Pros And Cons Of Drinking Water Sterilization

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.

Chloramine is one of the most populated materials for water sterilization. Chlorine can react with the ammonia in the water and produce Chloramine to eliminate bacteria in water. This method can control the reproduction of bacteria effectively without generating smelly gas related to chlorine. In addition, it is very simple to use.

However, this process can produce disinfection byproducts. As mentioned in the article, “In the mid-1970s, byproducts of the chlorination process were discovered, including chloroform and trihalomethanes (THMs)
The combination of simple filtration and low-temperature sterilization can do the same work as the solar system do. The experiment shows that “filtration of raw water through four layered cotton-sari cloth (250μm) reduced the coliform count and further heating to sub-boiling temperatures (55–60°C) for less than an hour resulted in complete inactivation of coliforms. (Nimbkar and Rajvanshi 519)” The authors also mentioned that this is a “feasible and environmentally sustainable technique of disinfection to obtain clean drinking water. (Nimbkar and Rajvanshi 519)” If the methods is mature enough, it can also solve the water problem in the area without sufficient