Water Quality and Pollution

Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) is the amount of dissolved oxygen needed by aerobic biological organisms in a body of water to break down organic material present in a given water sample at certain temperature over a specific time period. It is used as a measure of the degree of water pollution. 

 Oxygen enters the water through diffusion and water has the highest potential to hold oxygen. The high temperature, untreated sewage having biotoxins, hazardous waste can reduce the oxygen to an alarming level leading to the hypoxia in fishes, whereafter enduring at the maximum level they die resultantly. This occurs because the untreated sewage is rich in organic matter and microbes utilize the dissolved oxygen for the decomposition called biological oxygen demand (BOD). The more the value of BOD, the lesser will be the oxygen in the water.

Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) in simple terms is the amount of oxygen that would be used by the decomposing bacteria to decompose or break down the organic compounds in the water body. The increase in the BOD reflects that the concentration of the organic mass is tremendous and so a large amount of oxygen would be claimed by the bacteria. This results in the deficiency of the dissolved oxygen in the water and adversely affects the aquatic life due to hypoxia. So, the BOD can be defined as the measurement of the rate of oxygen utilization by a unit volume of water over a period of time.

Discharge of untreated sewage into streams which contains high quantity of nutrients induce the disproportionate growth of algae causing eutrophication which results into depletion of dissolved oxygen in the water. The continuous flow of sewage reduces the self-purification capacity of the water body. The condition of hypoxia arises due to depletion of oxygen. Increase in temperature favours the eutrophication and algal bloom is the cause of eutrophication. Depletion of oxygen is the adverse effect of the eutrophication.

Biological Oxygen Demand indicates the increase in presence of organic matter in the water body. High BOD indicates the great amount of organic matter. The dissolved oxygen in water is consumed by bacteria to decompose the organic matter of sewage or other discharges thereby depleting the oxygen of the water body. The decrease in oxygen can kill the aquatic life in water body.

The microorganisms in polluted bodies use dissolved oxygen to metabolise organic matter in polluted waters. This is called biochemicalical oxygen demand. The more organic matter in sewage and polluted bodies, greater the BOD and hence less oxygen is left availble tor higher animals like fishes.

The concentration of the organic waste and its subsequent decomposition determines the BOD of the water. If the organic concentration is high, there will be high BOD because more dissolved oxygen will be used to breakdown the organic mass by the bacteria. So, high BOD marks high pollution. Distilled water has no content of the organic substances as it has been treated and filtered. Unpolluted water pond will not have polluted source of organic mass but the existing organisms die and their dead bodies contribute to a little raised BOD. Highly polluted water will show a very high value of BOD as it will take a lot of dissolved oxygen to breakdown the organic mass in water body. So, distilled water is least polluted, followed by unpolluted pond water and then highly polluted pond water.

A large quantity of urban sewage will have a large amount of organic and inorganic material. Due to this, the decomposition of the organic mass will initiate the use of dissolved oxygen and so, the DO of receiving water body decreases. This will cause increase in the biological oxygen demand (BOD) by the decomposing bacteria. As the DO decreases, the aquatic animals will suffocate and die. Also, the inorganic nutrients, as well as the decomposed nutrients, will cause lush growth of algae, causing algal bloom over the surface of the water, which will further decrease the DO by not allowing the mixing of atmospheric oxygen.

The BOD test measures the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water that is used up due to the breakdown of organic pollutants, such as sewage, in a certain number of days. Raw sewage has a BOD of forty to 150 milligrams per litre, whereas drinking water has a BOD of less than 0.5 milligrams per litre. The BOD indicates the content of oxygen needed to decompose organic compounds in wastewater by bacteria.

A river with an inflow of domestic sewage rich in organic waste will reduce the dissolved oxygen (DO). The organic waste will increase biological oxygen demand of the river thus depleting the O2 content and may result in the death of fish due to lack of oxygen.

• The fertilizers are the rich source of nitrogen and phosphorous used for the growth of plants.
•  When the fertilizers are introduced in the pond, these nutrients increase the fertility of the pond. 
• The phytoplanktons are the autotrophic organisms in the aquatic environment that utilize these nutrients and increase in the number. 

Buildings are eroded by acid rains. When acid rain makes way into lakes, rivers it affects the aquatic life and affects the forests by affecting the minerals uptake of the plants.

Acid rain is caused due to oxides of nitrogen and sulphur reacting with water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and other chemicals present high in the atmosphere resulting into acidic pollutants.

Public hygiene may be described as the activity which is associated with the population or the public to maintain cleanliness and good health. The drinking water should be kept clean which prevents the transmission of the water-borne diseases in the population. This is considered as a part of public hygiene. 

Excess fertilizer runoff from the Mississippi River watershed enters the Gulf of Mexico, causing massive algal blooms. When these blooms die and decompose, they consume the oxygen in the water, creating a hypoxic 'dead zone'.