- Freshwater is a scarce resource that is being poorly managed, as most water on Earth is saltwater and freshwater is unevenly distributed among river basins. - Water pollution comes from both point sources like industrial and mining facilities, and nonpoint sources like agricultural runoff containing fertilizers, pesticides, and animal waste. - Groundwater pollution is difficult to address since groundwater cannot cleanse itself as quickly as surface water, and common pollutants from various sources can seep into aquifers.

1. Water Resources and Water
Pollution
By Nassir Fakhouri
5th B

2. WILL WE HAVE ENOUGH
USABLE WATER?

3. Freshwater is an irreplaceable resource
that we are managing poorly
• Freshwater is relatively pure and contains
few dissolved salts.
• Earth has a precious layer of water—most of
it saltwater—covering about 71% of the
earth’s surface.
• Water is an irreplaceable chemical with
unique properties that keep us and other
forms of life alive. A person could survive for
several weeks without food, but for only a few
days without water.

4. The world’s major river basins differ in
their degree of freshwater-scarcity stress

5. HOW CAN WE USE
FRESHWATER MORE
SUSTAINABLY?

6. We need to use water more
sustainably
• Each of us can help bring about such a “blue
revolution” by using and wasting less water
to reduce our water footprints.

7. We need to use water more
sustainably

8. HOW CAN WE DEAL WITH
WATER POLLUTION?

9. Water pollution comes from
point and nonpoint sources
• Water pollution is any change in water quality
that harms humans or other living organisms or
makes water unsuitable for human uses such as
drinking, irrigation, and recreation.
• Agricultural activities are the leading cause of
water pollution, including sediment from erosion,
fertilizers and pesticides, bacteria from livestock
and food-processing wastes, and excess salts
from soils of irrigated cropland.

10. Groundwater cannot cleanse
itself very well
• Groundwater pollution is a serious threat to
human health.
• Common pollutants such as fertilizers,
pesticides, gasoline, and organic solvents can
seep into groundwater from numerous
sources.
• When groundwater becomes contaminated, it
cannot cleanse itself of degradable wastes as
quickly as flowing surface water does.

11. THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO
PURIFY DRINKING WATER

12. There are many ways to purify
drinking water
• Simple measures can be used to purify
drinking water:
– Exposing a clear plastic bottle filled with
contaminated water to intense sunlight can kill
infectious microbes in as little as three hours.
– The Life Straw is an inexpensive portable
water filter that eliminates many viruses and
parasites from water drawn into it.

13. Most of the earth’s freshwater is
not available to us
• About 0.024% is readily available to us as
liquid freshwater in accessible groundwater
deposits and in lakes, rivers, and streams.
• The rest is in the salty oceans, in frozen
polar ice caps and glaciers, or in deep
underground and inaccessible locations.

14. WATER POLLUTION COMES
FROM POINT AND NONPOINT
SOURCES

15. Water pollution comes from
point and nonpoint sources
– Industrial facilities, which emit a variety of
harmful inorganic and organic chemicals, are
a second major source of water pollution.
– Mining is the third biggest source of water
pollution. Surface mining disturbs the land by
creating major erosion of sediments and runoff
of toxic chemicals.

16. Thank you