After a long day of working in the sun or a good gym session, grabbing a cold glass of water from the sink is a great way to quench your thirst and get refreshed. But because it is so easy to simply grab a glass and turn on the faucet, people often take for granted the fact that they have access to clean drinking water. Unfortunately, there are water pollution problems that make such a seemingly simple task a major challenge in many places. There are several types of water pollution and they can all have a number of different consequences.
Poor Drinking Water
Quite simply, when water sources get polluted, they become dangerous to drink from. Though water treatment facilities help get bacteria and other contaminants out of the water before they make it through your faucets, some pollutants can make water undrinkable even if it is treated.
Illnesses
One of the most dangerous water pollution problems, beyond just drinking contaminated water, is the fact that diseases can be spread by fish and other items that you eat. If you eat a fish that has been in contact or ingested something toxic, you could end up quite ill.
Harming Aquatic Life
Both plants and animals can be killed by excessive pollution. All kinds of fish, crabs, and other water creatures turn up dead on beaches and shorelines because of something that was introduced to their ecosystem. Seriously high pollution levels could kill plants and make it impossible for bodies of water to clean themselves.
Ecosystem Destruction
There is a snowball effect when pollution kills off even just a single species of marine plants or animals. After they die, the animals that depend on them could struggle to survive and, eventually, entire ecosystems could fall apart. That is one of the most tragic environmental issues that stems from water pollution.
The best way to help limit water pollution problems is to recycle and make sure that all of your waste is disposed of properly. Wastewater management systems can only get rid of so many pollutants, and there are all kinds of materials that work their way into water systems that could be eliminated. Learning more about them, and how to avoid contributing to that trend, is smart for anybody who wants to go green and keep local water sources — and the water that comes out of their faucet — clean.
