Water Consumption And Treatment

Table of Contents

Remember to drink water every day for your well-being. Water helps prevent dehydration, which can lead to foggy thinking, mood swings, body overheating, constipation, kidney stones, and more.

Water allows your body to:

Maintain its temperature.
Support joint health.
Secure your spine and tissues.
Dispose of waste by urination, sweating, and bowel movements.

You consume more water if you’re:

In hot temperatures.
Being active.
Have a fever.
Losing fluids due to an upset stomach.

Hydration comes from water and liquids. You can also get some fluids through your food, particularly if you consume water-rich foods, which include most fruits and vegetables.

Tips to Drink More Water

Pack a water bottle with you and rehydrate throughout the day. Freeze some freezer-safe water bottles. Have one with you to enjoy cold water all day long. Substitute all your sugar-containing beverages with water. Drink water when dining out. You’ll pay less and consume fewer calories. Consume water as you eat your meal. Serve water with a slice of cucumber or some citrus. It will enhance the flavor and allow you to consume more water than you otherwise would.

Healthier Drink Options

There are many other beverages, of course, besides water, many of which are healthy for you. Drinks have different nutrients and calories.

Low or no-calorie beverages

Unflavored coffee or tea, carbonated water, and naturally flavored waters are all low-calorie beverages that can be included in a diet.

Calorie and nutrient-rich drinks

Fat-free or low-fat milk, fortified milk products such as unflavored soy or almond milks, and 100% fruit/vegetable juice provide calcium, potassium, or vitamin D. However, these should be consumed in moderation.

Other Beverages

Sugary drinks: Standard sodas, fruit juices, athletic drinks, sugary waters, sweetened coffee, and tea drinks have lots of calories and little nutrition.
Alcohol: Alcoholic drinks are very high in calories and bad for your health.
Drinks with caffeine: moderate caffeine intake (up to 400mg daily) can be part of a balanced diet. That amounts to 3-5 cups of coffee with no additives.
Drinks with sugar substitutes: Any drinks that say "sugar-free" or "diet" usually include high-fructose sweeteners, like sucralose, aspartame, or saccharine. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans suggest that switching added sugars with high-intensity sweeteners can cut calories in the short run. However, there’s still a question about their long-term effectiveness for weight loss.
Sports drinks: they are flavored drinks with added carbohydrates, minerals, electrolytes, and, at times, vitamins.

Personal Water Treatment

If your water supply pipe is damaged by a hurricane or flood, it can stop or make the water unsafe. In those cases, it’s a good idea to know how to avoid illness from contaminated water.

Don’t drink, wash dishes, brush your teeth, wash and prepare food, wash your hands, make ice, or make baby formula with water you know or suspect is unsafe.
Drink, cook, and clean with bottled, boiled, or filtered water.
Boil or treat water according to the directions for your state, county, or tribal health department.
Never use the water from radiators or boilers of your central heating system.
You need to know about places in and outside your house where you could have other sources of water that you can drink safely.

NOTE: Water that contains fuel, chemicals, or radioactive substances will not be safe for boiling or disinfection. Use packaged water or another water source if you believe your water may have any harmful contaminants. If you think your water has been tainted by fuel or chemicals, consult your city’s health department.

1. Boil

Don’t forget to subject your water to a boil prior to consumption if you don't have any packaged water. When you boil water, it destroys pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, and parasites. You can make boiling water more palatable by pouring it into another container and/or letting it sit for some time. You may also add salt to your water.

How to boil water:

If your water is murky, run it through a clean fabric or paper filter, or just let any debris settle. Then, collect the clean water and proceed as below:

Boil the clear water for 1 minute (if you’re at 6,500 feet or more, do it for 3 minutes).
Chill the water.
Keep the water in clean containers with tight lids.

2. Disinfect

Without safe packaged water and without the option of boiling, you can make small amounts of water safe by treating it with a chemical disinfectant, like common chlorine bleach, iodine, or tablets of chlorine dioxide.

Disinfectants get rid of pathogenic viruses and bacteria, but the vast majority of disinfectants are not as potent as boiling at eliminating resistant bacteria like the parasites Cryptosporidium and Giardia. Chlorine dioxide pills kill Cryptosporidium if you follow the manufacturer's directions. It’s useless to use a disinfectant if there is some kind of chemical or radioactive element in the water.

Disinfecting water with bleach

Bleach varies in potency. Before starting to disinfect water, be sure to read the label of the bleach you are using to determine its strength. In the US, unscented household liquid chlorine bleach should contain 5% to 9% sodium hypochlorite, though concentrations may vary elsewhere.

Instructions for water disinfection using bleach :

If your water is murky, run it through a clean fabric, paper towel, or coffee filter, or just let it settle. Then, collect the clean water and proceed as below:

Disinfect drinking water according to the bleach label.
If the label doesn’t tell you how to disinfect drinking water, search on the label under "active ingredient" to read the percentage of sodium hypochlorite. Then, take the data from the tables below as a reference. Apply the correct quantity of bleach using a dropper, teaspoon, or measure in mL.
Combine the mixture thoroughly.
Set aside for half an hour before drinking.
Keep the sanitized water in closed, sterile containers.

Here’s how to safely disinfect water with bleach that contains 5%–9% sodium hypochlorite (most prevalent in the US). If the water is unclear, colored, or extremely cold, use twice the amount of bleach given below.

For 1 quart/L of water	For 1 gal. of water	For 5 gal. of water
2 drops of bleach OR	8 drops of bleach OR	40 drops of bleach OR
0.1 mL of bleach OR	0.5 mL of bleach OR	2.5 mL of bleach OR
a very small amount (too little to measure)	less than ⅛ of a teaspoon	0.5 of a teaspoon

And here’s how to safely disinfect water with bleach that contains 1% sodium hypochlorite (most prevalent outside the US). If the water is unclear, colored, or extremely cold, use double the amount of bleach given below.

For 1 quart/liter of water	For 1 gal. of water	For 5 gal. of water
10 drops of bleach OR	40 drops of bleach OR	200 drops of bleach OR
0.5 mL of bleach OR	2.5 mL of bleach OR	12.5 mL of bleach OR
⅛ of a teaspoon	0.5 of a teaspoon	2.5 of a teaspoon

Disinfecting water with chemical tablets

When in need, you can clean the water with special tablets. These tablets are used by campers and backpackers, but also in other countries. They come in various sizes and are made to process particular amounts of water.

Use such pills to the label or package directions. Chlorine dioxide pills will destroy germs, such as Cryptosporidium if you use them as the label suggests.
Iodine, tablets containing iodine (tetraglycine hydroperiodide), or tablets containing chlorine kill the vast majority of germs but not Cryptosporidium.
Iodine-disinfected water is NOT suitable for pregnant women, thyroid-suppressed individuals, or people who are hypersensitive to iodine. Such water is also not for long-term use - you shouldn’t keep using it for more than several weeks.

3. Filter

There are many water filters that can filter out contaminating parasites from the water supply. When shopping for a water filter, Ideally, look for a filter with a pore size miniscule enough (absolute pore size 1 micron or less) to catch parasites like Giardia and Cryptosporidium. Also, remember this:

Portable water filters aren’t anti-viral, and portable filters, for the most part, don’t kill bacteria either.
Follow your water filter instructions carefully.
When the water has been filtered, add disinfectant to eliminate any remaining viral contaminants.

Other Methods

Ultraviolet Light (UV Light)

Some bacteria can be killed by UV light.
Portable UV lamps that produce a controlled amount of light can disinfect small volumes of otherwise clean water. UV radiation won’t penetrate murky water as tiny dirt particles can make germs less visible.
If your water is murky, run it through a clean fabric, paper towel, or coffee filter, or just let it settle. Then, collect the clean water and use the UV light.
Stick to the UV light’s manufacturer’s instructions for the best result.

Solar Disinfection

The sun can enhance the quality of water in times of emergency. This technique might help kill some germs in the water.

To disinfect water with the Sun, do the following:

Pour the clear water into sterilized and transparent plastic bottles.
Place the bottles on their sides and keep them exposed to sun rays for at least six hours if it’s sunny or even two whole days if it’s cloudy. Putting the bottles sideways helps the sun rays clean the water more easily.
Placing the bottles on something dark-colored will also speed the process along.

Industrial Water Treatment

Public water supply networks treat their water using various drinking water treatment methods. The treatment of water for public water systems generally involves the following steps.

Water treatment steps

Coagulation

Water treatment often starts with coagulation. During this process, chemicals charged with the positive charge are placed in the water. The positive charge disperses the negative charge of dirt and other particles. When this happens, the particles cling to the chemicals to make slightly bigger particles. This step usually uses chemicals of one sort or another, such as salts, aluminum, or iron.

Flocculation

Flocculation involves a slow stirring of the water to create larger particles known as flocs. Typically, water treatment facilities will put in more chemicals in this process to make the flocs.

Sedimentation

Sedimentation filters out solids. Flocs sink to the bottom during sedimentation because they weigh more than water.

Filtration

After flocs accumulate at the bottom, the clean water at the top is filtered to remove other suspended matter. Filtration: Clear water passes through filters of varying pore sizes and material composition (sand, gravel, charcoal). These filters catch suspended particles and germs, including dust, chemicals, parasites, bacteria, and viruses. Activated carbon filters also remove bad smells.

A process called ultrafiltration can be added to or used instead of filtration. When it happens, water passes through a membrane filter with very tiny pores. This membrane doesn't catch water and other microscopic molecules (like salts and microscopic charged molecules).

Another filtration technology that gets rid of additional debris is reverse osmosis. Reverse osmosis can be used by water treatment plants to treat recycled/reused water or salt water.

Disinfection

Once the water is filtered, water treatment facilities might inject one or more chemical disinfectants (chlorine, chloramine, chlorine dioxide) to destroy parasites, bacteria, or viruses. Water treatment plants ensure that water from the plant contains low levels of chemical disinfectant before it reaches consumers and businesses to ensure that the water is not harmful. That lingering disinfectant kills the bacteria that may live in the pipes that your water travels through before it gets to you.

Water treatment facilities can also disinfect water using ultraviolet (UV) light. It disinfects water at the plant, but those disinfections don’t continue to kill germs as water flows down the pipes from the treatment plant to your faucet.

Often, water treatment facilities also rebalance pH and supplement the water with fluoride after disinfection. The pH level can be changed to increase taste, prevent pipes from corroding (degrading), and let chemical disinfectants kill germs when the water is being delivered. Water that is fluoridated enough to keep teeth healthy and prevent cavities.

Disinfection using Chlorine and Chloramine

Water originates in a variety of bodies of water (lakes and wells), which can contain germs that could infect people. Two of the main disinfectants in municipal water supplies are chlorine and chloramine. You can check if your water is disinfected, which disinfectant was used, and how the rules on disinfection were adhered to by your utility by requesting a copy of their consumer confidence report.

The vast majority of communities use chlorine or chloramine. Others alternate chlorine and chloramine for different seasons of the year or for other functional reasons. Not so common, however, are other disinfectants, such as chlorine dioxide. Other systems that draw their water from a groundwater source (community wells, for example) don’t need a disinfectant at all.

Disinfection with Chlorine

What is Chlorination?

Chlorination adds chlorine to drinking water to kill harmful parasites, bacteria, and viruses. Small amounts of chlorine are safe and protect against waterborne diseases.

Are There Health Concerns with Chlorine?

Water companies monitor chlorine levels to ensure safe drinking water. Individuals sensitive to chemicals should consult their healthcare provider if concerned.

How Does Chlorine Affect Dialysis Patients?

Dialysis centers remove chlorine and chloramine from water before use. Home dialysis patients should follow manufacturer guidelines to treat their water properly.

What Are Safe Chlorine Levels in Drinking Water?

Chlorine levels up to 4 mg/L (4 ppm) are safe and unlikely to cause health issues.

Will Chlorine Change the Taste or Smell of My Water?

Chlorinated water may taste or smell different. Reactions vary based on individual preference, water quality, and chlorine levels.

Can Chlorine Affect My Pets?

Chlorine and chloramine are toxic to fish, aquatic animals, reptiles, and amphibians, as they absorb water directly into their bloodstream. To make water safe, let it sit out for a few days or use a pet-safe chlorine remover. Small amounts of chlorine are safe for mammals and birds.

Why Do Water Providers Temporarily Switch from Chloramine to Chlorine?

The EPA allows temporary switches from chloramine to chlorine to help remove biofilm (slime) that builds up in water pipes, making disinfection more effective.

Is Chlorine Treatment a New Method?

Chlorine has been used as a disinfectant in the U.S. since 1908, beginning in Jersey City, New Jersey. By 1995, about 64% of U.S. community water systems used chlorine for disinfection.

What Is Chloramination?

Chloramination adds chloramine (a combination of chlorine and ammonia) to drinking water to kill germs. The type used is monochloramine, which is added at levels safe for consumption.

Are There Health Concerns with Chloramine?

Studies show that drinking water with small amounts of chloramine (1.0–4.0 mg/L) is safe and effective against waterborne diseases. Some people may be more sensitive to chemicals, and those with concerns should consult their healthcare provider for guidance.

What Are Safe Levels of Chloramine in Water?

Chloramine levels up to 4 mg/L (or 4 ppm) are considered safe for drinking, with no expected harmful health effects.

Does Chloramine Affect Dialysis Patients?

Dialysis centers must remove chlorine and chloramine from water before use. Home dialysis users should consult their machine’s manufacturer for proper water treatment instructions.

Why Is My Water Provider Switching to Chloramine?

The EPA permits both chloramine and chlorine for water disinfection. Chloramine lasts longer in pipes and produces fewer by-products than chlorine, making it preferable for some water utilities.

Does Chloramine Affect Water’s Taste or Smell?

Water treated with chloramine may have a milder taste and smell than chlorine.

Does Chloramine Affect Lead or Copper in Drinking Water?

Chloramine can alter water’s chemical properties, potentially affecting lead and copper pipes. The EPA regulates these levels under the Lead and Copper Rule and offers guidance to local water authorities to help minimize lead and copper.

Does Chloramine Harm Pets or Plants?

Chloramine is toxic to fish, aquatic animals, reptiles, and amphibians, as they absorb water directly. Unlike chlorine, chloramine does not dissipate by sitting out, but pet stores offer products to remove it. Small amounts of chloramine do not harm mammals or birds and are safe for watering plants.

Is Chloramine Treatment New?

Chloramine has been used in U.S. water treatment since 1929 and is widely used in major cities. It’s recognized as a safe, effective alternative to chlorine.

Water treatment methods may vary

Water might be treated differently in different communities depending on its purity. The water entering the plant is almost always surface water or groundwater. Surface water is generally treated and filtered more heavily than groundwater since lakes, rivers, and streams have more sediment (sand, clay, silt, and other debris), germs, chemicals, and toxins than groundwater.

Water supplies can also be contaminated by radionuclides (small radioactive granules), chemicals (such as nitrates), or poisons (cyanobacteria, for example). Water treatment may also incorporate special techniques to manage or purge these pollutants.