Essay about Chlorinated Drinking Water is Necessary for Public Health

Are you ever thirsty for a nice cold glass of clean water? Most privileged people can find decent drinkable water in at least three places in the average kitchen. It’s a gift we commonly undermine. Unfortunately, many adults and young children aren’t granted this privilege. Striving each day to find clean water and still worry if it is safe enough to drink. All around the world some of the deadliest bacteria, diseases, and germs are alive in the water. Underprivileged countries do not have clean running water or even a decent well to draw from; this results in drinking from stagnate rivers, salty oceans, and contaminated puddles. Each year, thousands of people die from the bacteria living in unclean water. Sorrowfully, many of those numbers are young children! When a child becomes sick from bacteria found in their drinking water, an entire daily system becomes thrown out of balance. They cannot attend school or work, and it affects friends and family around them! Moreover, economical issues arise. Humans around the world have their whole lives ahead of them. Everyone should have daily access to clean drinking water to keep them healthy and growing. In this fallen world that’s not always the reality. The cycle that contaminated water brings is almost unstoppable.

Water is one of the necessities of life. Without it, humans can’t survive. It seems like a basic need that is readily available, as 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered in water. However, many people lack a source of clean drinking water, and this number as well as the number of people who die due to not having clean water is rising. According to the Natural Resource Defense Council, “Less than two tenths of 1 percent of the planet’s water is drinkable, and 90 percent of that goes to uses in buildings, including flushing toilets.” Therefore, only a miniscule fraction of the water of the water on Earth is available for drinking. In addition, the average American uses 2,220 gallons of water per day, a number out of proportion with the 844 million people who lack access to safe drinking water. While these statistics sound dire, there are ways to solve this problem. The problem isn’t that we don’t have enough water, but how we use the water we have. If we utilize water and the other resources we have access to in an effective way, we can supply the human race as well as other species with sufficient water to survive.

In the modern age of high-speed internet, self-driving cars and VR it’s easy to forget that some places in the world still don’t have fresh water, let alone plumbing. The average person uses between 80 and 100 gallons of water a day. If you drink the recommended 8 glasses per day that’s only 8 oz a glass, or 64 oz in total. Of those 80 to 100 gallons we use an average of 3 every time we flush the toilet, 5 gallons per minute in the shower, 36 gallons for a bath, 8-27 gallons while doing the dishes, 25 gallons for every load of laundry and another 2 gallons a minute if you’re doing any outdoor watering or filling a kiddy pool. By using a newer toilet, you can reduce the gallons per flush to about 1.6 gallons, and when using a water saving shower head you can reduce your use to about 2 gallons per minute. This may not seem like much of a difference, but it can make a big impact.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) described the general treatment of wastewater and its two basic stages, primary and secondary. In the primary treatment most solids are caught in a screen, then the sewage goes to a grit chamber to settle small pieces of debris at the bottom, then through the sedimentation tank. Afterwards, secondary treatment removes a majority of the organic matter, eventually being chlorinated before reaching an effluent (EPA, 1998).

All around the world, countries are fighting to keep their drinking water clean. Whether it’s streams, rivers, or lakes, countries have taken great measures to maintain high quality drinking water for both human consumption and animal consumption. Countries must first understand the sources of the polltion, then determine the best methods to eliminate the pollution. Clean drinking water is a valuable resource and a the key to human survival. Plants and animals also depend on water for their growth, so all water must be kept clean. The major contributors to water pollution can be classified in three categories, industrial, agricultural and municipal.

The main focus for this report is the disinfection section. During the disinfection process different chlorine products are added to the filtered water to remove harmful microorganisms. When the disinfectant is added “free

Due to disinfection (microorganisms) and oxidation (e.g. taste and odour control, elimination of micropollutants, etc.), chlorine is commonly used in water disinfection processes (Gunten et al., 2006). However, under certain circumstances, oxidants can induce formation of potentially harmful by-products or transformation products due to their reactivity with micropollutants in water (Kranser et al.,

Chlorine is added to the effluent to disinfect any remaining microbiological pathogens; this takes at least half an hour. The effluent is then treated with sulphur dioxide gas to remove excess chlorine, which would be harmful to the river ecosystem.

What is the one thing that all humans can agree on? Clean water. Then why are roughly 844 million people around the world living without access to clean water? (UN Water) As simple as it may seem, there are complex layers that have overlapped for generations, leading to an endless cycle of poverty. The scarcity of water contributes to issues in health, education, and poverty. Water impacts nearly every aspect of life; however, the most shocking fact is that we already have the solutions to provide safe water. The first obstacle that we must overcome is the allocation of resources. Now, more than ever, we have access to the world’s finest research and technology that could very easily end the water crisis. The solution to the water crisis starts with spreading awareness and reaching out to generous donors. Proper funding can be raised to reach the goals of charities across the globe. Sustainable clean water technology can be distributed to some of the most poverty-stricken countries in the world, such as Ethiopia, Somalia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which all have populations of over fifty percent living without improved drink water sources. (Africa Development Information) I believe we have the means to provide solutions to put an end to the water crisis, but it will require effort from donors and local communities alike. It is possible within the decade that no one will need to drink unsafe water again if we are united by this cause.

18%of all cancer of the bladder was caused by the drinking of chlorinated water .In addition, this days epidemic of heart trouble is caused by chlorinating our drinking

Ozone is a strong oxidizing agent that is an unstable gas that is generated by an electrical discharge through dry air or pure oxygen. Finally UV radiation generated by sunlight, tanning lamp, black lights, and electrical discharge through mercury vapor, penetrates the genetic material of microorganisms and retards their ability to reproduce” (USEPA, N.D.). One of the popular disinfection methods in water treatment is the Ultraviolet (UV) disinfection. The ultraviolet (UV) disinfection is a physical disinfection of water. This paper would provide a broadly definition of UV disinfection and its purpose in water treatment. Also, this paper will provide the advantages and disadvantages of using the advance technology over the common technology in water treatment. In addition the cost of technology, projected usage in the U.S. will provided in this paper.

The purpose of this report is to propose a solution to the problem of reduced drinking water quality due to chemical pollution. Some bodies of water in the United States are becoming polluted from chemicals and restrictions are needed to protect drinking water quality.

Water disinfection means eliminating or inactivate of growth and reproduction in pathogenic microorganisms by creating cell wall corrosion in the cells of microorganisms, or changes in cell permeability. From the water treatment process, disinfection is a sufficient and the crucial process in order to inactivate bacteria, viruses and pathogenic organisms that can waterborne diseases to downstream users and the environment (USEPA, 1999). There are three most common methods of disinfection in the U.S., which are Chlorination, Ozonation, and ultraviolet (UV) disinfection. “Chlorine, the most widely used disinfectant for municipal wastewater, destroys target organisms by oxidation of cellular material. Ozone is a strong oxidizing agent that is an unstable gas that is generated by an electrical discharge through dry air or pure oxygen. Finally UV radiation generated by sunlight, tanning lamp, black lights, and electrical discharge through mercury vapor, penetrates the genetic material of microorganisms and retards their ability to reproduce” (USEPA, N.D.). One of the popular disinfection methods in water treatment is the Ultraviolet (UV) disinfection. The ultraviolet (UV) disinfection is a physical disinfection of water. This paper would provide a broadly definition of UV disinfection and its purpose in water treatment. Also, this paper will provide the advantages and disadvantages of using the advance technology over the common technology in water treatment.

Compared to tertiary treatment, secondary treatment is generally preceeded by primary treatment and involves removal of residual organic matter and other solids. This method involves biological processes mainly incorporating oxidation of solid matter in the waste water by microorganisms. According to Pescod (1992), secondary waste water treatment involves aerobic biological processes by bacteria occurring

Primary treatment and secondary biological processes concentrate waste organics into a sludge. Methods for processing raw sludge include anaerobic digestion and mechanical dewatering by either belt-filter pressing or centrifugation. Conventional methods of disposal are apllication as a fertilizer or soil conditioner on agricultural land, landfilling in a dedicated disposal site, or codisposal with municipal solid waste.