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Pollution as an environmental hazard,types of pollution,causes and effects of water pollution

Answer Text:
Pollution as an environmental hazard.
-Contamination of environment with harmful or poisonous substances.
Types of pollution:
-They include: Water pollution, Soil/Land pollution, Air pollution, Noise pollution.
Water Pollution
-Addition of harmful substances in water causing deterioration in the quality of water so that it no longer serves the purpose for which it is intended.
Causes:
-Addition of materials like dust and salts to water through erosion and wind deposition.
-Disposal of wastes from houses e.g. sewage into rivers or lakes.
-Effluents from industries and factories.
-Oil spills from e.g. off shore oil drilling, tankers and burst oil pipes.
-Testing of nuclear weapons under the sea.
-Agricultural fertilizers and chemicals washed in to the river by rain water.
Effects
- Causes diseases such as cholera when drinking water is contaminated.
-Causes poisoning e.g. when mercury from industries is consumed by fish and is eventually consumed by human beings.
-Causes death of aquatic life like fish due to poisoning and suffocation.
-Makes introduction of fish into aquatic systems difficult.