1. Water pollution and salinity

2. What is pollution?
Pollution is contamination of the environment by unwanted substances
Types of pollution
Disposal of industrial and household waste
Run off from contaminated soil (eg. Pesticides, fertilisers)

3. Examples of water pollution affecting water supply to living things
Bottlenose dolphins in South Australia have the highest levels of mercury in the world. The mercury has come from stormwater runoff.
Death of inshore corals on the Great Barrier Reef from run-off from sugar cane that have too much nutrients

4. What is salinity? Salinity is when the soil becomes too salty
Caused by land clearing and irrigation
The salt intrudes into soil , rivers and streams

6. Examples of salinity affecting water supply to living things
The Murray Darling Basin
3000 tonnes of salt enter the Murray River each day
$700 million per year is lost because usable land is destroyed by salinity
The salt makes it very difficult for plants to grow around the soil in the river