Water Pollution In Urban Areas Flashcards
What is water pollution?
Th contamination of water (lakes, rivers, groundwater) by pollutants that have not been treated to remove harmful componants
What are the steps to water pollution?
- urban areas have many impermeable surfaces
- so water cannot drain away leading to surface run off
- pollutants such as oil, heavy metals, rubber and petroleum/diesel are carried over ground
- pollutants go straight to rivers/streams
- the storm water begins filling up streams so fast that it can overwhelm water treatment systems designed to remove harmful compounds
- so the water treatment centres are over capacity and water remains polluted
What may happen to fish if untreated or poorly treated sewage is low in dissolved oxygen?
They may die and suffocate
What may happen to infants when there is nitrates in water from leaky cesspools, sewage treatment plants, manure runoff and car exhausts?
They turn blueish and appear to have difficulty in breathing since their bodies are not receiving enough oxygen
Phosphorus from farm fertiliser gets into water supply as it is washed from the soil in surface run off…. What does this mean for algae ?
The algae blooms and are a problem as when algae die they are decomposed by bacteria, which removes oxygen from the water, killing fish
What problem does heavy metals from factories and industrial buildings mean?
These are materials such as lead, mercury and nickel, they can lead to birth defects if a pregnant woman drinks them
Dumping of hazardous waste in waterways leads to a breeding ground for mosquitos, what does this lead too for humans?
Leads to an increase of humans getting bitten and infected with malaria
How big of a problem is access to clean water around the world?
- over 1.2 billion people lack access to clean water, and airborne infects account for 80% of all infectious diseases
Why don’t governments in LICs ban polluting companies?
They need the money and the jobs that would come from this supply
CS: India’s water problems: what was the size/scale of problems there?
Over half of the rivers were polluted
What was the cause of India’s water problems?
The quantity of domestic sewage caused by rapidly expanding towns/cities. Untreated sewage flowing in open drains was causing serious deterioration of groundwater quality
What were some of the effects of the pollution in INDIA?
Vector bourne diseases e.g. cholera and diarrhoea, poor nutrition and under development in children
What is being done about the problems with sewage in INDIA?
- the prime minister has made cleaning the Ganges, the river that is holy to Hindus, a key policy/goal
- plans for infrastructural improvements and waste water recycling in cities across the country
- stat council introduced a scheme which children are being paid to use a public toilet
- number of public toilets has been increased to prevent human waste running into wells and streams
What is low impact development and how does it manage water quality?
Done primarily through the use of vegetation and permeable surfaces to allow infiltration of water into the ground. Permeable streets and pavements ‘green’ roofs, rain gardens and more urban parks allow water to infiltrate into soils rather than flow directly into sewers. Filtering storm water through vegetation has been shown to reduce organic pollutants/oils by more than 90%
What is legislation and how does it try to manage water quality?
Laws need to be enforced. Some cities have enforced incentive based approaches charging pollutes permits. Charges start low but are increased if pollution continues, creating an incentive to reduce discharges and purchase wastewater treatment technologies
