Look carefully at the picture of the
river. Read the words given below.
Use these words to make a story. Give a
title to your story also. Boat, flowing water, blue, fish, water-plants, river,
foul smell, big ship, oil, river banks, factories, washing clothes, animals,
other work,
change, city.
The colour of the river changes as it
flows downwards to the plains.
Now see the colour of the water. Water
pollution is the main cause of the change in colour of the river water.
You saw in the pictures that as the
river flowed through or near many villages, towns and cities the water changed.
The people used the river water for many
different things such as washing clothes, bathing animals and cleaning
utensils.
changing as it flowed through various
places. Water in ponds and lakes can also become dirty due to similar reasons.
From where do you get your drinkingwater. We get drinking water from river or a lake. Do you think that like the
river in the picture your river or lake can also be affected.
Because Many towns and factories are built nearrivers so that they can use water from the river. But sometimes the water is
not cleaned before it is put back into the river. This dirtying of water (also
air and soil) is called pollution.
Pollution can be in a variety of
forms:
Rubbish like crisp packets, newspaper
and bags. Oil, Poisonous substances, Cans, bottles and other solid objects, Human
waste / excrement
Causes of pollution:
There are several causes of water
pollution in India. The main causes are briefly described as under:
Rapid urbanisation in India during the
recent decades has given rise to a number of environmental problems such as
water supply, wastewater generation and its collection, treatment and disposal.
Many towns and cities which came up on
the banks of rivers have not given a proper thought to problem of wastewater,
severage, etc.
Farmers put fertilizers and pesticides
on their crops so that their crops grow better. But these fertilizers and
pesticides can be washed through the soil by rain, to end up in rivers.
Fertilizers and pesticides are harmful because they cause algae to grow. The algae
then destroy water plants.
Factories use water from rivers to power
machinery or to cool down machinery. Dirty water containing chemicals is put
back in the river. Water used for cooling is warmer than the river itself, and
this is also a form of pollution.
Most Indian rivers and other sources of
fresh water are polluted by industrial wastes or effluents. All these
industrial wastes are toxic to life forms that consume this water. The total
wastewater generated from all major industrial sources is 83,048 MId which
includes 66,700 Mid of cooling water generated from thermal power plants.
Withdrawal of Water:
Indian rivers, particularly the
Himalayan Rivers, have plenty of water in their upper course. They are,
however, starved of water when they enter the plain area. Irrigation canals
whisk away clean water soon after the rivers reach the plains, denying water to
flow in the river downstream.
People are sometimes careless and throw
rubbish such as bottles and crisp packets directly into rivers.
Effects of water pollution:
Pollution kills water plants and
animals. Polluted water also carries diseases. When animals drink the water,
they may get diseases which can kill them. People can even get these diseases
by eating the infected animal.
This happens a lot in poor countries in
Africa where people get untreated water directly from the river. Rivers look
unsightly when there is rubbish in them. Polluted rivers smell bad.
Efforts are being made to clean dirtyrivers. Water companies like Southern Water are spending a lot of money to
clean up dirty rivers. There are fines for companies and people who
deliberately throw rubbish into the river.
We can’t drink sea water because Seawater is toxic because your body fails
eventually when it has to try to get rid of the salt that comes from sea water.
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