There are several ways to purify water, from old to up-to-date technology. Studies, tests, and experiments have helped us have clean water.
But how does water get cleaned? What kind of process does it have to go through before it’s purified? How many stages must it go through before it’s safe for us to use it? Before answering those questions, let’s answer this simple yet complex question: What is water?
Water is an important component of our lives and the Earth. According to the USGS Water Science School, 70% of our bodies are water, and 71% of the Earth is water. We have various bodies of water, including oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers.
Researchers even say that if global warming continues, the Arctic glaciers will melt, and water will envelop all land areas.
The Earth will be surrounded by water. Thus, everyone and everything will be obliterated. Let’s not forget catastrophes caused by water. When heavy rain is combined with another elemental cataclysm, it becomes a super typhoon, tidal wave, tsunami, you name it. As tragic as they may sound, these are all-natural disasters.
Why do we use water in our everyday lives? In some of Maslow’s interpretations of the hierarchy of needs, water may not be considered a physiological need but a first need.
Let’s start with the basics: Water is used for drinking, preparing food, cooking, bathing, and washing clothes. It has been and will always be an important component of our lives.
As of 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported 842,000 deaths per year from waterborne diseases on its website www.who.int. It’s just sad that these deaths could be prevented with portable, clean, safe water.
Especially in remote areas, where sanitation is a big concern, water is unsafe for drinking and unhygienic. This affects middle-aged residents, children, and the entire community.
The main objective is to provide safe, clean drinking water for everyone. Water contains many chemical particles, ions, algae, and bacteria that can cause parasites and nutrient deficiencies; some say it also contains minerals and more. So, different water purification methods were established depending on the purpose of water consumption.
According to Wikipedia.org, methods are categorized according to their processes. In physical processes, infiltration is the filtering or screening of water to remove stones or particles that can cause problems in subsequent steps.
There’s also sedimentation that uses a sedimentation basin or clarifier. It separates the floc, a term used for amorphous metal hydroxide, from the water. Another name for this is demineralized water, which was not considered ideal drinking water.
The study says removing minerals from the water causes digestive and urinary-related problems. Distilled water manufacturers say otherwise; minerals come from our food, not water.
For the biological processes, we have the slow sand filter and the rapid sand filter. This method uses sand to filter water. The water seeps through layers of sand slowly until it is safe for consumption. The rapid sand filter uses sand as well. This method uses a layer of activated carbon to remove taste and odor from water.
This is the most common type of filter because the layer the water passes through is so thin that it can filter smaller elements.
As you know, sand filters have been used since the early 1800s. Mr. John Gibb used them for experimental filtering in Scotland.
Over the years, this process has been refined and used as a water supply in the United Kingdom.
Chlorination and flocculation are the two chemical processes for water purification. Coagulation and flocculation add chemical components to the water to remove unwanted organic and inorganic particles.
Chlorination, or Chlorine disinfection, is the most common disinfection method. This method is harmful to both humans and germs. One of the best examples of chlorine disinfection is the one used in pools.
Large consumption of water with chlorine has fewer strong bad effects than pure chlorine.
When cholera was an epidemic in London in 1854, water chlorination helped disinfect the city. John Snow successfully used chlorine to disinfect the water supply.
Later, in 1879, William Soper used chlorinated lime to care for typhoid patients. Because of too many outbreaks and casualties (from the outbreak), permanent water chlorination was implemented.
The age of slow sand filtration has ended, and the use of lime helped solve the epidemic that had everyone at ease at the time. Even in the age of the new world, chlorine and lime are used.
The US military purifies water on the field using a calcium hypochlorite solution in linen, Lyster, or Lister bags.
Boiling water, though, is the oldest way of purifying water. It is even practiced at home, as it is the most effective way of removing microorganisms from water. We do it at home by putting a rubber or used cloth in it and then encircling it with a water hose.
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