Water pollution is a major global threat erecting concerns everywhere—the contaminated water results in the development of new harmful infections and disorders. The condition has worsened in recent times. Various authorities have postulated several control measures to fight water pollution. Moreover, the concept is broad; let’s directly dive into the details of control measures for water pollution.
Overview
Water pollution can be referred to as any contamination present inside the water body, and this contamination degrades the quality of water and results in several adverse effects.
Water pollution is caused by various sources such as industry dumpage, day-to-day human and animal activities, improper waste management, etc. Several control measures have been postulated to fight water pollution as a solution. One can either follow the given process of four steps to control water pollution or implement the five ways to reduce water pollution.
Four steps to control water pollution
Step 1: Implementing Control measures
This is the first step of the process, and strict control measures should be implemented for the activities causing water pollution. The community should reduce activities such as plastic usage and sewage dumping. There are many things that society can do to implement control measures for water pollution.
Step 2: Wastewater treatment
This is the next step in controlling water pollution. We can control water pollution by reducing the proportion of wasted water. The pollutants should be removed from water through chemical, biological or physical treatments.
Step 3: Purification
Further, water purification initiatives should be carried out thoroughly to destroy the pollutants and harmful elements from water to a substantial extent.
Step 4: Spreading awareness
After all these three steps, spreading awareness and raising public consciousness for better participation in reducing water pollution are necessary steps. The combined initiatives from all communities to reduce water pollution can increase or maintain water quality in the long run.
Five ways to reduce water pollution in your surroundings
Waste management
This is one of the most common issues that lead to water pollution in our surroundings and water bodies. Individuals or organisations often dump the waste in the water, and as a result, water is polluted badly. We can take care of our dumping activities here. Dump every waste, such as flowers, broken crockeries, plastic, or any other garbage, in dustbins only, reduce the plastic waste, etc.
Controlling air pollution
Air pollution also affects water quality. Emission from vehicles, factories, or fossil fuel burning leads to increased carbon dioxide or C02 in the air. The water vapour absorbs this C02 to some extent. As a result, it causes acid rain, which increases acid content in water bodies, endangering aquatic life as well as human lives. A holistic approach is needed to cut CO2 emissions by reducing fossil fuel burning or cutting down the wastage of energy to reduce air pollution.
Controlling soil erosion
Soil erosion happens when a ground soil moves from one place to another due to winds or water. Moreover, this soil often moves to the water bodies and deteriorates the water quality. In turn, water pollution increases. One can easily prevent soil erosion by planting more trees. Forestation helps in curbing soil erosion.
Plastic waste reduction
Plastic is a non-biodegradable material, which means it cannot be decomposed. Thus, whenever plastic waste reaches water bodies, they remain there and do not decompose. In turn, the water quality drops tremendously since plastic waste causes toxicity in the water. To avoid this, we can decrease the use of plastic in our lives. Moreover, creating awareness around plastic waste management can also help a lot.
Implementing regulations after mutual discussions
By discussing the rules with the people around us, we can create community awareness about the regulations needed to curb water pollution. A proper regulation chart can be developed where anyone cannot dump any waste in the water or reduce any activities that affect the water quality. After mutual discussions, awareness in the area can also be spread, eg, by placing signboards and warning boards.
Conclusion
Water pollution refers to the contamination of water or degraded water quality. To combat water pollution, several ways have been explained above. We learned some effective strategies and ways to control water pollution from the above points. Water pollution is a problem for the entire world, and people worldwide must immediately control it.