allAfrica
[The Conversation Africa] Wastewater is the water we flush down our toilets, send down the drain from our showers and sinks or discharge from factories. It's supposed to travel through intact pipes to be cleaned at wastewater works. If it gets into rivers and streams, it pollutes and contaminates these with nutrients, antibiotics, antiretrovirals, heavy metals, plastics, and pesticides. It can cause a full-scale ecological collapse by polluting freshwater so badly that life in the system is wiped out.
