River Pollution

More than half of the Worlds major rivers are being seriously

depleted and polluted, degrading the surrounding ecosystem, thus

threatening the health and livelihood of the people who depend upon them

for irrigation, drinking and industry. As per the World Commission on

water for the 21'' century, 25 million people fled their homes in 1998

because of the depletion, pollution, degradation and poisoning of rivers, out

numbering the war related rehgees for the first time in history (Reuters,

1 999).

Pollution is a vexing problem in developing countries where the

population is growing rapidly, development demands are increasing, and

governments have different investment priorities. In developing countries,

on an average, 90% to 95% of all domestic sewage and 75% of all industrial

waste are discharged into surface waters without any treatment (Carty,

199 1 ; Allaoui, 1998).

In Thailand and Malaysia water pollution is so heavy that rivers

often contain 30 to 100 times more pathogens, heavy metals, and chemicals

from industry and agriculture than is permitted by government health

standards (Niemczynowicz, 1996). Over three-quarters of China's 50,000

kilometers of major rivers are so filled with pollutants and sediment that

they no longer support fish life. In 1992 China's industries discharged 36

billion metric tons of untreated or partially treated effluents into rivers,

streams, and coastal waters (UNEP, 1998). In 1986, along the Liao River,

which flows through a heavily industrialized part of northern China, almost

every aquatic organism within 100 kilometers was killed when over 1

billion tons of industrial wastes were dumped into the river in a period of

three months (Hinrichsen, 1998a).

In greater Sao Paulo, Brazil, 300 memc tons of untreated effluents

from 1,200 industries are dumped into the Tiete River every day as it flows
through the city. As a result, the river flows with high concentrations of

lead, cadmium, and other heavy metals. The city also dumps some 1,000

metric tons of sewage into the river each day, of which only 12% is

estimated as treated (WHO, 1992).

Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, has completely overwhelmed the

capacity of its outdated sewage treatment plants. Because of hquent

breakdowns and clogged sewage pipes, these plants often operate at no

more than 15% of capacity. Majority of all sewage water leaks out into the

surrounding soil, contaminating the wells used by city residents for drinking

water (Rahman, 1995).

Furthermore, pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and oxides of

nitrogen, which combine in the atmosphere to form acid rain, have had

pervasive effects on both freshwater and land ecosystems. Acid rain lowers

the pH of rivers and streams. Unless buffered by calcium (as contained in

limestone), acidified waters kill many acid-sensitive fish, including salmon

and trout. In the soil, acids can release heavy metals, such as lead, mercury,

and cadmium, that percolate into waterways (Hinrichsen, 1998b).

Some of the worst pollutants are synthetic chemicals. Some 70,000

different chemical substances are in regular use throughout the world

(Pullen and Hurst, 1993). Every year an estimated 1,000 new compounds

are introduced (World resources Institute, 1587). Many of them find their

way into rivers, lakes, and groundwater aquifers. In the US alone, more

than 700 chemicals have been detected in drinking water, 129 of them

considered highly toxic (Maywald et al, 1988).

A number of synthetic chemicals, particularly the group known as

persistent organic pollutants (POPS), which includes halogenated

hydrocarbons, dioxins, and organochlorines such as DDT and PCBs, are

long-lived and highly toxic in the environment (World Bank, 1993). They

do not break down easily under natural processes and thus tend to
accumulate in the biological food chain, until they pose risks to human

health. For example, Beluga whales swimming in the highly polluted St.

Lawrence River, which connects the Atlantic Ocean to North America's

Great Lakes, have such high levels of PCBs in their blubber that, under

Canadian law, they now qualify as "toxic waste dumps" (Pullen and

Hurst,1993). Indigenous communities that once hunted these whales no

longer are permitted to take any because of the health risks.

Local
Here in Cavite, Rosario, there are 7 sources of water pollutions, Deliverately disposal of
domestic waste. Where ever you go there in Rosario, there’s a lot of waste. So, the waste that
comes from the ground flows eventually reaches the body of water. Second, agricultural
practices, even the soil here in Rosario is acid, we don’t prove that some of the people
use fertilizers for their plants, that chemicals will reach possibly by the bodies of water. Third,
Industrial Activities, here at the same place, there’s a lot of factory that wastes disposal
chemicals in the body of water, and also the citizens of Rosario also makes wastes through
littering of garbage everywhere that will runoff to the body of water. Finally, the petroleum
spills, it also caused by the factory: factories or by the Industrial Activities.

Foreign
Analysis Of The Causes And Impacts Of Water Pollution Of Buriganga River A Critical Study (Ahmed,
et al. October 2013)
When water becomes contaminated by unexpected substances, it is considered as harmful for human and
aquatic lives. This water is termed as polluted water. Various causes are responsible for polluting water.
Some natural causes are mixture of biodegraded portion of animal and plants to pure water, siltation by
erosion of river banks etc. Domestic wastes, industrial wastes, fertilizers etc. are man-made pollutants of
water. The state of surface and ground water pollution in Bangladesh is alarming. Especially the
Buriganga is largely polluted by Dhaka city. Necessity of water for each and every living beings needs no
description. They intake water directly or indirectly for physiological activities. If this in taking water is
polluted, it will do harm that is for sure. The worst part is, this bad impact transports to others through
food chain. Therefore, we must be aware of the adverse influence polluted water may have on us. At
present, we cannot prevent water being polluted cent percent, but minimization is very much needed. It is
time we took some steps to start working on it.
foreign

ABSTRACT

AIM: Water quality has been the subject of many recent studies, moreover, the physical,
chemical and biological parameters of water are used to investigate water quality and can
be combined into a single index, the Water Quality Index (WQI), for use by water resource
managers and the general public. The aim of this study was to use scientometrics to
evaluate how water quality has been addressed in the international scientific literature.
METHOD: For the quantitative analysis of the publications on WQI, we used the search
database SCOPUS (http://www.scopus.com). The search was performed using the words
"QUALIT* WATER* INDEX*" in papers published in all databases (through 2011).
RESULTS: We found 554 articles that dealt with the use of WQI the number of publications
has increased significantly over the last 20 years. India had the most studies, with 177
articles, followed by China, Brazil and the United States. These four countries together
published 57% of studies on WQI. We generated 15 linear models to explain the number of
publication by study sit (country). According to the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), the
best model to explain the number of publications by country was the model that combined
Sanitation and Public Supply.
CONCLUSION: Finally, this paper presents the state of scientific literature on WQI and
demonstrates the growing interest of the scientific community in this issue, which is
certainly due to the importance of the quantity and quality of water for human supply,
economics, health and the conservation of water resources.

Keywords: scientometrics, river, stream, NSF, sanitation, water supply.