• Water pollution is the presence of harmful materials in water, such as sewage, dissolved metals, waste from farms and factories and crude oil spilled from shipwrecked tankers.
• Water pollution involves any contaminated water, whether from chemical, particulate, or bacterial matter that degrades the water’s quality and purity.

Causes of water pollution include:

• Increased sediment from soil erosion
• Improper waste disposal and littering
• Leaching of soil pollution into water supplies
• Organic material decay in water supplies

Effects of water pollution include:

• decreasing the quantity of drinkable water available,
• lowering water supplies for crop irrigation, and
• Impacting fish and wildlife populations that require water of certain purity for survival.