In broader sense, environment means everything that surrounds us. It includes living or biotic life such as plants and animals and non-living or a-biotic components such as air, water, land, etc. Pollution refers to the degradation of the environmental components because of mixing of harmful and undesirable pollutants in them. Today, pollution has become one of the largest global problems because it has grown in its magnitude and threatened to endanger all life on the living planet. These changes are unfavourable that occur due to extra new substances or energy into the environment. These changes adversely affect the useful parts of the environment. There are different types of pollution which results in the degradation of health and lifestyle of organisms.
Pollution can be categorized mainly in four types. They are air pollution, water pollution, land pollution and sound pollution. Among all the pollutions, air pollution is the most dangerous one. For instance, if water is polluted one can avoid drinking it or treat it, but if air is polluted we cannot stop breathing. Air pollution is mainly caused by mixing of gases such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulpur dioxide, etc. in atmosphere. The main sources of air pollution are smoke emitted out from various automobiles and industries and factories. Similarly, burning of firewood, coal and some non-degradable solid waste such as plastic are some other sources of air pollution. These kinds of smoke cause diseases like chronic bronchitis, lung cancer, eye irritation, damage of kidney, anaemia and it also causes global warming.
Similarly, water pollution refers to the change in state of water in such a way that it is undesirable for living beings to use it. Water pollution is caused by mixing of drainage in water resources. Lack of scientific toilets, mixing of sewage from industries and other various activities of human beings also leads to water pollution. Water pollution causes diseases like diarrhoea, cholera, amoebic dysentery, typhoid fever, etc. It also affects the habitat of aquatic plants and animals.
In the same way, deterioration of land due to the accumulation of waste materials on it is called land pollution. It is caused by improper management of solid wastes, excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides, release of solid and liquid waste from various places, etc. It results in spreading different diseases and also causes foul smell which leads to air pollution. Excessive accumulation of solid or liquid waste on land eventually pollutes the water as well.
Any unwanted sound is called noise or sound pollution. It is mainly caused by crowd of people, honks of the vehicles or sounds of machines. Sound pollution leads to insomnia, loss of hearing, headaches, high blood pressure and disturbs our sleep and our digestive system. As pollution is increasing day by day by day, it is our responsibility to control or minimize it. Otherwise, we become victim of many fatal diseases. In order to control air pollution we should avoid the use of old vehicles and should treat the smoke released from the industries before releasing them into atmosphere.
Similarly, we should use alternate sources of energy such as electricity, solar energy, etc. to run the vehicles and machines. We should make proper drainage system and should process the wastes coming out from industries before releasing them in water sources in order to control water pollution. To reduce land pollution we can make compost manure of degradable waste and should reuse, reduce or recycle the non-degradable solid waste. We should not use excessive insecticides and pesticides. To control noise pollution, trees should be planted on both sides of the road which helps to absorb sound coming out from vehicles. Similarly, we should build walls around the industries that area which helps to control noise pollution.
Pollution has become a common problem in many countries because there are adverse effects of environmental pollution on human beings and environment. It is said that to obtain a healthy and happy life we should have a healthy environment. So, we should join our hands and strive to make our environment pollution free. We should make joint effort against pollution in the local as well as national level.
Anusha Upadhaya
Class: IX
GEMS, Lalitpur