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Groundwater pollution (also called groundwater contamination) occurs when pollutants are released to the ground and make their way into groundwater.This type of water pollution can also occur naturally due to the presence of a minor and unwanted constituent, contaminant, or impurity in the groundwater, in which case it is more likely referred to as contamination rather than pollution.
The anthropogenic effects on groundwater resources are mainly due to groundwater pumping and the indirect effects of irrigation and land use changes. [38] Groundwater plays a central role in sustaining water supplies and livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa. [39] In some cases, groundwater is an additional water source that was not used previously ...
Arsenic contamination of groundwater is a form of groundwater pollution which is often due to naturally occurring high concentrations of arsenic in deeper levels of groundwater. It is a high-profile problem due to the use of deep tube wells for water supply in the Ganges Delta , causing serious arsenic poisoning to large numbers of people.
The first environmental effect is increased crop growth, such as in the Rubaksa gardens in Ethiopia The irrigation that grows crops, especially in dry countries, can also be responsible for taxing aquifers beyond their capacities. Groundwater depletion is embedded in the international food trade, with countries exporting crops grown from ...
Approximately 85% of water used in California by farmers and residents today is from groundwater, with 6 million Californians relying solely on this resource. [2] The Central Valley is a big user of groundwater for agricultural purposes which supplies a large portion of food for not only California, but for the rest of the United States as well. [3]
Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. These resources can be either freshwater from natural sources, or water produced artificially from other sources, such as from reclaimed water or desalinated water (). 97% of the water on Earth is salt water and only three percent is fresh ...
Groundwater is also used by farmers to irrigate crops and by industries to produce everyday goods. Most groundwater is clean, but groundwater can become polluted, or contaminated as a result of human activities or as a result of natural conditions. The many and diverse activities of humans produce innumerable waste materials and by-products ...
When groundwater is extracted from an aquifer, a cone of depression is created around the well.As the drafting of water continues, the cone increases in radius. Extracting too much water (overdrafting) can lead to negative impacts such as a drop of the water table, land subsidence, and loss of surface water reaching the streams.