Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
As prepared by:
Timothy Galisin
01BEHS-201005-00108
EHS3013
Introduction
Water is an essential in our life
The rivers, streams and seas provides
us all the benefits
A prerequisite of sustainable
development must be to ensure
uncontaminated streams, rivers, lakes
and oceans.
Access to clean, consumable water is a
constant concern.
What is a Watercourse?
Pollution of Watercourses
Caused by release of effluents into
rivers, seas and any body of flowing
water.
Untreated effluents blankets the
water till the water can no longer
support
Deoxygenated waters causing deaths
to water organisms.
Pollution of Watercourses
Case studies:
Researcher John Sheail reports of 2 cases of
pollution by beet-sugar and milk industries.
Both industries discharges untreated effluents
into the rivers via sewage.
The effluents, not toxic, but decomposition
causes reduction of dissolved oxygen and
causes destruction of aquatic ecology.
Solution: a sewage plant that treats effluents
by using double filtration.
Water Extraction
Term used to define usage of water by the people
for domestic use and in some places, irrigation for
crops.
Methods used to extract water:
Bores to extract ground-water. This water may be very
old and only replaced very slowly at a minimal rate.
Large Dams on rivers.
Pumping from rivers is the easiest method where there is
all-year flow.
Small (farm) dams.
Off-stream storage. This novel approach uses flood-water
to fill vast tanks. It is used to irrigate crops in some parts.
Contd
In this dry continent, almost all of the water that falls as rain is used
by the environment, so that any extract or intercept may have an
effect. There are two classes of species that are potentially
impacted: those that live in the water (e.g. fish) and those that need
to access groundwater.
The effects can take various forms:
Reduced flow in creeks and rivers. If too much water is removed,
flows will reduce, and may cease earlier after rain than they would
without extraction. This can even happen with bores if the
groundwater usually enters the river as springs. Large dams also
trap the first wet-season floods that normally trigger the annual
growth cycle in rivers and floodplains.
Lowered water table. Some plants need to tap into ground water to
survive dry periods. In the NT this is the case for riparian (riverside)
and rainforest trees, and for some eucalypt woodlands which also
use moisture in the soil layer.
REFERENCES
http://dictionary.nwc.gov.au/water_dictionary/item.cfm?
id=940&cRefer=1&sRefer=60
Sheail J., The Agricultural Pollution of Watercourses: The
Precedents Set by the Beet-sugar and Milk Industries, The
Agricultural History Review, 1993, Viewed on 23rd March 2012,
www.bahs.org.uk/41n1a3.pdf
http://www.nretas.nt.gov.au/plants-andanimals/programs/blackrat/threats/water
http://www.talktalk.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m
0027296.html
http://www.jba.gov.my/index.php