Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Water Contamination and Water Adulteration


The very basic need for human existence is water. Water is an indispensable natural resource and is a bare essential to perform our daily tasks.

According to report by the United Nations, 90% of wastewater discharged in developing countries is left untreated everyday. Over 3 million people around the world die each year by drinking water which is considered unfit for human consumption.

Water pollution is any contamination of water with chemicals or other foreign substances that are detrimental to human, plant, or animal health. 

These pollutants include fertilizers and pesticides from agricultural runoff; sewage and food processing waste; lead, mercury, and other heavy metals; chemical wastes from industrial discharges; and chemical contamination from hazardous waste sites. 

Worldwide, nearly 2 billion people drink contaminated water that could be harmful to their health.

Water purification is one of the solutions for water pollution. Millions of people worldwide could be saved if people used chlorination, filtration, and solar disinfection to treat water at their homes.

37.7 million Indians are affected by waterborne diseases each year. Water contamination in India is mainly contributed by untreated sewerage which contaminates surface as well as ground water.

Indian rivers like Yamuna, Ganga, Gomti, Ghaggar, Chambal flow through highly populated cities and get polluted due to the industries they cross. It found that tap water may contain toxics like mercury.

With the increase in the literacy rate, more Indians are becoming aware of consuming safe drinking water. Now, lot of care is taken by the Indians for the drinking water. Most of Indian now prefers bottled water over using tap water as they are aware that the tap water may be contaminated by chemicals, microbes, pathogens, sanitation issues etc.

But, it is found that bottled water or mineral water also adulterated it can be spurious.

Many times Authorities pick up samples of mineral water and find them contaminated with microbes and toxics. 

People now become aware that bottled water can be adulterated too. By consuming bottled water from non reliable outlet is like that we are paying for the adulterated water and helping in the growth of spurious business of adulterated water.

It becomes essential for us to consume quality marked bottled water which is processed at water plants using aseptic filling technologies ensuring delivery of safe drinking water.
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