Pollution in rivers, lakes and streams

Have you ever stopped to think that the plants and animals that live in our rivers, lakes and streams need oxygen to survive just as much as we do? 

The oxygen they ‘breathe’ is dissolved into the water.  Water contains only a fraction of the oxygen that there is in the air, so getting it is an on-going challenge.  Importantly, pollutants that reduce the levels of oxygen in the water will lead to significant changes in our freshwater ecosystem. 

Happily, things have changed a lot since the days of the industrial revolution, when cattle that drank from the Rheidol in mid-Wales died of heavy metal poisoning! 

Interestingly, however, we still find the metals and chemicals released into the soil from the old mines, quarries and works of Wales’s rich industrial heritage in the sediment in our rivers and streams.

Today, many kinds of pollutants affect our rivers, lakes and streams.  These may come from the surrounding land – known as the catchment area – from industry, farming, sewage disposal, roads or from our leisure and day-to-day activities.  The damage they do today will affect our rivers, lakes and streams long into the future.

So when you relax by a still, blue lake on a perfect day in the Welsh countryside, ask yourself whether the lake is still because it’s so clean, or might it one day be simply because nothing lives in it anymore!