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Clean Drinking Water through Municipal Water Treatment
By DavePF | July 3, 2009
We’ve seen the pictures of people in third world countries drinking from polluted streams and heard about the rampant disease epidemics that devastate those countries. Living the way we do in the western world, it’s difficult to realize that anyone in the world does not know the link between unsanitary water and disease, but they either have no idea or are powerless to correct the conditions. What many of us don’t see is that only 2 centuries ago, most of the United States had the same problems, and epidemics spread in our country the same way they do in other nations today. People didn’t realize what was happening, and even if they did, the equipment wasn’t yet in place to conduct widespread municipal water treatment systems.
Actual water filtration started in Scotland in the 1700s. Scotland was a part of the world in those days that was renowned for scientists and philosophers that became known as the Scottish Enlightenment, so it wasn’t any surprise that they were had the knowledge to realize the importance of clean, disease-free drinking water and to then create a way to sanitize existing water sources. During this period of time, a Scottish scientist and engineer, Robert Thom, designed the first municipal water treatment facility. He made use of a technique known as slow sand filters and was able to provide clean, disease-free water for an entire town.
Since the eighteenth century, municipal water treatment systems have been redrawn and improved in order to provide safe water for people in some of the largest urban areas on the globe. Drinking water is taken from two different sources: groundwater and surface water. The bulk of all the water we drink comes from groundwater sources. Chemicals run into this groundwater and must subsequently be extracted before the water will be sanitized for consumption. Groundwater also has bacteria and other contaminants that enter it from surface water.
The human body is about two-thirds made up of water, and we must constantly replenish the water supply in our bodies if we plan to stay in good health. Therefore, it is important that we have ready sources of clean drinking water. That’s where municipal water treatment plants have made a real difference in the healthy lives we lead. We in the United States no longer have to worry about coming down with devastating diseases from drinking the water that comes out of our water faucets, and we have all the fresh water we could conceivably want. Now we must attempt to get clean water to people all over the world.
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