Deteriorating Water Quality

USDA Agricultural Resource Service, Water Quality Information Center

Assuring freshwater quality continues to pose major challenges.

Worldwide, water quality conditions are deteriorating in almost all regions recently assessed by the World Resources Institute. Intensifying agriculture and urbanization, along with inadequate sanitation systems continue to degrade the world’s rivers, lakes, and wetlands.

In the United States, which made massive public investments in water quality controls over the past several decades, about 40 percent of rivers, lakes, and tidal estuaries still do not meet state-designated water quality goals. Polluted runoff from farms, forested areas, and urban environments remains a leading and persistent cause of water quality problems.

Choose a link to the right to learn more about deteriorating quality of our world's freshwater supply.