Environmental Consultants - Water Pollution Bournemouth

These brief outlines of major environmental problems are offered as a quick over-view only. The issue of water pollution is far too big to do justice to on a web site such as this.

If you believe that you are affected by water pollution, check the links section for organisations which could help you.

Picture above: Willows with their roots in water at the margins of a reservoir. Many rural bodies of water can be affected by water pollution, especially from agricultural run-off

Sediments and organic debris - a natural cause - or not!

Natural organic wastes and soil can be one of the biggest causes of water pollution in some areas. Sediments build up over time in rivers and lakes as rain water washes soil, silt and organic debris from the land. This process may lead to local problems for fish and other water-based living creatures.

This natural process is made far worse when humans add an extra burden of wash-off from activities such as logging, construction and agriculture.

An additional set of problems occur when chemicals and petrochemicals are added to the contents of wash-off, as in the treatment of oil tar sands to remove the oil, as is currently happening in Canada.

The environmental destruction going on in Fort MacKay, Alberta and in Saskatchewan is causing lost livelihoods and dramatically increased cancer levels for local people. Fish from local rivers have growths and deformities and are regarded as inedible. See for more about this.

The main causes of water pollution:

Industry as a cause of water pollution

Industrial discharges cause many, many water pollution incidents.

Some stretches of river in the UK used to have no fish at all because the water was so polluted from factories routinely discharging effluent into them. Thanks to tighter controls most are now much cleaner; even the Thames now has fish once again.

But this pattern of industrial pollution is being repeated in many countries.

Some rivers in the east of Europe are now very heavily polluted. The Yellow River in China is now one of the most polluted waterways in the world; stretches of the river are now so toxic that animals drinking the water may die and many nearby communities are blighted by high levels of cancers....