Preview

Clean water essay

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1046 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Clean water essay
Biology Essay
Amanda Liao
09/05/13
Clean Water
In today’s world, one of the most basic problems facing our society is the absence of clean water that we use and drink in daily life. The importance of clean water is self-explanatory. In spite of the fact that 70% of the earth’s surface is covered by water, there is only 2.53%of fresh water that we can actually use. For the only 2.53% of fresh water, some is not safe and clean to use and it is harmful to human body. Polluted water is a big risk to our health, which contains contaminants. The World Health Organization reports that 80% of all transmittable diseases are spread by contaminants in drinking water in some parts of the world. (Aqua-Sun international) One of the contaminants is Microbial Pathogens, diseases that are produced by microorganisms such as viruses and bacteria. This type of contaminant often comes from sewage and animal waste, which can cause direct health problems like salmonella infection, gastroenteritis, dysentery and hepatitis. Another type of contaminant is Inorganics, pollution by toxic metals like barium, lead, mercury and arsenic. Inorganic contaminants have a high possibility to cause chronic health effects rather than direct threats to our health. (North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service.) After the small amounts of chemical in polluted water have accumulated in human body, it will cause liver, kidney and immune system damage, cancer, disorders of the nervous system and infertility of male and female, which can also cause birth defects directly. (North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service.)
In order to drink healthy and clean water, many ways of purifying water have been invented. I am going to talk about two of the ways to cleanse water and the limitations of the methods in social and economic perspective.
Iodine treatment is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to purify water. Iodine solution has been shown to be effective on killing the microorganisms like Giardia cysts

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Water pollution can cause many illnesses and diseases to the human population that could possibly be fatal.…

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    2. You will need purify or desalinate your water. In order to purify the water you will need to place it over a fire (see page on fire to learn how to start) for 10 minutes. This will get rid of all harmful salts, germs, bacteria’s and possible toxins.…

    • 1321 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Body Paragraph #1 - Background: All flourishing, healthy and thriving communities all have one thing in common and that is clean water, free of harmful contaminants because our bodies depend on clean, pure water to survive. As maintained in Mishra, S., & Nandeshwar, S. (2013),…

    • 2582 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    As population grows, drinking water becomes one of the most valuable resources in the world nowadays. The drinking water even becomes an important public health issue in some developing countries such as China and some African countries. During the entire process of drinking water treatment, the step of sterilization is especially important. The reason is that the raw water contains many kinds of microbes, which may results in spread of infectious diseases. This paper will show some sterilization methods for drinking water treatment and their cons and pros. These methods are chloramine, UV disinfection, solar water disinfection and a combination of simple filtration and low-temperature sterilization.…

    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The lab was conducted at the McBride residence. For this experiment vegetable oil, vinegar and liquid detergent was use to contaminate the water. Testing of how ground water is affected by different contaminants was the bases of the experiment. The results were interesting in that when vinegar is filtered through dirt it came out fairly clean, it also changed the scent. This shows that maybe we can find a way to find a safer choice on how we filter and purify water. The use of sand, charcoal and gravel was used as an aquifer to exact the water. Bleach was used to sterilize the contaminated water and the process. For the last lab, tap, Dasani and Fiji water were tested with ammonia, chloride, iron and phosphate to determine which water is better for humans to drink. The results were that the vinegar changed the scent and the laundry detergent changed…

    • 796 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Water Balance Essay

    • 542 Words
    • 3 Pages

    According to Gildemeister, Berkeley is a west-coast Mediterranean climate (distinct wet and dry seasons). In the late spring and early fall, strong offshore winds of sinking air typically develop, bringing heat and dryness to the area. In the spring, this is not usually a problem as vegetation is still moist from winter rains, but extreme dryness prevails by the fall. The warmest and driest months are typically June through September, with the highest temperatures occurring in September. Mid-summer (July-August) is often a bit cooler due to the sea breezes and fog which are normally most strongly developed then (Gildemeister, 2004, p. 109).…

    • 542 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Water is one of the many things that all human being need in order to survive. Considering the vast amount of water that is on the planet, it is reasonable to believe that there is more than enough water for everyone to have their fair share and more. Yet this sadly is not the case, as the majority of the water on Earth is unsuitable to drink due to the fact that it is tainted with a numerous amount of contaminants, such as bacteria and salt. The amount of safe drinking water is decreasing more and more each year and will soon become one of the more scarce resources on the planet. Over the years, many different people all over the world have tried to create and refine a water purification process that is both effective and efficient. The…

    • 1888 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Background: According to the Millennium Development Goals Report 2012, 783 million people, or 11 per cent of the global population, remain without access to an improved source of drinking water. Also the United Nations has long been addressing the global crisis caused by insufficient water supply to satisfy basic human needs and growing demands on the world’s water resources to meet human, commercial and agricultural needs (un.org). In this experiment water quality and contamination of groundwater was investigated. First, I observed the effects that many pollutants have on groundwater. I predict that in this experiment the oil and vinegar will create the large amount of contamination in the water, while the laundry detergent will just create an aroma smell to it. Considering the smells and color to these ingredients I think that it will cause the water quality to have a bad smell and cause the water to be very cloudy. Once filtering the contaminated water, the water will be clear and purified. Second, I will experiment water treatment and filtering. I predict that once the contaminated water is treated and filtered that it will leave me with less contamination or none at all. Then for the last experiment, I will determine the difference between bottled water and tap water to discover any contamination. I predict that the tap water will be the most contaminated and with the most chemicals in it, while the bottled waters; Dasani and Fiji will be completely filtered and free of any chemicals.…

    • 1711 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    (World Health Organisation, 2017) Water chlorination has led to the declination of most waterborne epidemics in today's world, due to its elimination of common pathogens such as E. coli, salmonella and listeria. This has severely reduced instances of cholera, dysentery, typhoid fever and gastroenteritic diseases, all of which remain key causes of death in developing countries that cannot afford proper water sanitation. (Water Quality and Health Council, 2017) Hence, although THMs in chlorinated water are possible carcinogens, the health hazards of non-disinfected water are much…

    • 1591 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    These lollisticks had been ice-lollies from the store and I washed them in the kitchen myself with ‘Bristling Shine’ washing-up liquid under a warm tap(I have no way to tell the temperature) pouring at forty percent capacity( I measured this the day before I was standing near the rectangle of brown earth. I used my Transformers lunch box to hold the water. First I held the lunch box under a switched off hot tap so that I could tell that the tap did switch off and that there were no drips even though the tap had been switched off. Next I wrote the time(11.23 and 43 seconds) on a sheet of lined school paper with a burgundy coloured crayon. As soon as I saw the time I turned the tap on full and watched how long the tap water took to fill the lunch…

    • 350 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    SWAPE Personal Statement

    • 1137 Words
    • 5 Pages

    My environmental engineering classes, work experience with water treatment technologies, and volunteering abroad have shown me that water quality is a diverse problem with multiple solutions. The solutions to the challenge of providing clean water vary greatly, depending on the geography, climate, local conditions, and resources available. The best technology for one area might be reverse osmosis filtration, but with high amounts of energy required to maintain high pressure and expensive installation costs, this might not be the proper solution for areas without current energy infrastructure or without enough capital to build a…

    • 1137 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Water pollution is the contagion of water bodies like lakes, rivers and ground water with detrimental compounds. Water bodies are often contaminated by human or animal drugs, oil spillage, pesticides, metals and many other toxins directly or indirectly. Recently, a growing concern about the existence chemical compounds from pharmaceuticals and personal hygiene products in the society water bodies. Although the concentrations of these compounds are at much lower doses however, constant exposure to these compounds could have drastic effect on the health of an individual or create new health problems.…

    • 198 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Water makes up 75% of your body and is absolutely necessary for living. But do we know what we are drinking when we drink bottled, Recycled, and tap water? You might think it really does not matter, i mean they are all the same clean water right? Well, according to Rebecca Ephriham water that individuals and our families drink could contain deadly toxins, and can even cause cancer and other life threatening diseases. Some water is much cleaner than others and a much better choice for us and our familys. Out of tap water, bottled water, and recycled water the best choice is recycled water.…

    • 786 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Thomas Fuller, an English author, once wrote, “We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.” Humans are not the only organisms dependent on water for survival. Plants, animals, and the entire planet Earth are dependent on water. The Earth is made up mostly of water, but only three percent of that water can be considered fresh enough for human consumption. With only three percent of the Earth’s water able to be consumed, it is imperative that the cleanliness of the water be sustained by all humans.…

    • 1986 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Water Treatment

    • 1407 Words
    • 6 Pages

    * Water treatment - describes those industrial-scale processes used to make water more acceptable for a desired end-use. These can include use for drinking water, industry, medical and many other uses. Such processes may be contrasted with small-scale water sterilization practiced by campers and other people in wilderness areas. The goal of all water treatment process is to remove existing contaminants in the water, or reduce the concentration of such contaminants so the water becomes fit for its desired end-use. One such use is returning water that has been used back into the natural environment without adverse ecological impact.…

    • 1407 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays