Water Pollution

Pollution of Water in Urbanized Cities

In America, American’s turn on the faucet and out comes water. American’s turn on the shower, take off their clothes and jump in, never imagining turning on the water and not finding water. American’s spend unlimited amounts of water feeding their plants, watching their cars, their dishes and taking endless showers. American’s never think twice about the counties in which are dying for a drop of the luxury we have here: water. It is clear that people today use a lot more water than they did in the 1700’s and waste a lot more.

People need water to live just as much as they need oxygen and food. Throughout human history humans found that water was the most important necessary, however, researchers have proven that humans have begun relying on other sources such as water irrigation for their soil to make food. As urbanization improved the water industrialization improved and dis-improved at the same time. “The health, wealth, and security of any and all societies depended upon getting sufficient supplies of sufficiently clean water to the right places at the right times, without doing too much damage in the process” (p118) doing this was important because with a terrible water supply comes a terrible economy and health. As urbanization took place, the water consumption increased as well as pollution. Cities were growing and waste was multiplying. Cities began dumping wastes in nearby watercourses and drinking from it too (p122). This causes diseases and many illnesses to form causing many deaths. Cities that developed around rivers, such as the Ganges in India also paid the price of illness, through chemical dumping miles away in rivers and hoping that down the line the water would dilute the chemicals. Not always did that work which resulted in many deaths.

Through an ecological website they list the 13 causes of water pollution:

1. Pesticides

2. Fertilizers / Nutrient Pollution

3. Oil, Gasoline and Additives

4. Mining

5. Sediment

6. Chemical and Industrial Processes

7. Plastic

8. Personal Care Products, Household Cleaning Products, and Pharmaceuticals

9. Sewage

10. Air Pollution

11. Carbon Dioxide

12. Heat

13. Noise

There are many causes to water pollution that people have discovered, it is proven that through the industrialization that poorly designed landfills, road salts, hazardous waste sites, animal droppings and cruise ships were designed all to have played an important role in water pollution. A quote by the President Lyndon B. Johnson of the Water Act of 1965 says, “No one has the right to use America’s rivers and America’s waterways, that belong to all the people, as a sewer. The banks of a river may belong to one man of one industry or one state, but the waters which flow between the banks should belong to all the people.”

“Earth is a water planet, the only place in our solar system where water exists as liquid” (p119). Water is the only reason humans developed on Earth so we need to work together to keep our Earth water clean. If it were only possible to fill up bins of water and clean soil and send them over seas to countries in need – I would do it. American’s can help by conserving, reusing, and saving: if everyone did their share that would be enough.

Are you doing your share?

Citations:

McNeill, J.R. Something New Under the Sun. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001. 118-48. Print.

Jeantheau, Mark. "A List of Water Pollution Causes." Grinning Planet. 2005. Web. 14 Nov 2009. .