Introduction
About 20% people worldwide lack adequate access to water. In rural areas majority of population is dependent on ground water but in many states it is highly contaminated, resulting in health risks in population because private wells in rural areas are not regularly tested and have no proper maintenance procedure.
Water pollution caused by humans
Water there is affected by agricultural activities which release pesticides and fertilizers into surface and ground water along with other factors i.e. improper disposal of waste, trash dumping in streams, road sides and in ground. It is also caused by animal feeding operations and drilling of oil or gas wells, from where chemicals leach down to contaminate ground water. As world’s population is increasing day by day, which demands excess of food for them and to fulfill their need agricultural areas are expending thus, to improve irrigation system there is increase in fertilizers and pesticides usage, and they at the end enters ground and surface water by leaching and run off respectively. Once they enter water bodies, they enter the food chain and thus badly affect animal as well as human population dependent on that water. And once a water body is contaminated it is difficult to decontaminate it hence, impacts remain for long time on rural areas having more agricultural land, which has direct relationship with contamination of water.
In US over 1 billion tons of pesticides, 80% are used in agricultural activities. In water sampling of 5 villages of India, it was found that it have 65% excessive fluoride, 100% turbidity and 55% TDS. Nitrates in fertilizers cause ‘Blue-Baby syndrome’ in infants and ‘gastrointestinal illness’ in children. Polluted water also causes ‘reproductive tract infections’ in women, premature graying of hair, yellowing of teeth, typhoid, diarrhea, joint pain and skin infections. Pesticides have gender and age specific affects on population i.e. they affect pregnant women and children adversely.
Topics of water pollution
As water definitely increases yield of crop but also increases the dissolution of hazardous chemicals in soil that at the end enters water table underground. For example, some areas of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, California, Uganda and Florida etc. lack clean water management and most of their wells are contaminated by heavy metals, like in Bangladesh most of wells are contaminated by Arsenic above WHO a guideline which is 10 μg
How much water pollution is caused by humans
Any water pollution case in rural areas is increased to an extent than past few years and reason to which is lack of awareness in small and dispersed population along with lack of control by responsible authorities. Pollution ratio is interrelated with education to some extent because most of rural areas lack proper education system thus has low income sources and most of population cannot afford proper water resource management in their areas. Rural population also lack the instructions for sustainable water usage due to which water is excessively used in irrigation without knowing the consequences that this activity may lead to water scarcity and lessens the water quality also. You can explore the issue with the cause and effect essay on pollution Hence education and awareness is base for better water conditions in rural areas.