Types of Water Pollution

Sensory Pollution of Water Bodies

Color Changes: Natural water is colorless and transparent. Pollution can change the color of water, affecting its sensory characteristics. For example, dyeing wastewater often turns water red, while oil refining wastewater can turn it dark brown. These color changes not only affect the sensory experience and ruin the landscape but are also difficult to treat.

Turbidity Changes: Water bodies containing silt, organic matter, and suspended and colloidal inorganic substances create turbidity, reducing transparency and affecting sensory perception and even the lives of aquatic organisms.

Foam Formations: Many pollutants discharged into water produce foam, such as detergents. Floating foam not only affects appearance but can also harbor bacteria in its pores, polluting drinking water.

Odor: Odor is a common pollution phenomenon in water bodies. The foul odor is often due to the putrefaction of organic matter in an anaerobic state, resulting in a complex, foul smell, often reminiscent of sewer odors. 1. **The Harm of Foul Odors:** Foul odors cause suffocation, nausea, render aquatic products inedible, and impair the water body's tourism function.

Organic Pollution of Water Bodies: This mainly refers to pollution caused by wastewater containing large amounts of organic matter discharged from urban sewage, food processing, and papermaking industries. These pollutants consume large amounts of dissolved oxygen during biological oxidation and decomposition in water. Insufficient oxygen supply halts oxidation, leading to anaerobic fermentation of organic matter, emitting foul odors, polluting the environment, and poisoning aquatic life.

Inorganic Pollution of Water Bodies: This refers to pollution of water bodies by acids, alkalis, and inorganic salts. It first alters the pH value of water, disrupting its natural buffering capacity, inhibiting microbial growth, and hindering the water body's self-purification process. It also increases inorganic salt content and water hardness, adversely affecting industrial and domestic water use.

Toxic Pollution of Water Bodies: Various toxic substances entering water bodies, at high concentrations, can kill aquatic organisms; at low concentrations, they can accumulate in organisms and concentrate through the food chain, ultimately affecting human health. 5. Eutrophication Pollution of Water Bodies: Wastewater containing plant nutrients entering water bodies causes eutrophication, leading to the proliferation of algae and excessive consumption of dissolved oxygen, resulting in the suffocation and death of fish and other marine life.

Oil Pollution of Water Bodies: Oil development along coasts and estuaries, oil tanker transportation, and the discharge of wastewater from oil refining industries cause oil pollution in water bodies. When oil forms a film on the water surface, it affects oxygen entry into the water, harming aquatic life. Furthermore, oil pollution damages the landscape of beaches and scenic areas, and the survival of birds.

Thermal Pollution of Water Bodies: Cooling water from thermal power plants is a major source of thermal pollution. Direct discharge of this wastewater into natural water bodies can cause an increase in water temperature, reducing dissolved oxygen and increasing the toxicity of certain substances in the water. Increased water temperature has the greatest impact on fish, causing changes in fish populations and mortality.

Pathogenic Microorganism Pollution of Water Bodies: Domestic sewage, hospital wastewater, and wastewater from slaughterhouses and meat processing plants contain various viruses, bacteria, parasites, and other pathogenic microorganisms. When these enter water bodies, they can spread various diseases.

Radioactive Pollution of Water Bodies: This refers to pollution caused by radioactive materials entering water bodies. The radioactive materials mainly originate from nuclear reactor waste. Radioactive pollution can lead to biological mutations, damage to the genetic structure of organisms, and carcinogenicity. Nuclear materials have very long decay periods and cannot be disposed of.