Over two thirds of earths surface is covered by water , less than a third is taken up by land.

As earths population continues to grow ,people are putting ever-increasing pressure on the planets water resources . Our oceans , rivers and other inland water quality means water squeezed by human activities. Poorer water quality means water pollution . We know that pollution is a human problem because it is a relatively recent development in the planets history. Pollution from toxic chemicals threatens life on this planet . Every ocean and continent ,from the tropics to the once pristine polar regions is contaminated ( environmental campaign organization ,WWF). Water pollution is a major problem in the global context. It has been suggested that it is the leading worldwide cause of deaths and diseases, and that it accounts for the deaths of more than 14,000 people daily (West, Larry ,"World Water Day: A Billion People Worldwide Lack Safe Drinking Water", estimated http://environment.about.com/od/environmentalevents/a/waterdayqa.htm).An

700 million Indians have no access to a proper toilet, and 1,000 Indian children die of diarrheal sickness every day. ("A special report on India: Creaking, groaning: Infrastructure is Indias biggest handicap". The Economist. 11 December 2008 http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12749787) Some 90% of China's cities suffer from some degree of water pollution, and nearly 500 million people lack access to safe drinking water In addition to the acute problems of water pollution in developing countries, industrialized countries continue to struggle with pollution problems as well. In the most recent national report on water quality in the United States, 45 percent of assessed stream miles, 47 percent of assessed lake acres, and 32 percent of assessed bay and estuarine square miles were classified as polluted (United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Washington, DC. "The National Water Quality Inventory: Report to Congress for the 2002 Reporting Cycle A Profile." October 2007. Fact Sheet No. EPA 841F-07-003).Water is typically referred to as polluted when it is impaired by anthropogenic contaminants and either does not support a human use, like serving as drinking water, and/or undergoes a marked shift in its ability to support its constituent biotic communities, such as fish. Natural phenomena such as volcanoes, algae blooms, storms, and earthquakes also cause major changes in water quality and the ecological status of water. Water pollution can be defined as the introduction by man into the environment by man into the environment of substances or energy liable to cause hazards to human health ,harm to living resources and ecological systems , damage the structure or amenity , or

interference with legimate uses of the environment (Harrison , Pollution: Causes , Effects and Control 3rd Edition).Fresh water present on the earths surface is put to many uses. It is used for drinking ,domestic and municipal uses , agricultural activities and industries . In this globalisation era , the rate of water pollutions are increasing day by day which is causes by thermal pollution, oil spill and marine pollution. The broadest definition of thermal pollution is the degradation of water quality by any process that changes ambient water temperature. Thermal pollution is usually associated with increases of water temperatures in a stream, lake, or ocean due to the discharge of heated water from industrial processes, such as the generation of electricity. Increases in water temperature also occur in streams where shading vegetation along the banks is removed or where sediments have made the water more turbid . Both of these effects allow more energy from the sun to be absorbed by the water and thereby increase its temperature (Harrison , Pollution: Causes , Effects and Control 3rd Edition) . There are also situations in which the effects of colder-than-normal water temperatures may be observed. For example, the discharge of cold bottom water from deep-water reservoirs behind large dams has changed the downstream biological communities in systems such as the Colorado River .

The production of energy from a fuel source can be direct, such as the burning of wood in a fireplace to create heat, or by the conversion of heat energy into mechanical energy by the use of a heat engine (Harrison , Pollution: Causes , Effects and Control 3rd Edition). Examples of heat engines include steam engines, turbines , and internal combustion engines. Heat engines work on the principal of heating and pressuring a fluid, the performance of mechanical work, and the rejection of unused or waste heat to a sink . Heat engines can only convert 30 to 40 percent of the available input energy in the fuel source into mechanical energy, and the highest efficiencies are obtained when the input temperature is as high as possible and the sink temperature is as low as possible. Water is a very efficient and economical sink for heat engines and it is commonly used in electrical generating stations. The waste heat from electrical generating stations is transferred to cooling water obtained from local water bodies such as a river, lake, or ocean. Large amounts of water are used to keep the sink temperature as low as possible to maintain a high thermal efficiency. The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station between Los Angeles and San Diego, California,

for example, has two main reactors that have a total operating capacity of 2,200 megawatts (MW). These reactors circulate a total of 2,400 million gallons per day (MGD) of ocean water at a flow rate of 830,000 gallons per minute for each unit. The cooling water enters the station from two intake structures located 3,000 feet offshore in water 32 feet deep. The water is heated to approximately 19F above ambient as it flows through the condensers and is discharged back into the ocean through a series of diffuser -type discharges that have a series of sixty-three exit pipes spread over a distance of 2,450 feet. The discharge water is rapidly mixed with ambient seawater by the diffusers and the average rise in temperature after mixing is less than 2F. The dilution of cooling water discharges can be effectively accomplished by various types of diffuser systems in large bodies of water such as lakes or the ocean. The only thermal effects seen at the San Onofre nuclear generating station are the direct mortality of planktonic organisms during the twenty-five-minute transit through the cooling water system. The effectiveness of the dilution systems can be monitored by thermal infrared imaging using either satellite or airborne imaging systems. The use of cooling towers has been effective for generating stations located on smaller rivers and streams that do not have the capacity to absorb the waste heat from the cooling water effluent . The cooling towers operate by means of a recirculating cascade of water inside a tower, with a large column of upwardly rising air that carries the heat to the atmosphere through evaporative cooling. Cooling towers have been used extensively at nuclear generating stations in both the United States and France. The disadvantages of cooling towers are the potential for local changes in meteorological conditions due to large amounts of warm air entering the atmosphere and the visual impact of the large towers. Oil spills happen when people make mistakes or are careless and cause an oil tanker to leak oil into the ocean(http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215471/oil_spills.htm,25 October2010). There are a few more ways an oil spill can occur. Equipment breaking down may cause an oil spill. If the equipment breaks down, the tanker may get stuck on shallow land. When they start to drive the tanker again, they can put a hole in the tanker causing it to leak oil. When countries are at war, one country may decide to dump gallons of oil into the other countrys oceans. Terrorists may cause an oil spill because they will dump oil into a countrys ocean. Many terrorists will do this because they are trying to get the countrys attention, or they are trying to make a point to a country.

Illegal dumpers are people that will dump crude oil into the oceans because they do not want to spend money on decomposing their waste oil. Because they wont spend money on breaking up the oil (decomposing it) they will dump oil into the oceans, which is illegal.Natural disasters (like hurricanes) may cause an oil spill, too. If a hurricane was a couple of miles away, the winds from the hurricane could cause the oil tanker to flip over, pouring oil out. Birds die from oil spills if their feathers are covered in oil. The bird will then be poisoned because it will try to clean itself. Animals may die because they get hypothermia, causing their body temperature to be really low. They may die from really low body temperature. Oil may also cause the death of an animal by entering the animals lungs or liver. The animal will then be poisoned by the oil. Oil also can kill an animal by blinding it. The animal will not be able to see and be aware of their predators. If they are not aware of other animals, they may be eaten. Oil spills sometimes are the reason for animals becoming endangered. This means that a certain type of animal is getting so small that it is in danger of becoming extinct. There are many ways to stop the spread of oil in the ocean. Workers can place a boom around the tanker that is spilling oil. Booms collect the oil off the water. A boom may be placed somewhere before an oil spill. They can be placed around an entrance to the ocean, like a stream. They also can be placed around a habitat with many animals living there. These booms will absorb any oil that flows around it. The workers can also use skimmers. Skimmers are boats that can remove the oil off the water. Sorbents are sponges that can collect the oil. Vacuum trucks may be driven on the beaches to vacuum up the oil. They can also simply use shovels or road equipment to collect all the oil off the beaches. The method they use to clean the beaches or oceans depends on many things. They have to look at the weather, the type and amount of oil spilled, if people live in that area, what types of animals live in that area, and many more things. In some situations, they may not react to a spill. It may not be helpful or it would just cause even more damage to that habitat (Harrison , Pollution: Causes , Effects and Control 3rd Edition). There are many things being done to prevent more spills (Harrison , Pollution: Causes , Effects and Control 3rd Edition). The US Congress passed OPA (Ocean Pollution Act) 90 (in 1990). The OPA 90s major laws are Emergency Response Plans, this law says that the owner of the tanker must have a detailed plan on what they will do if there was a spill. They must have this plan written before any spill.Moreover , Double Hulls law says that all

ships are required to have double hull by 2015.Furthermore ,the law of navigation says that the coast Guard must know where the oil tankers can drive without an oil spill occurring. It is believed that everything that is carried away by rivers ends up in seas. This leads to pollution by sewage , garbage , agricultural waste , pesticide and heavy metals which is known as marine pollution. Activities of Man leads to water pollution . Those activities can include a wide range of pollution. There is physical dumping in the seas of rubbish and sewage. On one small, uninhabited Island that is less than 100 yards wide, surrounded by rock and several miles from any other place, yet used by endangered seabirds for nesting, conservationists collected 8 bags of rubbish, close to 300 pounds (http://www.helium.com/items/1448364-importance-of-curtailing-marine-pollution-sourcesof-marine-pollution, 25 October 2010). The effects of marine pollution is a dying ecosystem, and eventually a dying of life on the planet(Harrison , Pollution: Causes , Effects and Control 3rd Edition). The oceans of the world not only provide water and much of our food, but also the air we breath. It absorbs out carbon dioxide and helps produce oxygen, giving fresh air and regulating temperatures. Global warming is due as much to damages oceans as greenhouse emissions. There are few ways that can be consider in order to prevent marine pollution . Education is one, teaching people about consequences will make most become more responsible and not dump things into the sea, that takes care of the physical garbage. Agricultural pollution is also education, using contours and such will decrease the run off and save topsoil. Saltwater diluted is a fertilizer and could be used in coastal areas instead of commercial ones, there are biodegradable pesticides! Factories can install filters and "gas scrubbers", costly but not as expensive as some think and better in the long term. Clearly, the problems associated with water pollution have the capabilities to disrupt life on our planet to a great extent. Congress has passed laws to try to overcome water pollution thus acknowledging the fact that water pollution is, indeed, a serious issue. But the government alone cannot solve the entire problem. It is ultimately up to us, to be informed, responsible and involved when it comes to the problems we face with our water. We must become familiar with our local water resources and learn about ways for disposing harmful household wastes so they dont end up in sewage treatment plants that cant handle them or landfills not designed to receive hazardous materials. As we head into the 21st century, awareness and education will most assuredly continue to be the two most important ways to

prevent water pollution. If these measures are not taken and water pollution continues, life on earth will suffer severely. Global environmental collapse is not inevitable. But the developed world must work with the developing world to ensure that new industrialized economies do not add to the world's environmental problems. Politicians must think of sustainable development rather than economic expansion. Conservation strategies have to become more widely accepted, and people must learn that energy use can be dramatically diminished without sacrificing comfort. In short, with the technology that currently exists, the years of global environmental mistreatment can begin to be reversed.