Water is the elixir of life, the basic need for survival for any organism on the planet. It is known as a universal solvent and yet people are not aware about the importance of it. Water is a unique substance that exists in 3 forms: solid, liquid and gaseous forms. The same water that existed billions of years ago also exists today: meaning no new water is added on earth. Man cannot make water, it is natural resource just as wind and solar. The water that we consume now is just one of the 3% of the available fresh water in the world.
Water is used for many activities: drinking, bathing, cooking, agriculture, production of goods, etc. people emphasis on water being pure for consumption; yet they do not know the importance of intake of pure water. According to World Health Organisation, Potable water is the one that has Total Dissolved solids less than 50, is colorless and odorless substance. The pH of potable water is neutral, meaning it is neither acidic nor alkaline and it is a bad conductor of electricity. When salts are added to pure water, then it becomes a good conductor of electricity.
Living in a fast pace world away from Nature’s creations, pure water is easy to find in bottled conditions. Pure water is pure when it thoroughly purified. People often are confused between purification, filtration and mineral addition. Filtration denotes physical particles removal while purification denotes the removal of bacteriological substances. Mineral addition to water is done because water has an excellent property of sticking itself to any metal, hence it is done for therapeutic purposes.
The evident question arises in one’s mind, ‘why pure water?” Well, the answer lies in the fact that impure water when consumed causes problems affecting gastrointestinal tract which harbingers diseases like diarrhea, cholera, etc that may cause death in severe cases. Impure water when consumed does not perform the work of transporting of essential vitamins and nutrients to organs via blood stream. It is evident that 70% of all parts of the body are made up of water signifying its importance.
The origin of purification of water begins from nature. The wonderful coconut and palm trees around salt water lakes and beaches are the perfect example of purification. The water consumed in coconut is sweet and provides sufficient nutrients. The process in which the purification occurs is called as ‘osmosis’ and the current technology that purifies water is the ‘reverse osmosis’ where pressure is applied as the water flows.
In many places, the source of water is the ground water. Due to pollution and industries, people do not know the significance of the recharge of the ground water, because water once consumed is not returned back to the ground in sufficient terms. Thus most of the aquifers and fertile lands consisting of lakes are drying up at a faster rate. The day will not be far when water resources will be dried up and water will be costlier than oil.
