Three is no denying the fact that, while 75% of the world is covered with water, only 3% of it is inland water. Inland Water
of the ecosystems is a vital part of our world, but human activities are having a significant impact upon the water. Inland water is the water that is in the land like lakes, ponds and rivers. People are making factories, throwing wastes and doing other things which is affecting the water. These human impacts are destyroying the fishes and other organisms which is affecting the food cycle of other animals.
Inland Waters
Inland Waters are water bodies, which are located within the land boundary and have no
direct
connection to the seas or oceans. Inland waters may be made up of fresh water,
saline water or a mix of two which is brackish water. Two major examples of inland
water are lakes and rivers.
Examples of Inland Waters
The Nile River
The Nile River is situated in Egypt. It flows from the Egypt to the East Africa and ends
in the Mediterranean Sea. It is the longest river in the world. The length of Nile River is
6,650 kilometer. The water is discharged from the mountains of Ethiopia. The Egyptians
call this river “Iteru” which means “The Great River”.
The Malawi Lake
The Malawi Lake is the third largest lake in the world. It is situated between Malawi
and Mozambique. The length of the lake is 560 kilometer and the width is 75 kilometer.
On the middle of the lake there is Likoma Island and Chizumulu Island.
The Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is situated in northern Iran. It is the largest lake in the world. The area
of the Caspian Sea is 435,000 square kilometers, which is one-fourth size of Iran. This
lake is called a sea because it has the size of an ocean, but the water it has freshwater so it
is actually a lake.
Human Impact
Sewage
People are affecting the inland water in many other different ways. Waste
materials from sewage are dumped into water this pollutes the water and kills the
organisms that is in the water. In some places sewage are discharged into the water that
contains a lot of bacteria. Bacteria grow very badly in the water using up the oxygen in
the water. All the organisms of the water die because of the lack of oxygen. Like this the
bacteria keeps on spreading diseases everywhere and slowly kill all the fishes and this
also infects humans. We could sovle this problem by dumping sewage somewhere else
other than in inland waters.
Industries
There are industries that dump large amount of waste product into inland waters. These
products include poisonous wastes which affects the organisms in the water. It mainly has
the affects of mercury, arsenic and cadmium. This effect infects the fishes and other
organisms. The people who eat these fishes have a probable chance to die. We could
solve this problem by making the industries’ waste product harmless with chemicals
before dumping it.
Insecticides
Human beings use insecticides while harvesting crops, these are used to kill insects
which destroy crops. However, some insecticides like Dichloro-Diphenhyl-
Trichloroethane are non-biodegrable and is insoluble in water. This means that it cannot
be broken down by micro organism, like bacteria. It will remain in the soil or water for
many years. Insecticides maybe carried by rainwater to inland water. As a result, it would
poison the organisms living in water and the organisms that drink the water. We could
solve this problem by reducing the use of Insecticides.
Herbicides Another way by which human beings are polluting inland water is by the use of
herbicides. Herbicides are also used to yield crops, it kills weeds. Certain herbicides such
as 2:4:5T, which contain an impurity called dixion which is harmful to human beings.
When herbicides are washed by rainwater to inland water, it pollutes them. The polluted
water may cause miscarriages in women, physical and mental abnormalities in children
and increase the risk of cancer. We could solve this problem by removing herbs naturally
without using Herbicides.
Conclusion
The World has only 3% Inland Water on which Human Beings survives, but recently
Human Beings’ activities are damaging the Inland Water Ecosystems. This in the long-
term will have a bad effect on our future generations. So we should be careful about the
fact that we are damaging the Inland Water Ecosystems and take steps to protect it.