In this Drinking Water Quality blog, we will review everything you need to know about proper drinking water and its benefits. Check out the best water filters on the market to improve your drinking water quality today!
The Importance Of Having Access to Good Quality Drinking Water
Water is essential for all forms of life, and can greatly affect the overall health of a person. This makes it important to be sure that you are always drinking water of the right quality. We should always be concerned about the quality of the water we use and consume so that we are safeguarded from the many problems that poor quality water can result in.
The Availability of Potable Water
Water comes from many sources and is mainly fed by rainwater that falls on the earth and is absorbed by it to form aquifers, lakes, and rivers. These become a source of water not only for mankind but also for all other animals and other living things.
This water will often contain many minerals and other dissolved substances. Water is a universal solvent, and will in the long run dissolve almost any other substance. This adds to its contamination, whatever the source, and makes it unfit for drinking.
Actually, only 3 % of the water found on Earth is considered potable, and of this 2% is found in ice and glaciers that are restricted to uninhabited parts of the earth at its North and South poles.
So, in fact, it is 1% of the potable water that is accessible to mankind. There have been plans to harvest the water from icebergs at the two poles, but solutions have not been practicable.
Why is Water Important to Life
It is a scientific fact that the major part of the human body consists of water, thus making it a very important element in contributing to our health and continued existence.
Even our bones that are hard have 13% water in their makeup. The brain has 80.5%, the kidney’s 82.7%, the blood’s 90.7%, and the muscle’s 75.6%, with all other parts also requiring some water for their functioning and makeup.
Water, thus, is very important to the functioning and existence of our body parts. It is also used extensively for cooking, bathing, cleaning our homes, clothes, and other needs. It is also extensively used in manufacturing industries right from food items medicines and machinery.
Water Contamination
Water moves in a hydrological cycle that moves it to the air to form clouds and rain that again brings it back to earth where it is absorbed and becomes a source for living beings. It passes through the earth where it finds its own level in water tables that then become a source of water.
During this process, water dissolves anything that it touches and carries along with it these dissolved substances that then contaminate the water and make it unpotable.
Underground aquifers will contain calcium, iron, magnesium, and other minerals that can make the water hard. This hard water, if used, can cause its own problems, like deposits, that can make the water unfit for use in various appliances. It may not affect its potability to a great extent, but this water still needs to be treated before it is used.
Rainwater runs off the surfaces it falls on, and as we know water, always seeks its own level, and flows down from higher regions to the lower ones, resulting in streams and rivers, that ultimately find their way down to the sea.
This flowing water gets contaminated by human and animal waste, chemicals and fertilizers used in agriculture, pesticides, and wastewater from inhabited areas.
Even the dust in the air is carried into the clouds during evaporation and contaminates rainwater. Moisture or humidity is always present in the air, and if this condenses or forms dew, it may be the only source of water that is safe for drinking, without any treatment.
The Effect of Water Quality on Health
Water is the most abundant thing you can find on earth and the earth has more water surfaces than land. with oceans of great depth, and hence their ability to have huge quantities of water.
While seawater can be treated and made into potable water, it requires a lot of equipment and energy, making it often uneconomical. We are therefore dependent on other freshwater sources on land that are constantly being degraded by pollution and other contaminants in our aquifers, lakes, and rivers. This water then needs to be treated to make it of a quality that will not affect human health.
How do the contaminants in our sources of water affect our health? Pesticides are used extensively in growing food, and these are chemicals that then seep into the soil and our water sources. This contaminant can cause skin rash, allergies, digestive issues, and even death.
An excess of nutrients can get dissolved in rainwater when it falls over agricultural fields where a lot of fertilizers and pesticides are used. This cannot be good for health. Human waste from sewage systems and septic tanks can contaminate water sources and lead to health issues like dysentery and hepatitis.
This can also lead to the presence of dangerous E-coli bacteria. Arsenic, which we all know is a dangerous poison is often found in groundwater. Other things like lead, fluoride, can affect the bones, kidneys, and other issues. Salts and nitrates in contaminated water can harm humans, especially children.
Improving Drinking Water Quality
Human ingenuity has led to the development of many ways in which water sources can be treated in order to make the water potable. This varies from large filter plants that use mechanical, physical, chemical, and other means to remove all the contaminants from water and make it potable.
Even if your water source is well in your property, you can set up mini water treatment plants that will remove all the contaminants and render your water potable.
You need to test the water to allow the experts to determine the type of filtering system that you need to make the water drinkable. This can be carbon filters, reverse osmosis, and many other technologies that are each meant for specific types of water.
To ensure your health it can also be important to test your municipal water and set up water treatment facilities in your home to ensure your continued good health.