Groundwater Contamination and Its Detrimental Effects to Human Life
"Groundwater Contamination and Its Detrimental Effects to Human Life"
Water is essential for all living and non-living things. Without it, Life as we know it, would perish.
We use water for many different purposes, for domestic like, drinking, washing clothes, cleaning, and even in industries for steam generation from boilers, etc.
Groundwater is a significant source of water supply that can be found almost everywhere and is used by 1/3 of the world's population with almost the majority of the people living in rural areas using it as drinking water.
Groundwater is a part of the hydrologic cycle. Some of the water during precipitation that lands on the ground surface infiltrates into the subsurface. The part that continues downward through the soil until it reaches rock material that is saturated with groundwater recharge.
The water table may be deep or shallow; and may rise or fall depending on many factors. Heavy rains or melting snow may cause the water table to rise while drought and heavy pumping of groundwater supplies may cause the water table to fall.
However, groundwater faces one of the main environmental issues - Pollution.
Groundwater pollution comes from many sources, and this happens when harmful substances get into the soil. When it rains, water washes over the substances in the ground and carries them down into aquifers below.
Agriculture pollutes groundwater as over usage of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides will create wastes that soak into the ground. Nitrates from the fertilizers are especially dangerous in drinking water because they've been linked to various cancers, miscarriages, and birth defects.
Manufacturing industries also contribute to groundwater contamination. There are often many different toxic chemicals involved in manufacturing the products that we use that may infiltrate into the ground.
Landfills, especially in most developing countries, do not properly disposed their harmful waste which results to percolation of untreated leachate into the ground, contaminating the water recharge with substances like heavy metals, which in high dosage, are highly toxic to humans, even deadly.
Over 300 million people worldwide use groundwater contaminated with arsenic or fluoride as a source of drinking water.
Groundwater contains fewer pathogens than water from lakes or rivers and may even be the only available source for most ares. However, about 10 percent of wells are contaminated with arsenic or fluoride. These contaminants are usually of natural (geogenic) origin, being leached from aquifer rocks and sediments.
At high concentrations or when ingested over long periods, arsenic and fluoride have serious effects on human health. Excessive fluoride intake can lead to pitting of the teeth and bone and joint deformities. Chronic exposure to arsenic is associated with discoloration and thickening of the skin and can also cause cardiovascular disorders or cancer.
Here are the lists of other heavy metals with their harmful effects:
Cadmium - inhalation of its fumes or particles can be life threatening with acute pulmonary effects and exposure may cause kidney damage.
Mercury - exposure may give rise to lung damage. Chronic, poisoning is characterized by neurological and psychological symptoms, such as tremor, changes in personality, result lenses, and piety, sleep disturbance and depression.
Lead - exposure may lead to poisoning, resulting to develop symptoms like gore headache, irritability, admiral pain and various other symptoms related to the nervous system.
Groundwater provides us with abundant water that we use for many things. We took our resources for granted. Our negligence resulted in so many levels of destruction to our environment. Today, most of the people suffer from many diseases and even death because of our own irresponsibility.
References:
http://www.groundwater.org/get-informed/basics/groundwater.html
https://water.usgs.gov/edu/earthgw.html
http://www.eawag.ch/en/news-agenda/news-portal/news-detail/news/trinkwasserbelastung-mit-arsen-und-fluorid-online-abschaetzen/
http://www.ijteee.org/final-print/feb2015/Hazards-Of-Heavy-Metal-Contamination-In-Ground-Water.pdf
http://study.com/academy/lesson/environmental-problems-associated-with-groundwater.html
