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Drinking Water Quality
Water runs like a river through our lives, touching everything from
our health and the health of the ecosystem around us and the production
of the goods we consume. Two factors have led to the increased interest
in fresh water:
Firstly a growing understanding of the role that water plays in maintaining
human and ecological well being. Secondly a growing worry that problems
with water availability and quality are threatening that well-being.
Fresh water resources represent just 0.007% of the water on our planet.
Water is a critical resource in our world and serious problems may
face current and future generations.
Water is called the universal solvent because so many substances dissolve
in it. Water also can carry many materials in suspension. The water
that dissolves your tea or coffee might also have dissolved some atoms
of lead from the pipes or may have picked up a microgram of 2,4D from
the farm upstream the filtration plant. If your water is chlorinated
it most certainly contains a few micrograms of chloroform, a by-product
of the disinfection process.
And what is happening at any moment as your water travels from the
source through the treatment/distribution system to your faucet. Water
that is reasonably contaminant free (and safe) in one moment can become
dangerously contaminated the next because of accident, neglect or
a natural event.
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