Water pollution is the insertion of any substance in a river, a lake or in the ocean, degrading thereby the natural resources of this environment. It may be man-made items like plastic bags, lemonade caps, fishing lines, balls or even shoes... But most of the time, water pollution is not visible. Agricultural fertilisers or industrial chemicals are at the origin of a kind of water pollution hard to notice.
Our daily activities, like flushing the toilet, washing the food, washing the car, are another cause of water pollution.
There are many causes to pollution. It is considered direct or diffuse depending on whether or not it is a one-time discharge. The Société Publique de Gestion de l'Eau (SPGE) deals with the pollution resulting from household water use (flushing the toilet, washing the dishes, laundry wastewater, etc.) as well as part of the industrial pollution.