Study the picture given below (industrial effluent and oil being discharged into a water body, with dead fish visible) and answer the following questions: Study the picture given below (industrial effluent and oil being discharged into a water body, with dead fish visible) and answer the following questions:
Mention the impact of this pollution on human health.
Topic: Effects of water pollution on health
Answer
Polluted water spreads WATER-BORNE DISEASES such as cholera, typhoid, dysentery, jaundice and hepatitis. Heavy metals present in industrial effluents accumulate in the body through the food chain, damaging the nervous system, the kidneys and the liver — mercury causing Minamata disease and lead causing nerve damage.
Give TWO kinds of harm — INFECTIOUS disease and CHEMICAL poisoning. They work quite differently and together make a complete answer.
The infectious route is immediate: drinking contaminated water introduces pathogens directly.
The chemical route is slower and more insidious — BIOMAGNIFICATION. A heavy metal absorbed by plankton passes to small fish, then to large fish, becoming more concentrated at every step, so the person eating the fish receives far more than was ever present in the water.