What are the causes of water pollution?

Causes of Water Pollution:

1. $21 \%$ of all infectious diseases and $66 \%$ of all deaths of children below 5 years are caused by contamination of drinking and bathing water by pathogens present in sewage, e.g., cholera, typhoid, diarrhoea, dysentery, jaundice, etc.

2. Toxic Chemicals: Industrial effluents pass down a number of toxic chemicals, g., mercury by paper industry (minamata disease), cadmium (itai-itai disease), lead (plumbism), nitrate (methaemoglobinaemia).

Reduction in Water Pollution :

1. Sewage: The authorities can be prevailed upon not to pass untreated sewage into water bodies.

2. Garbage: Domestic waste or garbage should not be thrown on the banks of water body.

3. Industrial Effluents. Asking the industrial houses not to pass the untreated effluents into water body.

4. Washing Clothes: Washing clothes should be discouraged on the banks of water bodies as detergents are a source of eutrophication.

5. Vegetation: Plant trees, shrubs and herbs on the banks. This checks soil erosion and siltation of water bodies. It also reduces run off from fields.