Monthly Archives: May 2013

How Water Is Made Safe To Drink

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Making Water Safe

No living thing can survive without water – this is a fact. Everyone needs water but you have to make sure that you have water that is fit for human consumption because not all the water we see around us is safe to drink. There are so many contaminants brought on by pollution which make our water unfit for drinking without treatment. These substances cannot be detected through the appearance, smell or taste of water, but most of them require chemical testing to accurately check for their presence.

Contaminants are spread by humans and animals but there are also those that come as by-products of industry and agriculture. These contaminants are not visible to the naked eye. That is why you should be careful not to drink any untreated water. Unclean water can give rise to all sorts of illnesses to humans, especially to those who have a quite sensitive immune system.

Water Cooler Water Treatment

Modern Water Treatment For Water Cooler Supplies

Not everyone has access to clean water, but everyone can help make their water safe for drinking.

We can all protect our water by minimizing the contaminants that affect it and minimising water pollution by getting more involved in conserving our environment. Just by maintaining clean surroundings and helping educate people about the importance of a sanitised and hygienic environment will assist enormously.

Water Treatment in Underdeveloped Countries

Rivers, artesian wells and lakes are a few sources of water that are treated in people’s homes. The traditional way and maybe the oldest means of disinfecting water is through boiling. Water is treated through heat, long and hot enough to kill or inactivate microorganisms that are harmful to your body. Boiled water though, should not be stored for a long time otherwise, new pathogens may begin to build up.

The use of crushed Moringa seeds is also suitable for domestic use in water purification. Moringa trees are found in many places throughout Africa and Asia. Its wood and leaves are used as medicines. The seed from a Moringa tree is a natural coagulant, which makes it great in treating cloudy or turbid water. When powdered Moringa seeds are added to water, they pull together floating particles like dirt, germs, worms and other solids. These particles can be found at the bottom of a storage container once the water settles. This kind of process may not give absolute assurance that water is one hundred percent safe, but at least you have eliminated most of its bacterial concentration. You can continue on another treatment like solar disinfection or filtering but never chlorinate the water as it may have an adverse reaction with the powdered seeds of Moringa tree.

Water Treatment in Developed Countries

In developed countries, a multi-step process is usually adopted for the treatment of water for human use or consumption purposes. Firstly, rainwater is collected from rivers, reservoirs or underground sources and stored for future use.

And because the quality of the water can vary from these sources, different types of treatment are applied to the water as required. The initial part of this particular process involves screening large objects from the water like leaves, branches or other debris. Then smaller particles are removed using a process called flocculation followed by filtering using rapid gravity or sand filters. Further processes may also be used to remove very fine particles like ion exchange, carbon or ozone treatment.

Finally, tiny amounts of chlorine are added to the water to kill any remaining bacteria before water is made available for use in modern water systems or via a mass distribution system of pumping stations and pipes.

Crop Irrigation With Water

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CROP IRRIGATION

Crops, like humans need water in order to live. Irrigation has been a practice in growing crops since time immemorial and like other practices; it has also evolved over time to provide crop growers with different ways to water their fields.

Water Cooler IrrigationIrrigation is the term used to refer an artificial method of wetting lands or soil thereby assisting crops during their growth stages or their entire lifespan (depending on how reliant the crops are on water).  The most common water sources are those found from underground springs, rivers, reservoirs, wells and drainage water. Irrigation has been one of the most important uses of water which comes next to humans’ and animals’ large dependency on water. In fact, the world’s water usage on irrigation comprises 60% of the total consumption.

Irrigation as a process has been around for centuries when ancient peoples used manual irrigation. However, as  technology has developed over the years to continuously change our everyday lives from manual to automatic, newer methods of irrigating crops were also introduced, particularly for large scale cropping.

METHODS FOR IRRIGATING CROPS WITH WATER

Flood Irrigation

This by far is the most commonly used method of irrigating agricultural crops. You can categorize this method of irrigation as the advanced form of manual irrigation. It is used where larger area require irrigation and where labour and water distribution is restricted.

As the name suggests, flood irrigation supplies huge crop fields with massive volumes of water which will eventually flood the area. This is done through a pumping system that delivers water from a source to the field and lets it flow on the ground. Probably the reason why this is the most commonly used form of irrigation is because it is the cheapest and simplest form. The downside for the flooding method however, is that not all the water that flows into the field is  absorbed by the soil because some run off occurs.

The limitations of this method have driven farmers to find other ways to minimise water wastage from flooding. Modified flooding irrigation methods includes Levelling of Fields, wherein farmers will have to create toil or scrape the field and have it flattened to ensure that the water which will be flowing into the field will be evenly distributed. Another form of modified flood irrigation is the Surge Flooding where water is released on to the field at specific intervals.

Drip Irrigation

This type of irrigation uses pipes which are placed in rows along with the crops. Usually they are placed on the crops’ root line so that water is easily absorbed. The pipes that are used for drip irrigation have holes in them where water runs through.

Spray/Sprinkler Irrigation

The most modern way of water irrigation for crops is spray irrigation.  Large scale crops use this type of irrigation system and involves the use of expensive machinery which means that it is pretty costly.

The most common type of Sprinkler irrigation is the Centre Pivot. This type of sprinkler irrigation basically makes use the concept of the regular hose you use in your homes. A certain point in the field serves as the point of origin (well) from which the system sources the water. As soon as the pumping system is turned on, the water will run through the tubes to spray water into the fields.

Traditional/Manual Irrigation

For small-scale farming, manual irrigation or the traditional way of using buckets to apply water to crops may be chosen. However, this type of irrigation, although inexpensive will require more human labour compared to other types.