At this point in time, I realised that I have not really explain the key concepts of Aquatic Pollution, focusing on specific examples instead. For the benefit of everyone, this post will help you in understanding the Big Picture of Aquatic Pollution from a Geography’s perspective. But trust me, I will make it as interesting and easy for you to understand because I’m also not a geography major..

By definition,

Water Pollution: occurs when harmful substances—often chemicals or microorganisms—contaminate a stream, river, lake, ocean, aquifer, or other body of water, degrading water quality and rendering it toxic to humans or the environment (Water Pollution: Everything You Need to Know, 2020)

We often hear terms like ocean pollution, river pollution, nutrients pollution but all these different specific examples of water pollution can be largely categorised under what kind of water bodies these pollution happens. In short,

Water Pollution can be largely categorised as:

1) Freshwater pollution

  • Surface water includes rivers, lakes, estuary, ponds, glaciers, ice sheets & ice caps
  • Groundwater

2) Marine/Ocean pollution

The sources of water pollution can be categorised as point source –  from a single identifiable source and non point source – from many diffuse sources. To understand more, refer to the figure below.

Sources of Water Pollution | Download Scientific Diagram

Figure 1: Sources of Water Pollution (Ali, 2019)

You might be wondering, what has all these got to do with my life? After all, in Singapore, it is true that we do not get to experience or witness the first hand effects of water pollution as our government legislation is efficient in ensuring safe and clean drinking water for everyone through its effective corrective measures. This does not mean that water pollution is totally absent in Singapore.  Likewise, in many parts of the world, water pollution remains a global crisis which has a ripple effect on the health, economies, education and agriculture of rich and poor countries alike. Given Singapore’s limited natural resources and high dependence on other countries for imports, the invisible threat of water pollution perpetually looms on the horizon. As individuals, the least we could do is to play our part in keeping our water bodies clean.

References:

1. NRDC. 2020. Water Pollution: Everything You Need To Know. [online] Available at: <https://www.nrdc.org/stories/water-pollution-everything-you-need-know> [Accessed 23 July 2020].

2. Ali, E., 2019. [online] Available at: <https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Sources-of-Water-Pollution_fig1_335207701> [Accessed 23 July 2020].