Water Is an Irreplaceable Natural Resource

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Water is an irreplaceable natural resource on this earth which comprises marine, estuarine, fresh water (river and lakes), ground water across coastal and inland areas. Even though there is huge water resource in this world, about 97% of water is salt water (marine) only 3% is fresh water. And in this small fraction of fresh water a major part is in the form of ice in polar region. So just 0.003% is in the form of ground water and surface water which we can use.
Fresh water is a limited resource in many parts of the world. And this will become more dearth due to increasing in population, urbanization and climate change. The major fact for this paucity of fresh water is not only due to demand for water but also due to pollution in freshwater ecosystem. Due to the pollution created by human beings in this ecosystem, the usable water has decreased drastically and the cost of purifying the water has increased dramatically. The main sources of water pollution are point source and non point source. Point sources include pipeline discharge of pollutants such as domestic sewage discharge industrial waste effluents from factories or plants, to receiving waters. In contrast, non-point pollution results from storm runoff, which transports polluting materials diffusely over land.
Water pollutants are of different types such as oxygen demanding wastes, disease causing agents, synthetic organic compounds, plant nutrients, inorganic chemicals and minerals, oils, thermal discharge and radioactive wastes. Of all these water pollutants, heavy metals and synthetic organic compounds cause majority of water pollution. Industries like paper and pulp, tanneries, textiles and coke ovens, pha...

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...e industries, textile industries are considered as one of the major sources of wastewater in ASEAN countries. Dyes are also used in industries such as rubber, paper & pulp, dye & dye intermediate industries, pharmaceutical, tannery, food technology, hair coloring, plastic, cosmetic etc. There are more than 10,000 commercially available dyes with over 7x105 tones of dyestuff being produced annually across the world2.. The textile industry consumes more than 107 kg of dye per year of which 90% ending up on fabrics3. Of this total usage 10- 15% of the dye is lost during the dyeing process and released with the effluent. Colour is contributed by phenolic compounds such as tannins, lignins (2-3%) and organic colourants (3-4%) and with a maximum contributions from dye and dye intermediates which could be sulphur/ mordant/ reactive/ cationic/ dispersed/acid/azo vat dye4.

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