Safe Drinking Water Importance

Did you know that the amount of protons present in the given water has a rather ‘electrifying’ effect on the readiness with which other substances will dissolve: the more protons in solution, the more soluble cations become? The water containing a lot more free protons than hydroxide ions is said to be acidic, and acidic waters are notorious for containing large quantities of dissolved metals. Conversely, where the amount of hydroxide ions greatly outnumbers the protons, the water is said to be alkaline, and it will tend to contain large quantities of particular anions (especially the carbonate ion CO32-, which contains one carbon atom and three oxygen atoms).

As the hydrolysis equations show, there is such a close relationship between the

However, a little salt wins through: bursting bubbles at the ocean surface generate tiny droplets of salty water – known as aerosols – which get caught up with the warm, ascending water vapour, and gradually dissolve in it. The consequence is that rain falling from ocean-sourced clouds have the same dominant cation (sodium, Na +) and anion (chloride, Cl-) as sea water. The absolute concentrations are vastly different, however:

The chemical evolution of water doesn’t end when the rain hits the land surface. Almost immediately, evaporation and transpiration occur. Just as at sea, dissolved substances get left behind. We can see the effects of this clearly in water draining from soils. For example, at a site in northern England, analysis of rainwater and water draining from the base of the soil gave the following results: mg/ L = milligrams per litre

The increase in concentration from rain to soil drainage is approximately the same for both Na and Cl at around two (i.e. 5.7/ 2.8 = 2.03 for Na; and 9.7/ 6.1 = 1.6 for Cl), and simply corresponds to half of the water molecules in the original rainwater being lost to the atmosphere by