Description of the Article
The article under review is water pollution and treatment technologies by Reddy Kumar and Lee Seung (Harikishore and Lee 1). The article discuses the causes, effects and methods of reducing water pollution. The first part of the article discusses the main causes of water pollution and the global trends on this issue. The article identifies new forms of water pollution and their sources. The second part discusses the impacts of water pollution and highlights some of the water treatment technologies. The article mainly dwells on new chemical water treatment methods as a way of reducing water pollution.
System Diagram
The system diagram was drawn taking into consideration the main issues discussed in the article. Figure 1 below shows this system diagram with the interrelationships between the main factors outlined.
Description of the system
From figure 1, there are three main issues addressed. These are
- Effects of water pollution
- Cause of water pollution
- Methods of preventing and reducing water pollution
Causes of water pollution
The article discusses the main causes of water pollution. As shown in figure 1, an increase in one or more causes of pollution will result to a corresponding increase in the impacts of water pollution. From the figure, the main causes of pollution are; contaminants from human activities, industrial wastes, chemicals from natural process, industrialization, population increase, natural disasters and demand for more water. The article also mentions the main chemical pollutants affecting water bodies (Harikishore and Lee 2). These include; pharmaceuticals, pesticides, fluoride, pathogens, dyes and metals. An increase in these factors will result to an increase in causes of pollution which in turn increases the effects of water pollution.
Effects of water pollution
The main effects of water pollution highlighted in this article are; pollution of fresh water bodies, negative impacts on aquatic life, increase in water borne diseases, political instabilities, water wars and increased social problems. As shown in figure 1, these effects increase when water pollution causes increase and reduce when water prevention strategies are used.
Water pollution prevention
From figure 1, there are three main water prevention methods discussed in the article. These are; educating the public on the need to control water pollutants, use of chemical water treatment methods and using other low cost waste water treatment techniques. Chemical water treatment is greatly discussed as it eradicates bacteria, viruses and other pathogens. However, chemical water treatment is expensive and most of the compounds are lost during the process. It is therefore recommended that alternative methods of treating water be developed. The article also highlights that educating the public on water pollution causes and effects would reduce this problem in the long run.
Issues not discussed by the article
In this article, the main recommendation for preventing pollution is through chemical treatment. Whereas chemical treatment is a viable option for small scale water cleaning, it is not possible to clean large water bodies. Chemical purification is expensive and not a viable solution for controlling water pollution. The article does not address the issue of controlling pollution before it happens. The authors only discuss ways of treating the water after it has been polluted. Effective prevention of water pollution requires that sources of pollution are identified and eliminated. Since the main causes of pollution are human and industrial wastes, a reduction of these chemicals would decrease the amount of pollutants in water and subsequently eliminate the need to treat it.
For example, legislation banning industries and people from dumping wastewater in rivers would reduce water pollution in the long run. Also, wastes from industries and households should be analyzed to determine the chemicals they contain. This would ensure that these pollutants are not deposited in the air or land. Although the article discusses the main causes of pollution, the mechanism through which this process occurs is not described. Pollutants normally enter water bodies through several routes such as landfills, agricultural lands, surface water, polluted underground reservoirs and rain water. An analysis’s of the water pollution process would enable environmentalists develop methods of eradicating or controlling pollution.
Issues not discussed in the conclusion
From the article, the main emphasis are on developing better water treatment methods as well as educating the public on dangers of water pollution. The article does not describe other ways of solving this environmental problem. The article only gives recommendations for improving water treatment methods which is impossible for large water bodies and is very expensive. Effective water pollution requires governments to enforce strict laws that ban industries and individuals from dumping effluents into water bodies. The government should also ban the use of certain chemicals in industries, agricultural land and households. This would reduce the need to treat water in order to eliminate these chemicals. The government should also encourage more studies on pollution so as to identify more causes of pollution, mechanism through which these chemicals reach water bodies and develop adequate measures to control these pollutants.
Works Cited
Harikishore, Kumar and Lee, Seung. “Water Pollution and Treatment Technologies”. Journal of Environmental & Analytical Toxicology 2.5: (2012).1-2.Print.