Causes and effects

Water pollution is the contamination of any body of water to the point where it harms humans and the environment. This phenomenon is primarily caused by humans (point sources) but sometimes indirectly by nature (non-point sources). Point sources are specific and identifiable origins of purposeful pollution into water bodies, such as city sewage systems, industry chemical spills, factory oil leaks, and individual waste dumping. Point sources can be identified by finding pipes or ditches directly discharging pollutants into bodies of water. Non-point sources are broad and untraceable origins of accidental pollution into water bodies. For example, when floods, wind, and earthquakes move debris runoff into oceans, seas, lakes, or rivers. This pollution can be categorized depending on the type of water it affects: groundwater pollution and surface water pollution. 

Groundwater pollution is the contamination of aquifers or water that’s under the ground. When fertilizers are used on the surface, they eventually seep deep into the earth and mix with groundwater, making it hazardous for human and animal consumption. Additionally, groundwater pollution can spread to distant water bodies since aquifers often connect and flow into rivers, lakes, and oceans. Surface water pollution is the contamination of any water body above the ground. For example: when ships spill oils into the ocean, they kill marine life, disrupt ecosystems, and corrupt the food chain by sticking to animals and preventing them from breathing or moving, blocking sunlight from reaching algae or corals, and poisoning animals that are then consumed by others. 

The effects of water pollution are negative to humans and the environment; it kills, sickens, and destroys. According to WHO, 1.4 million people die annually due to consuming contaminated water. It can generate cancer, cardiovascular problems, kidney dysfunctions, neurological disorders, hormone disruptions, and damage to the immune, nervous, and reproductive systems. Polluted water sickens people with cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, dysentery, and polio. It has side effects like intestinal worms, schistosomiasis, trachoma, and diarrhoeal. Swimming in contaminated water can trigger pink eye, eczema, psoriasis, rashes, and respiratory infections. Water pollution kills aquatic and terrestrial animals by poisoning them with toxic chemicals or suffocating them with solid waste. It corrupts the food chain because contaminated prey with bioaccumulation are consumed by predators. Fertilizers cause eutrophication, a dearth of oxygen in water due to algal blooms that release carbon dioxide, which liquidates marine life and ultimately destroys ecosystems. Water pollution also kills plants; it infiltrates soil and poisons plants with toxins, while solid waste blocks sunlight from reaching aquatic plants, which is essential for their survival. This threatens animals and humans because plants become unsuitable for consumption or inhabitation. Discharged waste acidifies water, harming organisms that require calcium carbonate to form shells or skeletons, such as corals, oysters, clams, and mussels. Water pollution also affects the atmosphere; it creates acid rain and releases methane, contributing to climate change. 

The few positive effects of water pollution are sunken cars serving as reefs for fish and kelp; oil sludge feeding microorganisms; quicklime toxins restoring giant-kelp beds in California by removing invasive sea urchins; iron-contaminated waters boosting phytoplankton growth; fertilizer runoff increasing algal blooms that marine herbivores consume; and heated water increasing the population of: oysters at Northport, lobster at Maine, shrimp at Miami, and catfish at Nashville, California, Texas, and Washington D.C. (Blumenthal, 1971, p.1). Water pollution benefited humans by creating (the need for) new jobs related to fixing the issue, such as aquatic trash-capture engineers, hydrologists, river cleanup technicians, ecotoxicologists, and water policy analysts. However, these few benefits of water pollution will never outweigh all the effects that contribute to the destruction of our planet.