What Is Rainwater Pollution?

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Rainwater is water that evaporates due to the heat and the condensation process (the change of water vapor into very small drops of water) to form larger water droplets then fall back to the earth surface. At this vaporous form, there is a transport process which is the transport of water vapor by the wind towards certain areas that will cause rain. Rainwater should meet the physical, chemical and biological conditions Rainwater contains more gas than groundwater, especially the content of CO2 and O2. At the transport process, water vapor is mixed and dissolved gasses and other compounds in the air. Therefore, rainwater contains dust, bacteria, and various compounds present in the air. The quality of the rainwater affected by the surrounding …show more content…

Heavy urbanized areas can present significant concentration of ions in rainfall such as ammonium as well as nitrate and sulfate from traffic and other anthropogenic activities (Sanchez, 2015). According to Kabir et al. (2014) although urban dust are highly polluted with metals, 75% of metal pollutants leached by stormwater runoff can be retained by green water infrastructures, which use vegetation, soils, and natural processes to soak up and store …show more content…

Rainwater harvested from the roof has a quality that is not much different from the water that comes from the taps (Meera and Mansoor Ahammed, 2006). Heavy metals may leach into harvested rainwater when the roof or the drains contain metal parts (Förster, 1999). For example, heavy metals, such as Zn, Mn, Cu and Fe have been detected in rooftop collected rainwater (Melidis et al., 2007; Quek and Förster, 1993). In addition, such as inert solids and dust, and fecal deposits from rodents and birds, accumulated on rooftops during dry periods, may affect the harvested rainwater quality (Ahmed et al., 2008). Microorganisms, such as total coliforms, Escherichia coli, fecal coliforms, Salmonella spp., and Giardia lamblia have been detected at high counts in roof runoff water (Simmons et al., 2001; Ahmed et al.,

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