Raw Water May Not be Safe for Consumption After All

To start with, Water is the most essential substance on earth, and life without water would inevitably lead to death in a matter of days. In fact, existence revolves round the availability of water.

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Water constitutes two thirds of the human body and also occupies about 70% of the earth surface. When it comes to uses, it's usefulness cannot be enumerated. But the most basic use of water is for drinking. Water sure comes with a lot of packages. When I say packages, I mean impurities, bacteria and other disease causing organisms. This is why it is being purified to make it more safe and fit for drinking. By making water clean and safe for drinking, it passes through a lot processes. Some of which are;

• BOILING: Heating up the water till it reaches boiling point and kill all the organisms there in.

• COAGULATION: This clumps up fine particles that could slip through the filter and make them form larger particles. A traditional way of doing this is by the addition of alum. This works by the practical application of Coulomb's law which states that:

Like charges repel, Unlike charges attract.

Alum neutralizes the negative charges of the particles by introducing a positive charge and cause them to stick together.

• SEDIMENTATION: This causes the solid particles in the water to settle.

• FILTRATION: This separates the solid particles from the liquid.

• DISINFECTION

There have been sudden and shocking desires to go back to drinking of water devoid of all aforementioned processes. RAW WATER as it is called has become a growing trend.

During the days of yore; while growing up, we never had access to that clean, purified and treated water. All we had access to, were just natural sources of water. When I say natural, I mean untreated raw water. The type of water you just fetch from the nearest well or stream and just gulp down the throat. Not boiled, not treated, not filtered, just as 'natural' as the surrounding environment (Mother Nature) would present it. Similar to raw water it is, as it contains no fluoride (A mineral added to tap water to fight off tooth decay), additives nor does it pass through pipes.

It should however be noted that major killer diseases like Cholera, Dysentery, Typhoid and others come from "Raw" (Untreated) water and that is why it is treated in the first place. This Trio of diseases are responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths all through history.

It should also be noted that although stream water maybe ostensibly pure, there is high probability of contaminations like bacteria, viruses, parasites and other organisms non-existent to the naked eye.

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Arsenic and Radon which are very poisonous in large doses can easily find their way into ground water. Lead poisoning can also be caused as it is found that leads are common in well water.

Even Parasites like Giardia and Cryptosporidium can easily contaminate water from animal dungs and they cause diarrheal diseases.

So it is with this I end this note by saying Raw water is not safe for consumption.

For further reading, please check references.

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