The Importance Of Clean Drinking Water

Clean drinking water is one of mankind’s most vital resources that are essential for survival. Our planet may have an abundance of water, but unfortunately, only 0.3 percent of it can be used for human consumption (Mullen, 2012). The ingestion of contaminated water may lead to serious health effects such as malaria and legionellosis (World Health Organization, 2016). As such, water sanitation has proved to be imperative.

Health and safety concerns are the fundamentals considerations of water purification technology. Water purification is the process of eliminating contaminants from water, generally adopted to obtain water that is fit for human consumption. Water purification technology has also been adapted for a variety of other applications, not limited to pharmacological, medical and industrial needs. The most common purification techniques include physical processes such as filtration and distillation, biological processes such as slow sand filters and chemical processes like chlorination and flocculation (“Water Purification Technologies”, 2016).

Clean and readily available water is essential for public health. Consumption of contaminated water is often associated with diseases such as cholera, typhoid and polio and adequate water purification can reduce such risks (World Health Organization, 2016). In

Documentation of water treatment dates back to more than 1500BC, where the Egyptians boiled water over a fire to clean it and remove bad smell (Water Tech Trading, 2012). The earliest methods of water filtration are primary concerned with the turbidity of water and obtaining water that tasted better (Enzler, 2016). The first recorded domestic filter was invented around 500BC by Greek scientist Hippocrates. The simple cloth back filter is known as the Hippocratic sleeve which would trap sentiments that were causing bad taste or smell (Baker & Taras,