We need water. We need water to drink, to clean and for sanitation purposes. It is estimated that the average adult male needs about 3 liters of water every single day while an adult female needs about 2.2 liters per day. Children, depending on their age and weight, would need a little less. That’s a lot of water when you think about it. We also don’t just need water. We need clean, safe, potable water that has low levels of harmful materials and sediment.
Unfortunately, not everybody in the world, not even in Canada, has access to safe and clean drinking water. According to the World Health Organization, there may be over one billion people across the world who don’t have access to a safe drinking water supply. This is directly related to almost 90 percent of the 4 billion cases of diarrheal disease that happen every year. And two million people die from this on an annual basis. That’s where water purification comes in.
1. Water purification removes undesirable chemicals
Water purification is a process of removing undesirable chemicals, biological contaminants, suspended solids and gases from water to get it ready for human consumption. It can be done in a variety of ways including filtration, sedimentation and distillation as well as some biological and chemical processes like flocculation and chlorination.
2. Water purification is important
Water purification can take impure or unsafe water and make it safe to drink. These processes are an effective way to purify water and have been proven to be effective against bacteria, viruses, cysts, and bacteria.
3. We need a lot of pure water
The truth is that we are made up of mostly water covered by a layer of skin. Maybe up to 60% of the human body is water and the brain and heart are composed of 73 percent water. Lungs are even more at about 83 percent water. Every day we need almost three litres of water, and not just any kind of water.
We need drinking or potable water with low levels of harmful materials and sediment. Water purification systems can remove undesirable chemicals and contaminants, to make it safe to drink.
4. Water purification works quickly
Water purification systems can be up and running within hours or days of installation. They can be installed quickly in remote areas, on the road or in field camps. The military will often bring a mobile water purification system with them when they are in transit before they can set up more permanent water purification systems. The systems act quickly to remove undesirable chemicals and biological contaminants from water to get it ready for human consumption.
5. Water purification reduces health risks
Water purification reduces the risk of getting a range of diseases and ailments, mostly related to the stomach area, from drinking bad water. This lack of clean water directly causes almost 90 percent of the 4 billion cases of diarrheal disease that happen every year. This is a big problem in poorer and developing countries that have few good sources of safe drinking water.
Water purification can make a village’s water supply safe and ensure that is free from the bacteria that carries many life-threatening diseases.
6. Water purification helps children and pregnant women
Two of the highest risk groups for problems with poor quality water are children and pregnant women. Even in North America there are heightened risks if the drinking water supply is not fully purified and dangerous bacterial contaminants are not removed.
Clean, healthy drinking water is essential to a child’s proper mental and physical development. Pregnant women are also at risk from impure or unsafe drinking water. They are more likely to have babies that are premature or have low birth weights than women who have a safe and purified water supply.
