The Importance of Efficient Municipal Water Treatment
We’ve seen the photos of people in third world countries drinking from contaminated water sources and heard about the rampant disease epidemics that take place in those countries. Living the way we do in the U.S., it’s difficult to comprehend that anyone in the world wouldn’t know the link between contaminated water and disease, but they either don’t or can’t remedy the conditions. What most of us don’t see is that only 2 centuries ago, most of America had the same problems, and diseases spread in our country the same way they do in other nations now. People didn’t realize what was occurring, and even if they would have, the technology wasn’t yet in place to operate major municipal water treatment systems.
Actual water filtration originated in Scotland in the 16th century. Scotland was an area of the world in those days that was full of scientists and philosophers and was in a period known as the Scottish Enlightenment, so it was no wonder that they were able to comprehend the importance of clean, healthy drinking water and to then devise a way to clean existing water sources. During the Scottish Enlightenment period, a Scottish scientist and engineer, Robert Thom, created the first municipal water treatment facility. He used a method called slow sand filters and was able to produce clean, disease-free water for an entire town.
Since the 1700s, municipal water treatment systems have been recreated and improved in order to provide safe water for citizens in some of the biggest cities worldwide. Drinking water comes from two different sources: groundwater and surface water. The majority of all the water we drink comes from groundwater sources. Chemicals run into this groundwater and must ,therefore, be removed before the water will be safe for consumption. Groundwater also has bacteria and other contaminants that come into it from surface water.
The human body is between 60 and 70% water, and we must continuously replenish the water supply in our bodies if we are going to stay in good health. Therefore, it is vital that we have reliable sources of clean drinking water. That’s where municipal water treatment plants have made a real difference in the lives we lead. We in America no longer have to be concerned about getting serious diseases from drinking the water that flows out of our faucets, and we have all the fresh water we could conceivably use. Now we have to attempt to get clean water to people throughout the world.
