Water is incredibly pervasive in the enviroment, and all water travels. So if I drop a raw egg onto the ground here in Texas, assuming that NOTHING eats it along its journey, it will soak into the soil, get into the groundwater, and slowly move into the river. From there, it will make its way to the ocean, where the volatile bits will evaporate and fall with the rain thousands of miles away, only to run back into the groundwater and rivers. So it's not just new contamination that we're worried about. We're dealing with a century and a half of increasing industrialization and constant pollution. There are things in the groundwater, currently moving towards the sea, that were put there more than 50 years ago.

So, half of the problem is that what we put in the water typically stays in the water for a LONG time. The other half of the problem, as Abdul said, is psychological. People are LAZY and even worse is that proper waste collection and treatment is EXPENSIVE (and not 100% effective but that's not a discussion to start here) so some people will look for the quick/cheap/easy way to handle their waste... dump it in the lake. And then there's a whole other section of water pollution that isn't a "dumped" or "spilled" problem but a processing problem: oil and gas mining, as well as metal and coal mining, are BIG BUSINESS but it is physically impossible to make those operations completely leak-proof and 100% free from water contamination.

Over-extraction of groundwater and falling water tables are big problems, preliminary There are many ways to control polluted water, or to dispose of things that might pollute water. Generally this falls into two categories. One is to treat waste and wastewater, to prevent it from being a pollutant when it is allowed to enter the environment. The other is by disposing of un treatable waste in a special place after separating it from water either permanently or prior to incinerating it. Water pollution is a concern for every person on the earth. Water pollution is contamination of water by water pollutants that are allowed to enter water sources without first being treated to remove compounds that are dangerous to people and animals. Water pollution does not just hurt animals and people alike, they also hurt entire communities doing major damage that takes years to cleanup and fix.

There are two types of water pollution. The first is point source pollution; this is where contaminants enter the water from a single source that can be located. The second of water pollution is from non-pointed sources, these are sources that do not come from one source but rather many sources working together. An example of this is from fertilized land. Water runoff collects come of the fertilizer from several different fields and the fertilizer finds its way into the water supply causing polluted water.

Dear Najim,

I agree with the above. Niot only is pollution from now, but it is also from back when. For some time, people have been dumping because they did not feel they would make an impact. But, together, all the waste has accumulated. I think that part of this is political and part personal. Cities need to be responsible for the waste that their citizens produce, and take measures to implement proper containage and removal for them. Secondly, people have to realize the importance of their actions on the planet on a large scale. I believe that since children are our future that we should take great lengths to educate them on causes and effects of pollution as early as possible, and the dangers the planet faces today and tomorrow.

Best, Jeannie

I think we are not following procedures required to prevent water pollution. This happens a lot in Africa where people don't even care about the waste they produce. Governments to introduce PAY AS YOU POLLUTE or other environmental taxes.

I feel well planned and effective community awareness and education (at grassroots level) is missing. Communities are not well aware of how the water pollution can impact on their food (crops, seafood), their business, health and livelihoods. We have to educate them; that they need to care of their local environment from pollution which provide goods and services to them. We have to exemplify that if they contaminate their local water environment, the same contaminants can come back to them via contaminated food (e.g. some pollutants like pesticides can accumulative in fish, crops), or contaminated water,  it will increase water treatment costs (even water treatments may fail to remove some pharmaceuticals and endocrine disrupting chemicals) and the same water may not be suitable for other beneficial water usages such as swimming, recreation, town supply and growing of crops. Food grown in contaminated water can be rejected both in local and overseas markets (because of high levels of contaminants such as chemicals or microbial pathogens). Most importantly, contaminated water is a health hazards since it may increase the risk of several water borne diseases (cholera, malaria) of local people!