Definition, Causes, Effects & Control measures

Soil Pollution

Soil Pollution: Every year, the world on 5 December celebrates World Soil Day to raise awareness about the growing challenges in soil management and soil biodiversity loss, and to uplift governments, communities and individuals around the world to promise to improve soil health. Soil Pollution has been a major concern for the past few decades.  Soil pollution( also called Soil contamination) is defined as the presence of toxic chemicals (pollutants or contaminants) in soil, in such high enough concentrations that it poses a risk to human health or to the ecosystem.

The soil is the mixture of organic substances, minerals, gases, and organisms that support life. This organic mixture contains compounds that are harmful to human beings and other living organisms. However, the concentration level of such substances in the soil is so low that they do not pose any serious threat to the surroundings but when the concentration of such toxic substances crosses its saturation level it starts to damage living organisms, and then the soil is said to be contaminated.

Soil Pollutants

Soil Pollutants are such physical, chemical and biological agents that if present in such concentration in the soil that tends to damage the quality of the soil. Such pollutants can be industrial waste, urban waste, contaminants produced by agricultural practices, and Radioactive pollutants. Here Is the list of soil pollutants that contaminates the soil.

Causes of Soil Pollution

Soil pollution is caused by the presence of anthropogenic chemicals or other alterations in the natural soil environment. This type of contamination is caused by various causes which are listed below:

Indiscriminate use of fertilizers: Soil Nutrients are essential for overall development of Plants. Plants obtain Carbon, hydrogen and oxygen from the surrounding.  But other essential nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur and more are also necessary for plants’ growth and development. Farmers generally use fertilizers to cure soil deficiencies. But the overuse of NPK fertilizers reduces the quality as well as the quantity of vegetables and crops grown on soil over the years. Further, It also affects the protein content of different crops grown on that soil.

Indiscriminate use of pesticides, insecticides and herbicides: Plants upon which we depend for our basic necessities are affected by the insect, fungi, weeds, bacteria and viruses. So to get rid of such microbes farmers use pesticides, insecticides, and herbicides. Over the years using such chemicals has made insects resistant. and also chemicals used have lowered their ability to decompose and hence this has reduced the fertility of the soil.

Dumping of solid wastes: Solid waste such as garbage, domestic refuse and discarded solid materials from commercial, industrial and agricultural operations. This solid waste disturbs the composition of the soil resulting in lowering the fertility of the soil.

Effects of Soil Pollution

The effects of Soil Pollution are:

Control Measures to Reduce Soil Pollution

Some of the measures to control to reduce soil Pollution are-

• Reducing chemical fertilizer and pesticide use
• Reusing of materials
• Recycling and recovery of materials
• Reforesting
• Solid waste treatment