1. Introduction Water pollution due to the disposal of heavy metals continues to be a great concern worldwide. Consequently, the treatment of polluted industrial wastewater remains a topic of global concern since wastewater collected from municipalities, communities and industries must ultimately be returned to receiving waters or to the land (Weber et al, 1991). Heavy metals pollution occurs in much industrial wastewater such as that produced by metal plating facilities, mining operations, battery manufacturing processes, the production of paints and pigments, and the ceramic and glass industries. This wastewater commonly includes Cd, Pb, Cu, Zn, Ni and Cr (Argun and Dursun, 2008).
The polluted water can damage the nervous system, liver, DNA and kidney. A type of pollution is soil pollution which causes cancers including leukemia etc. The presence of lead in soil is hazardous for young children and can damage to the brain. The high level of Hg can increase the risk of kidney damage and causes neuromuscular blockage.It also causes skin rashes,headaches,eye irritation,nausea and fatigue. The polluted air and water also affect animals such as acid rain destroys aquatic life in water bodies.We are observing a regular increment in the temperature and express the concern for global warming.
The total eradication of environmental pollution has become impossible as this problem has magnified to a large scale. Pollution is one of the greatest abuses of our natural water resources. Excessive dumping of chemical waste containing heavy metals into water bodies, render the water useless for human needs. Most of the industries release untreated or partially treated effluent discharge into the nearby drains and water streams which contain heavy metals. Surface finishing and metal deposition are the important processes of electroplating industry which commonly use nickel, copper, zinc and chromium.
Apart from that, the industrial development also contribute with the increase of water pollution all over the world. water is a very special and unique substances, because it can naturally cleanse and renew itself. it cleanse and renew itself by allow the pollutants to diluting or break down or settle out to the point that there are no harmful concentration but the natural process usually take a lot of time to make sure the water is free from the pollutions. At the
Inorganic mercury is a result of many industrial processes and has caused fish to be dangerous from a high level of mercury to kids and pregnant women. Phosphorous runoff is also produced by industries and can get into waterways, which has led to shellfish poisoning in humans. All of these pollutants have been found in water bodies and might be the biggest threat to the public’s health by water. Water pollution affects other species and their environment just as much. When contamination raises the water temperature it sometimes forces fish and other organisms to relocate.
Heavy metal contamination has been a serious problem for the past decade. It is considered as one of the most dangerous types of aquatic pollutions because of its toxicity and accumulation by marine organisms (El Zokm, El-Gohary & El-Khalek, 2012). Many heavy metals find their way to bodies of water through a wide range of mechanisms and pathways, including to the air such as during combustion, extraction, and processing and to surface waters via runoff and releases from storage and transport as well as to the soil and hence into ground waters and crops. There is no clear definition of what a heavy metal is: they are most commonly defined as those having a specific density of more than 5 g/cm3.The rapid industrialization, agricultural and aquaculture
CHAPTER ONE 1.1 Background to the Study According to Bothner, Buchholtz, Brink and Manheim (1998) contamination of water supplies by industrial waste is as a result of various types of industrial processes and disposal practices. According to the source, industries that use large amounts of water for processing have the potential to pollute or contaminate waterways through the discharge of their waste into streams and rivers, or by run-off and seepage of stored wastes into nearby water sources. Other disposal practices which cause water contamination include deep well injection and improper disposal of wastes in surface impoundments. Industrial waste consists of numbers of both organic and inorganic substances. Examples of organic wastes include pesticide residues, solvents and cleaning fluids, dissolved residue from fruits and vegetables, lignin from pulp and paper to name a few.
Acid rain results from rain falling through polluted air that contains many poisonous gases such as sulphur dioxide (SO2), oxide of nitrogen (NOX) etc. that react with rainwater to form acids. It possibly releases harmful substances when reaching the ground such as heavy metals that could washed into water bodies (Hudda, S.). Industrial wastes released into water are mixtures of chemicals that are difficult to clean up (Hudda, S.). Agricultural pollution is considered the major pollution of water (Mihov).
Heavy metals from motor vehicles and acid mine drainage Use of water as a coolant by power plants and industrial manufactures leads to thermal pollution Effects of Water Pollution: Ground water contamination through pesticides causes reproductive damage within wild life in echo system. Disturbance in the natural ecological balance due to sewage, fertilizer and agricultural runoff containing organic materials into water and in turn increases the growth of algae which leads to depletion of ozone layer. Industrial chemicals and agricultural pesticides that got mixed up in water bodies’ effects aquatic environment and can accumulate with the fishes which are later eaten by humans, if the fishes are poisoned by the pollutants, interferers with the development of the nervous system in fetuses and young children. Water pollution leads to flooding, because of the accumulation of solid waste and soil erosion in streams and rivers. As Oil spills does not dissolve in water, it leads to suffocation for aquatic habitat.
Addition to these, disposal of dead bodies, discharge of industrial and sewage wastes and agricultural runoff, which are major cause of ecological damage and pose serious health hazards (Meitei et al., 2004a). The pollutant from agricultural lands such as fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides and from anthropogenic activities such as mining, disposal of toxic metals, human and animal faeces, industrial, domestic, municipal wastes are continuously discharged into river, such as Vaigai, are the major casues for deterioration of water quality (Karet al,2008 and Amman et al, 2002). In order to maintain the quality of drinking water, an essential component to humans and other living