This document discusses water pollution in Bangladesh. It summarizes that water pollution is a major problem in Bangladesh, with human waste directly contaminating surface waters that people rely on for washing, cooking, and bathing. This poses major public health risks and is a cause of diseases like diarrhea. The document also describes specific examples of pollution, such as the lake adjacent to a slum that is used as a communal toilet by residents and endangers their health. Solutions discussed include efforts by organizations to provide safe drinking water to slums.

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Table of Contents
Page no.
Introduction...........................................................................................2
Sources..............................................................................................3-4
Measurement.........................................................................................5
Causes of water Pollution.......................................................................6
Effects of Water Pollution.......................................................................7
Solution of Water Pollution.....................................................................8
An Article Regarding Water Pollution in Bangladesh............................9-11
Some pictures of Water Pollution..........................................................12
Conclusion...........................................................................................13
Sources...................................................................................................................14

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Introduction
Water Pollution is the contamination of water bodies (e.g. lakes, rivers, oceans and
groundwater). Water pollution occurs when pollutants are discharged directly or indirectly into
water bodies without adequate treatment to remove harmful compounds. Water pollution affects
plants and organisms living in these bodies of water; and, in almost all cases the effect is
damaging not only to individual species and populations, but also to the natural biological
communities.
Water pollution is a major global problem which requires ongoing evaluation and revision of
water resource policy at all levels (international down to individual aquifers and wells). It has
been suggested that it is the leading worldwide cause of deaths and diseases, and that it accounts
for the deaths of more than 14,000 people daily. An estimated 700 million Indians have no
access to a proper toilet, and 1,000 Indian children die of diarrheal sickness every day. Some
90% of China's cities suffer from some degree of water pollution, and nearly 500 million people
lack access to safe drinking water. In addition to the acute problems of water pollution in
developing countries, industrialized countries continue to struggle with pollution problems as
well. In the most recent national report on water quality in the United States, 45 percent of
assessed stream miles, 47 percent of assessed lake acres, and 32 percent of assessed bay and
estuarine square miles were classified as polluted.
Water is typically referred to as polluted when it is impaired by anthropogenic contaminants and
either does not support a human use, such as drinking water, and undergoes a marked shift in its
ability to support its constituent biotic communities, such as fish. Natural phenomena such as
volcanoes, algae blooms, storms, and earthquakes also cause major changes in water quality and
the ecological status of water.

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Sources
Surface water and groundwater have often been studied and managed as separate resources,
although they are interrelated. Surface water seeps through the soil and becomes groundwater.
Conversely, groundwater can also feed surface water sources. Sources of surface water pollution
are generally grouped into two categories based on their origin.
Point sources
Point source water pollution refers to contaminants that enter a waterway from a single,
identifiable source, such as a pipe or ditch. Examples of sources in this category include
discharges from a sewage treatment plant, a factory, or a city storm drain. The U.S. Clean Water
Act (CWA) defines point source for regulatory enforcement purposes. The CWA definition of
point source was amended in 1987 to include municipal storm sewer systems, as well as
industrial storm water, such as from construction sites.
Non–point sources
Non–point source (NPS) pollution refers to diffuse contamination that does not originate from a
single discrete source. NPS pollution is often the cumulative effect of small amounts of
contaminants gathered from a large area. A common example is the leaching out of nitrogen
compounds from fertilized agricultural lands. Nutrient runoff in storm water from "sheet flow"
over an agricultural field or a forest are also cited as examples of NPS pollution.
Contaminated storm water washed off of parking lots, roads and highways, called urban runoff,
is sometimes included under the category of NPS pollution. However, this runoff is typically
channeled into storm drain systems and discharged through pipes to local surface waters, and is a
point source. However where such water is not channeled and drains directly to ground it is a
non-point source.
Pollution takes place in all the three main sources of water, i.e. rain water, SURFACE WATER and
GROUNDWATER. Surface water is more susceptible than groundwater, which is naturally protected
from surface activities.
Rainwater pollution

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Acid rain damages forests and may cause significant decrease in productivity. Numerous authors
have also raised concern for crop damage. Acid rain is particularly damaging to buds; therefore,
acids falling on plants in springtime may impair growth. Acidification of SOIL may also impair
soil bacteria that play an important role in nutrient cycling and nitrogen fixation. Acid rain is also
capable of corroding manmade structures. Examples of such corrosion are: the Statue of Liberty,
the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa and Egypt's temple at Karnack. Acid rain may also damage
house paint and etch the surfaces of automobiles. There is no record of acid rain in Bangladesh.
However, due to extensive AIR POLLUTION in Dhaka city, it is very likely that rain water in Dhaka
would be more acidic than rain water in rural areas.
Surface water pollution
Surface water occurs in OCEANs, rivers, lakes, ponds and floodplains. It has been the source of
water supply since the dawn of civilization. But intense human activities have been polluting
these readily available sources. Surface water used to be the primary source of water supply in
Bangladesh, but it is no longer the case. Surface water in Bangladesh is extensively polluted by
sources such as industrial and urban wastes, agrochemicals and sewerage wastes and seawater
intrusion. Surface water bodies are extensively used for disposal of untreated industrial wastes
and this is one of the main sources of pollution. The BURIGANGA is a typical example of serious
surface water contamination. Apart from industrial sources, surface water in the country is also
extensively contaminated by human faeces as SANITATION in general is poor. Agrochemicals are
extensively used in the country causing pollution of surface water. Due to withdrawal of water
from the GANGES, seawater intrudes a long way inside the coastline which causes river water
pollution by salinity. There are also other minor sources that contaminate surface water
extensively.
Groundwater pollution
Although groundwater is not directly exposed to surface polluting activities, numerous natural
and anthropogenic activities cause groundwater pollution. A number of physical, chemical and
biochemical (and microbiological) processes cause alteration of groundwater properties either by
addition of new elements or by increasing the existing concentrations. Before the discovery of
arsenic contamination in Bangladesh, groundwater used to be considered a safer source of
drinking water. Arsenic contamination of groundwater in Bangladesh is now considered the
world's largest case of water pollution. Groundwater in Bangladesh is also polluted by a number
of anthropogenic and natural sources. The most widespread anthropogenic sources are the
infiltration of industrial and urban wastes disposed on the ground or in surface water bodies.
Also intrusion or infiltration of saline water contaminates groundwater. Extensive use of
agrochemicals can lead to groundwater pollution. Leaking sewers latrines also cause
groundwater pollution.

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Measurement
Water pollution may be analyzed through several broad categories of methods: physical,
chemical and biological. Most involve collection of samples, followed by specialized analytical
tests. Some methods may be conducted “in situ”, without sampling, such as temperature.
Government agencies and research organizations have published standardized, validated
analytical test methods to facilitate the comparability of results from disparate testing events.
Sampling
Sampling of water for physical or chemical testing can be done by several methods, depending
on the accuracy needed and the characteristics of the contaminant. Many contamination events
are sharply restricted in time, most commonly in association with rain events. For this reason
"grab" samples are often inadequate for fully quantifying contaminant levels. Scientists gathering
this type of data often employ auto-sampler devices that pump increments of water at either time
or discharge intervals.
Sampling for biological testing involves collection of plants and/or animals from the surface
water body. Depending on the type of assessment, the organisms may be identified for bio
surveys (population counts) and returned to the water body, or they may be dissected for
bioassays to determine toxicity.
Physical testing
Common physical tests of water include temperature, solids concentration (e.g., total suspended
solids (TSS)) and turbidity.
Chemical testing
Water samples may be examined using the principles of analytical chemistry. Many published
test methods are available for both organic and inorganic compounds. Frequently used methods
include pH, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), nutrients
(nitrate and phosphorus compounds), metals (including copper, zinc, cadmium, lead and
mercury), oil and grease, total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH), and pesticides.
Biological testing
Biological testing involves the use of plant, animal, and/or microbial indicators to monitor the
health of an aquatic ecosystem.

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Causes of Water Pollution
One of the reasons that the water pollution problem is so severe is that it is not actually illegal to
dump pollutants into water bodies.
Sewage, sludge, garbage, and even toxic pollutants are all dumped into the water. Often,
governments either do not care or simply look the other way.
Across the world, about half of all sewage is dumped into water bodies in its original form. No
efforts are made to disinfect the sewage or to remove especially harmful pollutants.
Even if sewage is treated, problems still arise. Treated sewage forms sludge, which is sent out
into the sea and dumped.
Many cities and countries dump sewage out at sea. Often, they place it not far from their own
coastline, often killing all the sea wildlife in the dumping area.
In addition to sewage, chemicals dumped by industries and governments are another major
source of water pollution.
Oil, such as that spilled by transport ships, has been dumped into the water since the US Civil
War. Every year, between 1 and 10 billion tons of oil are spilt, killing many species and
destroying the ecosystem in the area. Cleanup efforts have been weak, as only about 10% of the
oil is removed by the most successful efforts.
Open defecation is also a cause of water pollution. About 2.5 billion people around the world
lack of improved sanitation. They practice open defecation which is washed away by rainwater
and mixed with river water and causes serious harm to our health.

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Effects of Water Pollution
The effects of water pollution are varied and depend on what chemicals are dumped and in what
locations.
Boston Harbor is a strong example of how badly pollution can damage bodies of water. The
water is filled with toxic waste and sewage, and routinely receives more waste when rainfall
pushes it into the harbor.
Many bodies of water near urban areas are highly polluted. This is the result of both garbage
dumped by individuals and dangerous chemicals legally or illegally dumped by industries.
The main problem caused by water pollution is that it kills life that inhabits water-based
ecosystems. Dead fish, birds, dolphins, and many other animals often wind up on beaches, killed
by pollutants in their habitat.
Pollution disrupts the natural food chain as well. Pollutants such as lead and cadmium are eaten
by tiny animals. Later, these animals are consumed by fish and shellfish, and the food chain
continues to be disrupted at all higher levels.
Eventually, humans are affected by this process as well. People can get diseases such as
hepatitis by eating seafood that has been poisoned.
Ecosystems can be severely changed or destroyed by water pollution. Many areas are now being
affected by careless human pollution, and this pollution is coming back to hurt humans.

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Solutions of Water Pollution
Many laws have been created to restrict industries from dumping materials into the water.
However, many laws remain weak, and many countries do not restrict water pollution.
In the United States, the Clean Water Act was written to completely put an end to all dumping of
pollutants into water. The law has not been that effective in many areas, but in other locations, it
has achieved its goals.
Since the Clean Water Act, other legislation has been enacted as well. Now, eleven different
federal government agencies and 21 federal government programs all monitor the quality of
water and regulate pollution.
The world has spent tremendous sums of money trying to clean up water. From 1972-1990, the
US spent over $250 billion.
Many non-governmental projects are also being carried out in an effort to clean up the water.
Industries are beginning to reduce the amount of chemicals they dump into water, and
environmental groups are participating in cleanup projects.
The plastics industry, blamed for some of the worst pollution of the water, is making its products
degradable. However, many environmentalists think this is hardly enough.
Public reaction to the water pollution problem has also been influential. Governments have
responded when public anger has risen, such as after the Exxon Valdez accident.

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An Article Regarding Water Pollution in Bangladesh
A dangerous life on the water's edge
Pollution poisons Bangladesh's riverside slums
• Luke Harding in Dhaka
• The Guardian, Monday 16 December 2002 01.10 GMT
If you try to ignore the excrement floating beneath her floorboards, the view from Mrs Sefali's
shack could almost be regarded as idyllic. At sunset, green dragonflies hover outside her back
door, which leads directly to a turquoise lake.
Along the narrow lane in front of her flimsy bamboo home, rickshaw drivers carry exhausted
women back from sweatshops where they make clothes for poverty wages.
This is Dhaka - probably the most squalid, wretched, and perversely beautiful city on earth. The
capital of Bangladesh is home to 12 million people, a quarter of who live in slums, in conditions
of unimaginable filth. They include Mrs Sefali, who moved into one of the city's numerous
illegal slums, Mirpur, 10 years ago.
Her tiny two-roomed bamboo shack has been constructed next to dozens of others. With so little
land available, settlements like Mirpur have sprung up above Dhaka's many emerald-green lakes.
"Seven days ago there was heavy rainfall and the water came up through the bottom of my
house. It rose up to my legs," Mrs Sefali said.
But it is not just the floods that transform life for the slum-dwellers of Mirpur into a watery hell.
It is the sanitation: there isn't any. Mrs Sefali and her family do not have a toilet. Instead they use
a hole in the bottom of their shack that leads directly into the lake below.
Some of her neighbors have devised a system of "hanging latrines" - precarious bamboo
platforms raised a few feet above the water and screened by rags.
The tiny alley to Mrs Sefali's house goes past four or five other shacks, where families of up to
10 people live packed together. The smell is appalling: just outside her front door, human faeces
sitting in nearly a meter of water bob up to meet you.

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All the slum-dwellers are forced to use the lake as a collective latrine. They use the same water
to clean their cooking pots, to wash clothes, and to bathe in. "We know this water is not good for
washing ourselves in. But what can we do?" Mrs Sefali asked. "We don't have much choice."
It is hardly surprising that the inhabitants of Dhaka's sprawling slums suffer from a variety of
diseases. In the rainy season they got jor - a debilitating fever. And then there is diarrhea,
dysentery and tuberculosis. Both of Mrs Sefali's children have scabies - a universal complaint -
while her husband has TB.
"My neighbor’s child died recently of diarrhea," Mrs Sefali said. Only the carp that feed off the
excrement floating in the city's slum-ponds appear healthy.
Bangladesh is one of the poorest, most squalid, most corrupt, and most densely populated
countries on earth. Millions of people face the same problem as Mrs Sefali and her neighbors.
There is an abundance of water in Bangladesh. Most of the country is a vast delta fed by the
Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers, which flow via a series of lagoons and shifting islands into the
bay of Bengal. But much of this water is polluted.
The country has also suffered from bad luck. Since Bangladesh won independence in 1971,
western donors have funded the construction of thousands of wells, especially in rural areas. In
the early 1990s, however, many were found to be contaminated with naturally occurring arsenic.
Nobody knows exactly how many people have died, but as many as 50 million may have been
affected by arsenic poisoning. The west has hardly noticed.
Nearly half of the country's 129 million people, meanwhile, live in dire poverty. It is their
desperate search for employment that drives them into the squalid slums of Dhaka and
Chittagong, Bangladesh's second port city, and to colonies like Mirpur.
Until recently the women here had to travel miles to fetch water from a mosque. Others bought it
at inflated rates from the mastaan, local slum barons who specialize in ripping off the poor.
Earlier this year, however, the British charity Water Aid introduced a scheme that means that for
the first time more than 100,000 of Dhaka's poorest residents have access to safe drinking water.
The city water board has been persuaded to rethink its policy that slum-dwellers should not be
supplied with water because they are squatting illegally.
Water Aid and its local partner won permission to establish a communal water point, which is a
few hundred yards from Mrs Sefali's flimsy bamboo home. It also signed a contract for the new
connection, guaranteeing that bills would be paid regularly. They even persuaded the mastaan to
let local women control the supply.
The scheme has revolutionized life in Mirpur, though there is still no proper sanitation. The
water point consists of a hand-pump inside a concrete shower-block. The women levy a fee of 50

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paisa (half a penny) to fill up a large pot of water - far less than the mastaan were charging. Most
days, around 250 people make use of the pump.
But despite Water Aid's efforts, the situation in Dhaka remains desperate. The slum-dwellers
face the constant threat of eviction: last month the city authorities bulldozed several hundred
illegal waterside houses.
Dhaka's only sewage plant, meanwhile, has broken down. The sense that the country is
descending into squalor and chaos is hard to avoid, even if you are rich.
"The infrastructure almost doesn't exist for the middle class or the elite, let alone the poorest,"
Timothy Claydon, the head of Water Aid in Bangladesh, said. "Millions of people are living in
utterly appalling conditions."
Tomorrow in Education Guardian, David Ward examines Fairbridge's work with under-16s who
have dropped out of school; and on Wednesday in Society Guardian, John Vidal reports on the
greatest problem facing mankind - 3 billion people without enough water.

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Some Pictures of Water Pollution

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Conclusion
Aren’t we aware of the different problems occurring in our nature,
especially in different bodies of water? Water pollution is the cause of our
undisciplined actions and irresponsibility. We, humans are only creating
problems that consequently we will also carry the burden of these problems.
We all know that water pollution can affect our health badly and seriously. It
can cause such sicknesses and diseases that will badly affect our health. We
all know how important water is. Water is essential to our body. Neither we
nor every living thing can’t survive without water. And so therefore, we
should keep, protect, save, and help prevent our waters from being polluted,
we should act as early as now, we should save rivers, seas and oceans, and
other bodies of water because we will also bear the burden of this problem.
We should not wait for the time until people are competing just to get
sufficient, fresh and clean water, the time where clean water is insufficient to
the people and animals, and the time where in our sources of water are
diminishing or until the time where there are totally no sources of water. And
so, let us be disciplined and responsible enough to save, protect and
conserve not only sources of water but also our mother nature because our
nature provides and helps us in our daily lives. Let’s just realize how
important our mother nature is. It is our only source of living. Let us not
destroy it nor pollute it. Let us act for a change. We need and we should help
save and conserve our mother nature, especially the different bodies of
water. Absolutely, there are many simple ways in how we can help. Change
ourselves before we construct changes in our nature. Act right now!

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Sources
1.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_pollution
2.
http://www.banglapedia.org/httpdocs/HT/W_0030.HTM
3.
http://library.thinkquest.org/26026/Environmental_Problems/water_pollutio
n_-_causes.html
4.
http://library.thinkquest.org/26026/Environmental_Problems/water_pollutio
n_-_effects.html
5.
http://library.thinkquest.org/26026/Environmental_Problems/water_pollutio
n_-_solutions.html
6.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2002/dec/16/christmasappeal.internationa
lnews