What Are the Pros and Cons of Water Pollution?
Water pollution is the dumping of foreign materials in water. Water pollution has the following advantages: helps in disposing harmful materials off the land surface and is inexpensive. Disadvantages of water pollution include: waterborne diseases, death of aquatic life and hindrance to boating activities.
Pollution is the introduction of contamination materials into the natural environment that causes adverse changes. There are many forms of pollution, including water pollution, soil pollution and air pollution. All types of pollution are known for their many harmful effects. However, water pollution helps in avoiding other forms of pollution. Dumping of waste in water helps to free the land of harmful materials. When chemicals from factories are dumped in water rather than on land, it means crops from rain-fed agriculture will not be affected. Water pollution prevents health hazards. When materials are dumped in rivers, they become unavailable to human beings and hence cannot affect them, for instance, poisonous food materials.
Water pollution increases nutrient loading, leading to eutrophication. Organic wastes such as sewage and farm waste put high oxygen demand on the receiving water body resulting in oxygen depletion with drastic impacts on the entire ecosystem. A variety of pollutants discharged from industries, which include heavy metals, solids, organic toxins, nutrients and oils, reduce oxygen availability. Crops irrigated with water contaminated with heavy metals pose a health risk to humans.
