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According to their respective websites, the utility responsible for water supply in the East Zone of Metro Manila increased 24-hour water from 26% in 1 997 to 98% in 2007, whereas in the West Zone, 42% of the customers had an uninterrupted supply in 2007. In a 2004 sample of 45 water service providers with different management models and sizes, the National Water Resources Board (NEWER) found an average availability of 21 hours per day. 7 providers offered 24- hour service. Drinking water quality Especially in urban areas, water quality does not meet the standards set by the national government. As a result, waterborne diseases remain a severe public health concern in the country. About 4,200 people die each year due to contaminated drinking water. Wastewater treatment Only 5% of the total population is connected to a sewer network. The vast majority uses flush toilets connected to septic tanks. Since sludge treatment and disposal facilities are rare, most effluents are discharged without treatment.
According to the Asian Development Bank, the Passing River is one of the world’s most polluted rivers. In March 2008, Manila Water announced that a wastewater treatment plant will be constructed in Tagging. The first Philippine constructed wetland serving about 700 households was completed in 2006 in a peer-urban area of Banyan City which has been used to resettle families that lived along the coast in informal settlements and had no access to safe water supply and sanitation facilities. Water resources Although water resources become scarce in some regions and seasons, the Philippines as a whole has more than enough surface and groundwater.
However, the neglect of a coherent environmental policy led to the actual tuition, in which 58% of the groundwater is contaminated. The main source of pollution is untreated domestic and industrial wastewater. Only one third of Philippine river systems are considered suitable for public water supply. It is estimated that in 2025, water availability will be marginal in most major cities and in 8 of the 19 major river basins. Besides severe health concerns, water pollution also leads to problems in the fishing and tourism industries.
The national government recognized the problem and since 2004 has sought to introduce sustainable water resources velveteen management (see below). – Water use In 2000, as a whole 28. 52 billion ms of water were withdrawn from various sources in the Philippines, of which 74% were used for agricultural purposes. Industry used another leaving 17% or 4. 8 billion m’ for domestic consumption, resulting in an average water production of 175 liters per day per capita (l/d/c). In a 2004 sample of 45 water service providers, the NEWER found an average consumption of 118 1/d/c.
The highest consumption was recorded in the East Zone of Metro Manila with 232 1/d/c. What are the properties and dangers of water pollutants? Organic compounds are compounds that consist of long bonds, usually made up of carbon. Many organic compounds are basic fabrics of living organisms. Molecules built of carbon and of carbon and hydrogen are non poplar and have little to no water solubility. They have little to no electrical charge. The behavior of organic compounds is dependent upon their molecular structure, size and shape and the presence of functional groups that are important determinants of toxicity.
It is important to know the structure of organic compounds, in order to predict their fate in living organisms and the environment. The organic compounds that are dangerous to the environment are all man-made and have only existed during the last century. Organic pollutant: oil (environmental disaster in Spain) I Many different chemicals are regarded as pollutants, ranging from simple inorganic ions to complex organic molecules. The water pollutants are all divided up into various classes.
Every class of pollutants has its own specific ways of entering the environment and its own specific dangers. All classes have major pollutants in it that are known to many people, because of the various health effects. Organic pollutants There are many different types of organic pollutants, examples are: – Hydrocarbons. These are carbon-hydrogen bonds. They can be divided up into two classes, the first being single-bonded alkaline, double bonded alikeness and triple bonded alkaline (gases or liquids) and the second being aromatic hydrocarbons, which contain ring structures (liquids or solids).
Aromatic hydrocarbons such as PAR’s are much more reactive than any of the first class kinds of hydrocarbons. – PC’s are stable and enervative fluids that are used as hydraulic fluids, coolant/ insulation fluids in transformers and plasticizer in paints. There are many different PC’s. None of them are water-soluble. In many countries PC’s are restricted. – Insecticides such as Dot’s are very dangerous because they accumulate in fat tissues of lower animals and then enter the food chain. They have been restricted for decades. – Detergents.
These can be both poplar and non-poplar. Take also a look at detergents in freshwater and organic pollution in freshwater inorganic fertilizers Some inorganic pollutants are not particularly toxic, but are still a danger to the environment because they are used so extensively. These include fertilizers, such as nitrates and phosphates. Nitrates and phosphates cause algal blooms in surface water, which causes the oxygen level of the water to decline. This causes oxygen starvation because of the uptake of oxygen by microorganisms that brake down algae.
This is called transportation. Metals The first class we will refer to here is metals. Metals are good conductors of electricity and generally enter chemical reactions as positive ions, known as actions. Metals are natural substances that have consisted through weathering of ore bodies, where they were deposited during volcanic action. They can be relocated into situations where they can cause serious environmental damage. Examples of metals are: lead, zinc, manganese, calcium and potassium. They can be found in surface waters in their stable ionic forms.
Unnatural metals can be very dangerous, because they often come from man-made nuclear reactions and can be strongly radioactive. Metals can react to dangerous products with other ions. They are often involved in electron transfer reactions involving oxygen. This can lead to the formation of toxic cardinals. Metals can form metalloid and then bond to organic compounds to form allophonic substances that are often highly toxic and can be stored in the fat-supply of animals and humans. Metals can also bond to cellular macromolecules in the human body. Heavy metals are the most dangerous metals.
They have a density greater than 5 and are therefore called heavy. Metals cannot be broken down into less harmful components, as they are non-biodegradable. The only chance organisms have against metals is to store them in body tissues where they cannot do any harm. Organisms need metals, as they are essential for their health and are usually essential components of enzymes. Radioactive isotopes The half-lives and the ways of decay of radioactive isotopes determine how ungenerous they are to humans. Humans create all radioactive isotopes in the nuclear industry.
There are still debates going on about whether the benefits of nuclear power exceed the dangers of radioactive radiation. When an atom of a radioactive substance decays, it can produce four kinds of particles: alpha, beta, gamma and neutrons. Alpha particles can only travel a short distance through air and human tissues, but they can be very damaging if they collide with cells because of their large mass. They are positively charged. Beta particles are more penetrating, but they do much less damage than alpha particles. They are negatively charged. Gamma rays are highly penetrating.
Their damage is similar to that of beta rays. Neutrons are liberated through radiation and react with other elements through collision. They are the basis for nuclear fission in a reactor. The radioactivity of a substance is measured in Becquerel, but this does not express the amount of tissue damage the radiation causes. That is why the amount of radiation causing 1 goof tissue to absorb 1 joule of energy is now expressed in grays. Different kinds of radiation can do different kinds of damage, because the energy is imparted into tissues in different ways.
This is expressed in subverts. An amount of alpha radiation can do twenty times the damage of the same amount of beta radiation. Radioactive matter has to be held in storage for different periods of time, in order to erase the danger. How long it has to be stored depends upon the half-life of the isotopes; the time taken for half of the atoms of a radioactive isotope to decay. What are the specific ways through which water pollutants enter the environment? Discharge of sewage water represents a mayor global source of pollution.
Domestic and industrial wastes are discharged unto surface water through sewage systems. In some cases industrial waste is released directly unto surface water. The quality of sewage Water that enters the surface Water depends upon the pollutants that are present in the sewage water and the extend to which it is treated before it is brought in contact with surface water. Domestic sewage water mainly consists of paper, soap, urine, faces and detergents. Industrial wastes are varied and depend upon the specific processes of the plants that they origin from.
Heavy metals are associated with mining and smelting operations, chloroplasts and fungicides with pulp mills, insecticides with mothering stories, several different organic chemicals with the chemical industry and radioactive substances with nuclear power plants. On land the releases of industrial waste are closely controlled, but offshore oil and manganese extraction lead to direct discharge of pollutants into the seas. Radioactive waste is dumped into the sea in large concrete barrels to decay, but often the barrels will start to have defects after a while.
Representatives of factories often ship waste onto sea to dump it illegally, because it is very expensive to have their water purified. Oil is released into the sea through oil tankers and hipster’s and pesticides are applied to water to control aquatic pests. Paints on boats will decay during long trips on the ocean and will eventually end up in the water. During the growth period of crops nitrates and phosphates are absorbed by plants, but when the plants die they are released from dead plant material into the soil and will often end up in surface water.
Except for the deliberate causes of surface water pollution, pollutants can also enter the water environment accidentally, for instance through atmospheric deposition. Pesticides can enter surface water easily this way, because they are applied as droplets or sprays. Pollutants present on land can enter surface water through heavy rainfall or infiltrate into the soil and enter surface waters through groundwater. The effects of pollutants are noticed mostly in small inland seas and lakes.
This is because the oceans have a natural dilution system for incoming pollutants, whereas lakes have no effective outlet. Due to this, much depends upon the rate of degradation and precipitation that will remove the pollutants from water. How are pollutants transported through water? Pollutants can exist in water in different states. They can be dissolved or they an be in suspension, which means that they exist in the form of droplets or particles. Pollutants can also be dissolved in droplets or absorbed by particles.
All states of pollutants can travel great distances through water in many different ways. Particulate matter may fall to the bottom of streams and lakes or rise to the surface, depending on its density. This means that it mostly remains on the same location when the water does not flow very fast. In rivers, pollutants usually travel great distances. The distance they travel depends upon the stability and physical state of the pollutant and the speed f flow of the river. Pollutants can travel farthest when they are in solution in a river that is fast flowing.
The concentrations on one site are then generally low, but the pollutant can be detected on many more sites than when it would not have been so easily transported. In lakes and oceans pollutants are transported through currents. There are many currents in the oceans, which are wind-driven. This enables a pollutant to travel from one continent to another. We usually count on the ability of the oceans to reduce pollutants in concentration, the so-called ‘self-cleaning ability of oceans. But this does not always work, because the movement of the currents in the oceans is not uniform.
This causes inshore waters to often have substantially higher levels of pollution than the open sea. When persistent pollutants accumulate in fish or sea birds they cannot only become a toxic danger to aquatic food chains, they can also travel great distances within these animals and end up in the food chains of non-polluted areas. Which factors determine the movement and distribution of pollutants in water? Physical processes determine the movement of chemicals within water; movement depends upon properties of he chemicals themselves and properties of the water.
These processes will be overview here. Water is a polar liquid. This means that the oxygen atom in a water molecule attracts the electrons of the hydrogen atoms, so that these develop partial positive charges. The oxygen atom gets a partial negative charge, through which it can attract atoms of other water molecules to form hydrogen bonds. In non-polar compounds, such as hydrocarbons, there is hardly any charge separation and consequently they do not dissolve in water.