How Far The Clean Supply Water Is Safe?
The water that City Corporation or Municipal Authority produces comes from either surface water source (e.g. rivers or lakes) or ground water source (e.g. wells). Water from these sources is treated to remove impurities and reducing the risk of the transmission of water borne diseases. This is done to make it fit for industrial and domestic consumption. The water treatment process includes raw water intake, flocculation, sedimentation, filtration and disinfection. The water leaving the filter flows to the clear well where it is disinfected and stored. Chlorine is added to the water to remove and destroy any bacteria or viruses present in the water.
Chlorine is used for cleaning, disinfecting and killing disease causing germs. It does a wonderful job of removing pathogens from the water. However, the use of chlorine raises a serious health concern. Recently, it has been reported (https://food evolution. org/blog/ chlorine-water-harmful/) that the cancer risk of people who drink chlorinated water is up to 93% higher than those whose water does not contain chlorine.
When chlorine was first introduced to the water supply, it brought a rapid reduction in the spread of diseases like cholera, dysentery and typhoid. At present Chlorination is the most common water treatment method worldwide. But now it seems that this advancement has come at a price. Chlorine is used in public water supply to combat infectious waterborne diseases, but it may be doing more harm than good. Chlorine oxidizes lipid contaminants in the water. It creates oxysterols
and free radicals. It combines with organic impurities in the water to make trihalomethanes (THMs) or chloramines. These are carcinogens, even in small amounts.
People inhale chloroform every time they take warm shower in hot chlorinated water. There is increase in chloroform consumption in bather’s lungs of about 2.7 ppb after 10 minutes shower. Worse, warm water causes the skin to act like a sponge so that more chlorine is absorbed during a 10 minute shower than by drinking eight glasses of the same water. This water irritates the eyes, sinuses, throat, skin, lungs, dries the hair, scalp and thus weakensss immune system of human body (https://www.wddty.com/magazine/2004/february / chlorine-on-top-dont-drink-it.html).
The health concerns involving chlorine include:
1. Heart attacks,
2. Tiredness, dizziness or headaches,
3. Eye, sinus and throat irritation,
4. Less sperm production,
5. Risk of miscarriage,
6. Asthma,
7. Damaging hair cuticle,
8. Skin rashes, headaches, gastrointestinal difficulties and arthritis,
9. Liver problems,
10. Drying out of hair and scalp,
11. Indoor pollution,
12. Abortions, stillbirth and
13. Kidney problems ( www.mercola.com/downloads/bonus/chlorine/default.htm ).
Chlorine plays an important role in protecting water from harmful pathogens. In case it is not filtered out, it can also do a lot of harm to our health. If we want to remove chlorine from water, the most low-tech solution is to fill a glass water bottle with tap water. Let it sit in the refrigerator open to the air for a day. During that time, the chlorine will evaporate. Water may be boiled 20 minutes with lid open to remove chlorine.
Water supplied by public distribution system needs to be free from pathogenic organisms that cause such illness as typhoid, dysentery, cholera, gastroenteritis and at the same time it should also be free from chlorinated by- products ,which can increase the risk of cancer. In order to reducing the public health risk of chlorinated byproducts (CBPs) in supply water, regulations must be enforced for implementation to lower the concentration .The common methods include adsorption on activated carbon, coagulation with polymer, alum, lime or iron sulfate to lower the concentration of CBPs in supply water .