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Transforming Pollution into Purity: Ensuring Water Quality for Human Health and Environmental Sustainability
Summary
This review examines global threats to water quality from contaminants including microplastics, heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, and agrochemicals, and their consequences for human health and ecosystems. The authors advocate for a comprehensive strategy combining source protection, advanced treatment technologies like constructed wetlands and advanced oxidation, and robust governance to ensure safe water access.
Clean water is essential for sustaining life, protecting ecosystems, and promoting human health. However, access to safe water is globally threatened by contamination from microbial diseases, heavy metals, agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, microplastics, and naturally occurring toxins. The consequences include acute diarrheal outbreaks and chronic conditions such as cancer, neurological damage, and developmental problems. From an ecological standpoint, pollution reduces essential ecosystem services needed for natural water purification, disrupts aquatic biodiversity, and weakens resilience. Ensuring water quality necessitates a comprehensive strategy that encompasses source protection, advanced monitoring, effective treatment technologies, and robust governance. Preventive measures, such as industrial pretreatment, improved sanitation, sustainable agriculture, and proper hazardous waste management, provide the most cost-effective solutions. When managing sources falls short, water safety can be ensured through methods like advanced oxidation, constructed wetlands, and conventional disinfection. Robust legal structures, equitable funding, and inclusive community participation that prioritise vulnerable populations are equally important. Future progress will significantly rely on research into innovative treatment methods, new pollutants, and socio-institutional frameworks. By integrating technical, social, and policy elements, water-quality management can effectively mitigate environmental risks and safeguard human health against increasing global pressures.
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