INTRODUCTION

WATER QUALITY

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 Water to drink

66%
66% of
of the
the human
human body
body is
is
made
made up
up of
of water.
water.

At
At just
just 2%
2% dehydration
dehydration
your
your performance
performance
decreases
decreases by by around
around
20%.
20%.

We
We should
should drink
drink at
at least
least
1½
1½ litres
litres of
of water
water aa day.
day.
 Water World

Two
Twothirds
thirdsof
ofour
ourplanet
planetisiscovered
covered
by
bywater.
water.

97.5%
97.5%of
ofthe
thewater
waterisissaltwater.
saltwater.

The
Themajority
majorityof
offreshwater
freshwaterisisbeyond
beyond
our
ourreach,
reach,locked
lockedinto
intopolar
polarsnow
snow
and ice.
and ice.

Potable
PotableWater:
Water:
water
waterwhich
whichmeets
meetsdrinking
drinking
water stds
water stds
53%
53%groundwater
groundwater
47%
47%surface
surfacewater
water
Global Water
 Water Diseases

80%
80% of
of all
all illness
illness in
in
developing
developing countries
countries is
is
caused
caused byby water
water related
related
diseases.
diseases.

90%
90% ofof wastewater
wastewater in in
developing
developing countries
countries isis
discharged
discharged directly
directly into
into
rivers
rivers and
and streams
streams without
without
treatment.
treatment.
Functions of water Resources management

Resource Assessment and Development

Ground water

Surface water

Non-conventional water

Environmental
Resource
Protection and
Allocation: Quality
Pollution Control
and Quantity
closed – water - loop

Wastewater generation Water Utilization

&
Domestic wastewater
& Domestic water use
Commercial wastewater Commercial water use

Industrial wastewater Industrial water use

Agricultural wastewater Agricultural water use

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CONTENTS

1. Water uses and functions

2. Water quality standards
3. Natural water quality
4. Sources of pollution
5. Spatial and temporal variations

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Water uses and functions

Water quality expresses the suitability of water for various uses or

processes: drinking water; irrigation water; nature conservation, …

Different water quality requirements:

a) No or hardly any specific requirements:

Example: navigation water or power generation

b) Defined “minimum standards”

Examples: irrigation water, fisheries, recreation water

c) “Undisturbed quality”: ecosystem functioning.

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13
CONTENTS

1. Water uses and functions

2. Water quality standards
3. Natural water quality
4. Sources of pollution
5. Spatial and temporal variations

14
 Water quality

An aquatic ecosystem is more than just water: all compartments of

the water system must be looked at as a whole.

• Chemical water quality

• Physical water quality
Bank
• (Micro)biological water quality
Water
Biologiscal

Bed
Chemical
Physical

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 Standards for different uses

(For complete table and meaning of the symbols, see pages 92-94 in Chapman,1996)
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Standards for different uses

Water fit for ecosystems needs virtually undisturbed water quality.

To achieve this, there is nowadays also much emphasis on the

micropollutants (heavy metals, pesticides, PCBs, etc.), which are
mainly originating from industrial sources.
 Industries should use “Best Available Technologies” (BAT)
 “zero” discharges

For the other (non-ecosystem) water uses, often the “ALARA

principle” holds: “As low as reasonably achievable”.

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CONTENTS

1. Water uses and functions

2. Water quality standards
3. Natural water quality
4. Sources of pollution
5. Spatial and temporal variations

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Natural water quality – “background” concentrations

Depends on the following environmental factors:

• occurrence of highly soluble or easily weathered minerals
• distance to the coastline,
• precipitation/river run-off ratio, and
• occurrence of peat bogs, wetlands and marshes which release
large quantities of dissolved organic matter.

Other factors include the ambient temperature, thickness of

weathered rocks, organic soil cover, etc.

 No “average” natural water quality can be given, high variation

throughout the world exists!

(Page 258 Chapman, 1996)

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Natural water quality – “background” concentrations

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Natural water quality - examples

The Rio Negro flows into the main

branch of the Amazon which is
heavily loaded with silt. The water of
the tributary is darkly coloured by
humic substances present in the soil
of its forested catchment area.
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CONTENTS

1. Water uses and functions

2. Water quality standards
3. Natural water quality
4. Sources of pollution
5. Spatial and temporal variations

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Sources of pollution

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 Pollution causes & consequences

Fig. 3: Urbanization, population growth and industrialization are

amongst the basic factors which cause environmental problems in
lakes and reservoirs. 24
CONTENTS

1. Water uses and functions

2. Water quality standards
3. Natural water quality
4. Sources of pollution
5. Spatial and temporal variations

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Spatial and temporal variations

Rivers and lakes have different water quality

Spatially: source and mouth or inlet and outlet

surface layer and deepest layer
banks and middle

Temporally: day/night
seasons
years
centuries

 Importance of designing good monitoring

network !

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Spatial and temporal variations

For rivers, a good understanding of the discharge regime is

important for interpretation of water quality measurements.

The discharge of a river determines in many cases the

concentration of dissolved substances, via dilution.

Load L (g/s) = Discharge Q (m3/s) * Concentration C (g/m3)

E.g. assuming a constant load shows you that for increasing

discharges the concentration will go down and vice versa.

Water quality can thus depend much on the season.

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Advantages of Modern Pesticides

• Save human lives (malaria, bubonic

plague, typhoid fever)
• Increase food supplies (even now 55% of
world’s potential food supply is ‘lost’ to
other species)
• Increase profit for farmers ($1investment
$4 increased profit
• They work fast
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 Disadvantages

• Harm wildlife
– USDA, USFWS: each year pesticides wipe out about
20% of honeybee population, damage another 15%,
losing US farmers about $200 million/yr. Kill 6-14
million fish, ~67 million birds/year
• Threaten human health
--Poison 3.5-5 million workers in developing countries,
and at least 300,000 in US; cause about 20000-40000
deaths (about 25 in US) per year. Prob greatly
underestimated.
--In food causes about 4000-20000 cases of cancer/year
in US (Nat’l Academy of Sciences); genetic mutations,
birth defects, nervous systems disorders, endocrine
disorders. 29
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