Water Pollution Flashcards
What exactly is water pollution?
Water Pollution occurs when harmful substances are introduced or enter marine and freshwater (riverine and groundwater) environments (rivers, seas, oceans, lakes and wells).
What are the causes of water pollution?
Industry waste, agriculture like fertilizers/pesticides, household items like chemicals (detergent), oil spills, sewage dumping, dumping was waste into watercourses, effluents, plastics etc.
List the sources of water pollution.
The very warm water used in the cooling of machinery such as power plants.
Deforestation and improper agricultural practices .
Pathogens or Viruses can enter watercourses through bacteria that have runoff from the land.
Petrochemicals and other toxins from oil and chemical spills from industrial activities can pollute waters both in rivers and oceans.
Household waste such as sewage and detergents
How does Water Pollution affect the environment?
affect marine life, increase mineral concentration in watercourses leading to eutrophication and algae bloom.
How does Eutrophication occur?
Eutrophication occurs when nutrients from agricultural runoff and from industrial wastewater enter rivers.
What does Eutrophication cause?
The excess nutrients encourage the growth of algae causing an algae bloom which results in an increase of organisms that use up the oxygen in the water. The lack of oxygen in the water leads to the death of marine life and therefore its Eutrophication.
What Is Eutrophication?
the excessive richness of nutrients in a lake or other body of water, frequently due to run-off from the land, which causes a dense growth of plant life.
