Water is life. A particularly popular mantra these days, the simple phrase rings true. One of the most important things for our survival is also one of the most abundant elements not only on the planet but within each of our bodies as well. It has been estimated that just over 70% of the earth’s surface is covered with water, and our bodies are made up of around 60% water. It makes sense that as our bodies are comprised of such a high percentage of water, that it be so vital to our existence. And yet, as plentiful as the earth is with water, a much smaller percentage of it is actually accessible or acceptable to drink or use.
The global population continues to grow, but there are not water sources that continue to multiply at the same rate. For this reason, there has been a necessity for the continued development and production of water purifying technology. The water treatment process for purifying drinking water has been quite well adapted over the years to avoid the need for lowering buckets into wells or rivers as our ancestors were required to do.
Why a good water treatment process is necessary
The best water systems are going to give you water that is suitable for every use. Water filtration systems are necessary because by the time clean water from a spring has traveled through rivers and pipes, it has picked up quite a bit of sediment and other impurities along the way that we definitely do not want to be ingesting. In fact there are places in the world that, lacking resources, access, and funding for proper water treatment processes, can see populations suffering from epidemic diseases due to the consumption of contaminated or impure water.
And in more developed countries, despite what we have learned about the dangers of lead and new laws and health regulations in attempts to remove lead from the home, there are old water pipes that still contain lead, which poisons the water running through them. The Environmental Protection Agency reports that every single year there are 480,000 children who develop some sort of learning disability or another as a result of lead exposure. On top of that, it has been estimated that there are more than 2,100 contaminants in the supply of any given region’s tap water. And those are just the known contaminants. Luckily they are not all as harmful as lead, but they still provide plenty of reason to ensure that the proper water treatment and filters are being applied.
The home water treatment process
The surefire way to get the safe and clean drinking water that you want and need in your home is by using a point of use filtration system. The point of use systems are in home water purification systems that are installed at the point of the water connection that is being used, such as under a kitchen or bathroom counter for those individual sinks. These systems use reverse osmosis, which removes dissolved solids from the water by way of a semipermeable membrane that the tap water is pushed through by the house’s water pressure. The POU systems are typically much smaller capacity than filtration systems that are used for entire houses or buildings. But they definitely have a bit impact.
Stepping back to see the bigger picture, this incredibly advanced species of ours needs to be more careful with the precious resources we use, and we need to be better about protecting our water sources. But in the meantime, we can ensure that our drinking water is clean by getting the right water treatment and filters in place.