Unveiling The Hidden Dangers: Understanding Polluted Drinking Water

Drinking water is polluted when it is contaminated by chemicals, microbes, radionuclides, pesticides, fertilizers, waste and more. Groundwater is particularly vulnerable to contamination from industrial, agricultural and municipal waste and leaching from water supply components. Water pollution is a widespread problem that jeopardizes our health and kills more people each year than war and all other forms of violence combined.

Groundwater pollution

Groundwater is one of our least visible but most important natural resources. Nearly 40 percent of Americans rely on groundwater, pumped to the earth’s surface, for drinking water. Groundwater gets polluted when contaminants—from pesticides and fertilizers to waste leached from landfills and septic systems—make their way into an aquifer, rendering it unsafe for human use. Contamination can result from a disaster—like an oil spill—or the slow, downriver creep of industrial, agricultural, or municipal discharge.

Water is uniquely vulnerable to pollution. Known as a “universal solvent,” water is able to dissolve more substances than any other liquid on earth. It’s the reason we have Kool-Aid and brilliant blue waterfalls. Water pollution is jeopardizing our health. Unsafe water kills more people each year than war and all other forms of violence combined. Meanwhile, our drinkable water sources are finite: Less than 1 percent of the earth’s freshwater is actually accessible to us. Without action, the challenges will only increase by 2050, when global demand for freshwater is expected to be one-third greater than it is now.

Inadequate management of urban, industrial and agricultural wastewater means the drinking-water of hundreds of millions of people is dangerously contaminated or chemically polluted. Natural presence of chemicals, particularly in groundwater, can also be of health significance, including arsenic and fluoride, while other chemicals, such as lead, may be elevated in drinking-water as a result of leaching from water supply components in contact with drinking-water. Some 1 million people are estimated to die each year from diarrhoea as a result of unsafe drinking-water, sanitation and hand hygiene. Yet diarrhoea is largely preventable, and the deaths of 395 000 children aged under 5 years could be avoided each year if these risk factors were addressed.

The average American consumes 1 to 2 liters of drinking water per day. Virtually all drinking water in the United States comes from fresh surface waters and ground water aquifers. Surface waters and aquifers can be contaminated by various chemicals, microbes, and radionuclides. Disinfection of drinking water has dramatically reduced the prevalence of waterborne diseases (such as typhoid, cholera, and hepatitis) in the United States. Other processes may also be used to treat drinking water depending on the characteristics of and contaminants in the source water. Common sources of drinking water contaminants include: Industry and agriculture. Organic solvents, petroleum products, and heavy metals from disposal sites or storage facilities can migrate into aquifers.

Contaminated water supply

Water pollution is a widespread problem that is jeopardizing our health. Unsafe water kills more people each year than war and all other forms of violence combined. Water is uniquely vulnerable to pollution because it is known as a “universal solvent”, and is able to dissolve more substances than any other liquid on earth.

Groundwater is one of our least visible but most important natural resources. Nearly 40 percent of Americans rely on groundwater, pumped to the earth’s surface, for drinking water. Groundwater gets polluted when contaminants—from pesticides and fertilizers to waste leached from landfills and septic systems—make their way into an aquifer, rendering it unsafe for human use.

Inadequate management of urban, industrial and agricultural wastewater means the drinking-water of hundreds of millions of people is dangerously contaminated or chemically polluted. Natural presence of chemicals, particularly in groundwater, can also be of health significance, including arsenic and fluoride, while other chemicals, such as lead, may be elevated in drinking-water as a result of leaching from water supply components in contact with drinking-water.

Some 1 million people are estimated to die each year from diarrhoea as a result of unsafe drinking-water, sanitation and hand hygiene. Yet diarrhoea is largely preventable, and the deaths of 395 000 children aged under 5 years could be avoided each year if these risk factors were addressed.

The average American consumes 1 to 2 liters of drinking water per day. Virtually all drinking water in the United States comes from fresh surface waters and ground water aquifers. Surface waters and aquifers can be contaminated by various chemicals, microbes, and radionuclides. Disinfection of drinking water has dramatically reduced the prevalence of waterborne diseases (such as typhoid, cholera, and hepatitis ) in the United States.

Chemical pollutants

Water pollution is a widespread problem that is jeopardizing our health. Unsafe water kills more people each year than war and all other forms of violence combined. Water is uniquely vulnerable to pollution as it is known as a “universal solvent”, able to dissolve more substances than any other liquid on earth. Water pollution can’t be contained by a line on a map as transboundary pollution is the result of contaminated water from one country spilling into the waters of another.

Groundwater is one of our least visible but most important natural resources as it is one of the only sources of freshwater. Nearly 40 percent of Americans rely on groundwater, pumped to the earth’s surface, for drinking water. Groundwater gets polluted when contaminants—from pesticides and fertilizers to waste leached from landfills and septic systems—make their way into an aquifer, rendering it unsafe for human use.

Inadequate management of urban, industrial and agricultural wastewater means the drinking-water of hundreds of millions of people is dangerously contaminated or chemically polluted. Natural presence of chemicals, particularly in groundwater, can also be of health significance, including arsenic and fluoride, while other chemicals, such as lead, may be elevated in drinking-water as a result of leaching from water supply components in contact with drinking-water.

Common sources of drinking water contaminants include: Industry and agriculture. Organic solvents, petroleum products, and heavy metals from disposal sites or storage facilities can migrate into aquifers. Disinfection of drinking water has dramatically reduced the prevalence of waterborne diseases (such as typhoid, cholera, and hepatitis) in the United States. Other processes may also be used to treat drinking water depending on the characteristics of and contaminants in the source water.

Waterborne diseases

Water pollution can result from disasters like oil spills, or the slow, downriver creep of industrial, agricultural, or municipal discharge. Groundwater is rendered unsafe for human use when contaminants from pesticides and fertilizers to waste leached from landfills and septic systems make their way into an aquifer. Contamination of drinking water can also result from the natural presence of chemicals, particularly in groundwater, including arsenic and fluoride, while other chemicals, such as lead, may be elevated in drinking-water as a result of leaching from water supply components in contact with drinking-water.

Transboundary pollution

Water pollution is a widespread problem that is jeopardizing our health. Unsafe water kills more people each year than war and all other forms of violence combined. Water is uniquely vulnerable to pollution. Known as a “universal solvent”, water is able to dissolve more substances than any other liquid on earth.

Groundwater gets polluted when contaminants—from pesticides and fertilizers to waste leached from landfills and septic systems—make their way into an aquifer, rendering it unsafe for human use. Inadequate management of urban, industrial and agricultural wastewater means the drinking-water of hundreds of millions of people is dangerously contaminated or chemically polluted.

Natural presence of chemicals, particularly in groundwater, can also be of health significance, including arsenic and fluoride, while other chemicals, such as lead, may be elevated in drinking-water as a result of leaching from water supply components in contact with drinking-water. Some 1 million people are estimated to die each year from diarrhoea as a result of unsafe drinking-water, sanitation and hand hygiene. Yet diarrhoea is largely preventable, and the deaths of 395 000 children aged under 5 years could be avoided each year if these risk factors were addressed.

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