Water Contamination

Water is only useful when it's safe for it to be used especially for drinking. Water becomes unsafe when harmful substances—often chemicals, plastic or garbage contaminate a stream, river, lake, ocean, or other body of water, reducing water quality making it toxic to humans or the environment. When this happens we say that the water supply is polluted or contaminated. Anything that pollutes water is called a pollutant or contaminant.

The two main effects of water pollution are that it causes:

• diseases such as cholera which can lead to death. Diseases caused from water contamination are known as waterborne diseases.

• death to organisms such as fish and crab that live in water habitats. Can you list five other animals that live in water habitats?

Some ways to prevent water contamination are:

• reduce your plastic consumption and reuse or recycle plastic when you can.

• properly dispose of chemical cleaners, oils, and non-biodegradable items to keep them from ending up down the drain.

• avoid using pesticides and herbicides.

• do not allow animal and human waste (stool) to get into water bodies.

• educate persons on the importance of not polluting the water.

Activity #2 - Draw a poster showing 2 ways in which water gets polluted and 2 ways in which you are helping to reduce water pollution.

Waterborne diseases are caused from bacteria and viruses in human and animal faeces. They are spread by drinking contaminated water. Many persons around the world, especially children in poorer countries suffer from these illnesses. If some waterborne diseases like cholera aren't treated, they can lead to death. Some of the diseases spread by unsafe water include cholera, dysentery, E. coli, salmonella, hepatitis, gastroenteritis and typhoid.

Note: Malaria is spread by the female anopheles mosquito. Polluted water that hardly flows provide a good place for this mosquito to reproduce so this is another disease caused from contaminated water.