ABSTRACT
Freshwater, we drink it, we wash with it, we cook with it, we use it for recreation, agriculture and industry. The abundance of water or its scarcity often decides where we live and our prosperity also depends on the quantity and quality of water in that region. Inspite of its importance for the survival and welfare of all living beings, water is often misused, rather abused both at the industrial and domestic fronts. Earth water resources consist of freshwaters from lakes, streams, rivers; saline waters from the oceans and the seas, the ice and snow of the polar region, mountain glaciers, and the water contained in the soil and underground strata. Freshwater is less than 3% including freshwater-ice located mainly in the polar region and the remaining 97% is saline water and sea ice. For human use, availability is a meagre 0.003% of total freshwater, the rest is often too expensive before it can be made available for human use. For all practical purposes it can be assumed that the water of the hydrosphere was of natural quality until the Industrial Revolution in Europe and North America.
At present the entire hydrosphere is contaminated due to human activities except polar ice, which was formed before the industrial revolution and human activities were not been able to tamper with it. Although the majority of freshwater resources have been polluted, yet this water remains suitable for diversified legitimate human activities. This kind of situation is fairly common worldwide in urban as well as in rural societies. It is also reasonable to assume that the demand for freshwater for domestic, industrial and agricultural purposes is on the increase leading to a decline in the water quality in the ambient environment. In many parts of the world, low rainfall coupled with excessive abstraction of groundwater has led to drying out or reduction in many inland streams.
