Drinking Water Pollution, Sources, and Treatment Processes

Drinking-Water and Pollution
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Drinking-Water and Pollution
Water is one of the significant components sustaining human beings. For this reason, it is imperative to understand topics such as water pollution, drinking water sources, and water treatment processes. Soil plays a crucial role in enhancing the purification of water, given that it acts as a sponge to influence the quality of water. However, the increased pollution and sedimentation in streams are caused by soil erosion (Peters, 2015). When water carrying the eroded particles takes longer to settle, that is an indication of sedimentation. The water quality is affected by sedimentation because the sediment has organic materials and harmful industrial wastes. This then affects the quality of receiving waters like oceans because all these impure particles settle in one place.
The dissolved oxygen profile downstream of a wastewater discharge is likely to decrease. Oxygen dissolves into the water as it tumbles over rocks through diffusion. However, when there is an increase in nutrients and organic waste in water, the oxygen content is likely to decrease. There is a decrease in the oxygen profile because of the presence of aerobic microorganisms which use oxygen (Schmoll et al., 2006). The increase in untreated wastewater increased the number of microorganisms in water which dramatically increases the need for oxygen. With time, this deprives the aquatic organisms of enough oxygen contributing to their inability to survive.
The sediments released to receiving waters such as lakes contribute to eutrophication. Eutrophication is the process by which lakes absorb minerals and sediments from the adjoining drainage, increasing their abundance and shallowness. More plants are likely to grow because of the shallowness. This makes the lake less suitable for recreation because the additional plant growth contributes to ...