Fun facts on water pollution... or should we say, horrid facts?

Water pollution has already been around since a long time ago. It is one of the major types of pollution in the whole world, and also a common cause of disease especially those who live near bodies of water.

For the uninformed few, you may be bewildered at the point and intention of this blog page, so let's go back to the basics. What is water pollution?

I guess you won't be wanting to drink from that, huh.

Water pollution is, of course, a kind of pollution which occurs whenever large amounts of chemicals or other materials (especially garbage) are dumped in bodies of water. This, of course, poses a big threat when covering a source of drinking water, specifically rivers and lakes. On the other hand, pollution in saltwater such as the oceans and the seas are equally hazardous to human life as most of our seafood are obtained there.

There are two classifications of water pollution sources. The first is the point sources, wherein the polluting substances directly go into the water stream. An example of this would be a sewage pipe.

You may probably have an idea what that would smell like.

The second classification is the non-point sources, wherein run-off pollutants like fertilizers are disposed in the bodies of water.

Now, let's have some statistical data! These were taken from the UN Water Statistics. Did you know...

• ...that the Earth contains about 1.4 billion km³ of water
• ...that out of that 1.4 billion km³, only 35 million km³ consists of freshwater? That's only 2.5% of the total volume.
• ...that around 70% of of that 35 million km³ are situated at the Antarctic and Arctic regions
• ...that around 30%, on the other hand, is stored underground.

 

• ...that two million tons of human waste are disposed in water everyday?
• ...that 70% of industrial waste in developing countries are dumped into waters?
• ...that 54% of the water pollution in the world are produced by low income countries, while 40% are produced by the high income ones?
• ...that over 665,000 people died in 2,557 natural disasters between the years 1991 and 2000? 90% of these disasters were water-related.

Water pollution is one of the global problems that are detrimental to human health if left unattended. It is not too late yet; we should all play our roles in lessening it for us to be able to provide a safe and habitable environment for future generations.