to a river, pathogens can enter the watercourse more easily. Transmitted in human and animal feces, some bacteria and parasites can present a serious risk to human health in those parts of the world where river water is used for cooking, washing or drinking.