Category Science

Most of the Earth’s water (around 97%), is contained in the oceans. The polar ice caps hold a further 2%. The remainder (just 1%) is continually recycled through a natural process called the water cycle. The heat of the Sun evaporates water from the sea, lakes and rivers. This produces water vapour, which is held in warm air in the atmosphere. When the vapour moves to a cool area it condenses, forming clouds, and eventually falls to the surface as rain, hail or snow. This waters the land and feeds the world’s water supplies. Most of the water then returns to the oceans, and the cycle continues.

Evaporation, one of the major processes in the cycle, is the transfer of water from the surface of the Earth to the atmosphere. By evaporation, water in the liquid is transferred to the gaseous, or vapour, state. This transfer occurs when some molecules in water mass have attained sufficient kinetic energy to eject themselves from the water surface. The main factors affecting evaporation are temperature, humidity, wind speed, and solar radiation. The direct measurement of evaporation, though desirable, is difficult and possible only at point locations. The principal source of water vapour is the oceans, but evaporation also occurs in soils, snow, and ice. Evaporation from snow and ice, the direct conversion from solid to vapour, is known as sublimation. Transpiration is the evaporation of water through minute pores, or stomata, in the leaves of plants. For practical purposes, transpiration and the evaporation from all water, soils, snow, ice, vegetation, and other surfaces are lumped together and called evapotranspiration, or total evaporation.

Water vapour is the primary form of atmospheric moisture. Although its storage in the atmosphere is comparatively small, water vapour is extremely important in forming the moisture supply for dew, frost, fog, clouds, and precipitation. Practically all water vapour in the atmosphere is confined to the troposphere (the region below 6 to 8 miles [10 to 13 km] altitude).

The transition process from the vapour state to the liquid state is called condensation. Condensation may take place as soon as the air contains more water vapour than it can receive from a free water surface through evaporation at the prevailing temperature. This condition occurs as the consequence of either cooling or the mixing of air masses of different temperatures. By condensation, water vapour in the atmosphere is released to form precipitation.

Precipitation that falls to the Earth is distributed in four main ways: some is returned to the atmosphere by evaporation, some may be intercepted by vegetation and then evaporated from the surface of leaves, some percolate into the soil by infiltration, and the remainder flows directly as surface runoff into the sea. Some of the infiltrated precipitation may later percolate into streams as groundwater runoff. Direct measurement of runoff is made by stream gauges and plotted against time on hydrographs.

Most groundwater is derived from precipitation that has percolate through the soil. Groundwater flow rates, compared with those of surface water, are very slow and variable, ranging from a few millimetres to a few metres a day. Groundwater movement is studied by tracer techniques and remote sensing.

Ice also plays a role in the water cycle. Ice and snow on the Earth’s surface occur in various forms such as frost, sea ice, and glacier ice. When soil moisture freezes, ice also occurs beneath the Earth’s surface, forming permafrost in tundra climates. About 18,000 years ago glaciers and ice caps covered approximately one-third of the Earth’s land surface. Today about 12 percent of the land surface remains covered by ice masses.

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Mineral water comes from natural sources of water beneath the ground. The types of minerals in the water will depend on the type of rock over which the water has been running —different areas produce mineral water containing different types of minerals. Calcium, sodium and sulphur are examples of minerals commonly found in mineral water. Sources of mineral water are most often in mountainous and hilly regions.

Although water covers three quarters of the world and adorns the skies in its gaseous form, the truth is water fit for human consumption is growing scarce. We all must take care to conserve and care for it as we do our greatest treasure: life.
Nevertheless, nature gives us a very special kind of water from the depths of the earth, one that has been enriched with the earth’s minerals and naturally purified through filtering during its journey underground.

Mineral water is water from a mineral source that contains various minerals, such as salts and sulfur compounds. Mineral water may be effervescent (i.e., “sparkling”) due to contained gases.

Traditionally, mineral waters were used or consumed at their sources. This was often referred to as “taking the waters” or “taking the cure.” Civilization eventually developed around these sources, and people used them for spas, baths, or wells. The term “spa” was a place where the water was used for soaking; “bath,” where the water was used primarily for bathing, therapeutics, or recreation; and “well,” where the water was to be consumed.

Mineral water comes from natural sources like wells, pure and rich in minerals. Unlike tap water that receives different treatments before human consumption, mineral water is bottled directly from the source, without adding any chemical elements. It only goes through a physical process of filtration to ensure maximum purity.

• Mineral waters can be classified according to their origin:
• Meteorological: Produced by rain, snow, and de-icing.
• Juvenile: Those that see daylight when surfacing.
• Fossil: Formed from sediments deposited on the sea floor.
• Mixed: Composed from a mixture of meteorological, juvenile, and fossil water.

Today it is far more common for mineral water to be bottled at the source for distributed consumption. Traveling to the mineral water site for direct access to the water is rare, and in many cases not possible because of exclusive commercial ownership rights. There are more than 3,000 brands of mineral water commercially available worldwide.

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Many millions of people in developing countries do not have access to clean drinking water and sanitation. In the countryside, people may be forced to use the same ponds, streams, rivers and lakes for drinking and for sewage. In cities, water supply and sewage systems are often inadequate and, in both cases, people may be exposed to serious illnesses such as malaria, cholera and yellow fever.

The United States has one of the safest public drinking water supplies in the world. Over 286 million Americans get their tap water from a community water system. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates drinking water quality in public water systems and sets maximum concentration levels for water chemicals and pollutants.

Sources of drinking water are subject to contamination and require appropriate treatment to remove disease-causing contaminants. Contamination of drinking water supplies can occur in the source water as well as in the distribution system after water treatment has already occurred. There are many sources of water contamination, including naturally occurring chemicals and minerals (for example, arsenic, radon, and uranium), local land use practices (fertilizers, pesticides, and concentrated feeding operations), manufacturing processes, and sewer overflows or wastewater releases.

The presence of contaminants in water can lead to adverse health effects, including gastrointestinal illness, reproductive problems, and neurological disorders. Infants, young children, pregnant women, the elderly, and people whose immune systems are compromised because of AIDS, chemotherapy, or transplant medications, may be especially susceptible to illness from some contaminants.

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In parts of the world that receive little rainfall, access to water can be difficult. In such areas, wells May be dug deep underground, or water can he piped from natural springs. Some countries even process seawater at a desalination plant. The seawater is heated, and only pure water evaporates. When it condenses, it is collected, leaving behind the salt in a concentrated form.

It has been the driest start to a summer in over 45 years in the UK. Yet, much of the country had water in reserve when it began, ensuring a continued safe supply for drinking and washing. Millions around the world are not that lucky: despite high rainfall, they go thirsty.

In some of the wettest countries in the world – where rainy days bring a lot more water than the 1248mm average that falls yearly in the UK, according to World Bank data – clean water is extremely hard to get, especially for those living in poverty.

Unlike the UK where it rains all year round, many of these countries face heavy rainfall in one season and severe drought in the next – both exacerbated by climate change – putting water resources under heavy strain.

In some regions, climate change is making water sources increasingly unreliable as flooding contaminates previously drinkable water. Yet, the problem is often not a physical lack of water: some places have significant underground reserves – known as ‘groundwater’ – because of abundant rainfall. Here, thirsty communities cannot get sufficient clean water because of a lack of investment in the infrastructure needed to deliver a reliable supply, indicating a lack of political prioritization.

“Not having clean water to drink is not, for most people, due to a lack of rain. For the one in nine people around the world – 844 million – who do not have clean water close to home it is usually because there is not enough investment in systems to ensure rainwater is captured, stored, treated and piped effectively.”

Papua New Guinea. The impacts of climate change – rising seas and extreme weather – have tainted groundwater, meaning that even though an average of 3055mm of rain falls each year, most of the water is unsafe to drink. The number of people with access to clean water close to home is decreasing: 4.83 million people (or 63 percent of the population) do not have clean water available within a half hour trip.

Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone is twice as wet as the UK with 2427mm of rain on average each year, yet, 4 out of 10 people (42%) lack basic access to clean water. The Ebola outbreak was aided by a lack of clean water as health centres and communities struggled to maintain the high hygiene standards needed to halt the spread of the virus.

Liberia. High on the list of the world’s wettest countries with 2421mm of rainfall on average each year, a third of the population remains without access to clean water, or 1.36 million people. Liberia is still recovering from two devastating civil wars that wiped out much of the country’s infrastructure and the 2014 Ebola outbreak demonstrates the urgency to rebuild. 8 in 10 people don’t have toilets and go out in the open, risking contaminating water sources, many of which are already at risk from industrial and mining pollution.

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Harmful bacteria that may cause serious diseases and death need to be removed from water before it can be used for domestic purposes. Dirt particles are removed because they can wear away pipes or damage industrial equipment.

Water purification, process by which undesired chemical compounds, organic and inorganic materials, and biological contaminants are removed from water. That process also includes distillation (the conversion of a liquid into vapour to condense it back to liquid form) and deionization (ion removal through the extraction of dissolved salts). One major purpose of water purification is to provide clean drinking water. Water purification also meets the needs of medical, pharmacological, chemical, and industrial applications for clean and potable water. The purification procedure reduces the concentration of contaminants such as suspended particles, parasites, bacteria, algae, viruses, and fungi. Water purification takes place on scales from the large (e.g., for an entire city) to the small (e.g., for individual households).

Most communities rely on natural bodies of water as intake sources for water purification and for day-to-day use. In general, these resources can be classified as groundwater or surface water and commonly include underground aquifers, creeks, streams, rivers, and lakes. With recent technological advancements, oceans and saltwater seas have also been used as alternative water sources for drinking and domestic use.

Clean water is essential for every human being, for drinking, cooking and other daily uses purposes like bathing, brushing, washing clothes etc. It not just makes our life healthier but also fulfills the hygiene purpose.

The regular tap water being supplied in your home might seem clear but possess various sorts of health-affecting bacteria and viruses such as fluorine compounds, chlorine, mercury, lead, pesticides and other types of waste particles.

And its consumption can lead to serious health issues, and sometimes the result can be massively harmful. As per the research contaminated water lead the diseases like- diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and polio, and is estimated to cause 502 000 diarrhea deaths each year.

Water is a limited resource which is chemically treated to obviate various types of harmful viruses or bacteria available in it, that makes approx. 1.1 million ill each year (according to the research) and this is the core reason why water purification is necessary. Since your family’s health is in your hand, you must be very careful with the kind of water they are consuming for their day to day uses.

Several sorts of chemicals and viruses in unfiltered water can increase the chances of some kind of cancer risks. Thus, eliminating these chemicals can help you get rid of such cancer risks. Besides that, pure water also keeps things moving in your digestive tract. It helps to push food through and get you healthy digestion.

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