About forty thousand years ago that is why most human settlements occurred near a water source. These people bathed and drank out of the same water which caused outbreaks of various diseases. Unfortunately the importance of clean water was not understood until the second half of the nineteenth century when modern development took place. (Adi R. Ferrara) One could say water pollution began as early as the first humans appeared but it really started to show significance in the last two-hundred fifty years because of high industrialization and urbanization. Water pollution has been a one sided topic rather than a controversial topic because many agree it has caused a harsh impact on the environment. This issue basically boils down to what are the effects of water pollution on the environment and how has it changed at the local, national, and global level.
Water pollution can be defined as any "physical, biological or chemical change in the quality of the water that has a harmful effect on anything that drinks, uses or lives in the water."(Water for Life) There are two different types of water pollution which are a point source and a non-point source. Point source is when the polluting substance is discharged directly into the waterway. An example is when a pipe pours out toxic chemical into a river. A non-point source is when there is a runoff of pollutants into the waterway and an example is a puddle mixed with oil and water from a car wash. .
Every issue has a specific place where it comes from, water pollution does too. Water pollution comes from mainly agriculture, industries, humans and surface runoff. .
One of the major sources water pollution comes from is agriculture especially if the farm is large and produces crop for a company. This is particularly because farmers use strong fertilizers to spray over their crops. These fertilizers contain pesticides and herbicides which are unnatural and chemically made.