Transcript:

So, industrialization and commercial farming has led to another problem. Runoff of rainwater from farms contains now pesticides and fertilizers, and industrial effluents contains heavy metals and so many other contaminants. Like pharmaceutical companies also release drugs into the wastewater. When this wastewater is released, it is essentially going back into the source of groundwater which fills in now again the drinking water sources, like lakes and rivers. So now these lakes and rivers are being contaminated with all these pesticides, fertilizers, industrial effluents. 

How do we stop this polluted water from being sent out as drinking water? Nature has solved this problem. Water mussels are unique; their shells are open when the water is not contaminated, and when they detect any contamination, they close. And Poland is using this technology effectively to monitor their drinking water sources and to prevent polluted water from being sent out to the population. It's fascinating.