Drinking water quality

Water is the most abundant liquid on the planet that makes up more than 75% of the Earth. In addition, it is the major constituents in the bodies of many organisms. It is important for life because it is a solvent, temperature buffer, metabolite, and a living environment that serves several functions. It has several chemical, physical, and biological properties that make it an important component of life among different species on the planet. Examples of these properties include solvency, buffering capabilities, and chemical reactivity. These properties make it more important to living organisms than all other liquids. Some of its uses in organisms include digestion, transportation, elimination of waste materials, and metabolism.

Drinking water is an essential part of staying healthy and hydrated. It is recommended that adults drink at least 8 glasses or 2 liters of water per day, although this may vary depending on factors such as body weight, physical activity level, and climate.

Drinking water helps to regulate body temperature, lubricate joints, transport nutrients and oxygen to cells, and remove waste from the body through urine and sweat. It is also important for maintaining healthy skin and reducing the risk of certain health conditions, such as kidney stones and constipation.

It is important to drink clean and safe water to avoid waterborne illnesses. Some ways to ensure the safety of drinking water include boiling it, using water filters, and drinking bottled water from a trusted source. Additionally, it is important to stay hydrated throughout the day, especially during periods of physical activity or high temperatures.

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Safe and readily available water is important for public health, whether it is used for drinking, domestic use, food production or recreational purposes. Improved water supply and sanitation, and better management of water resources, can boost countries’ economic growth and can contribute greatly to poverty reduction.

In 2010, the UN General Assembly explicitly recognized the human right to water and sanitation. Everyone has the right to sufficient, continuous, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic use.

Contaminated water and poor sanitation are linked to transmission of diseases such as cholera, diarrheas', dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid and polio. Absent, inadequate, or inappropriately managed water and sanitation services expose individuals to preventable health risks. This is particularly the case in health care facilities where both patients and staff are placed at additional risk of infection and disease when water, sanitation and hygiene services are lacking. Globally, 15% of patients develop an infection during a hospital stay, with the proportion much greater in low-income countries.

Inadequate management of urban, industrial and agricultural wastewater means the drinking-water of hundreds of millions of people is dangerously contaminated or chemically polluted. Natural presence of chemicals, particularly in groundwater, can also be of health significance, including arsenic and fluoride, while other chemicals, such as lead, may be elevated in drinking-water as a result of leaching from water supply components in contact with drinking-water.

Some 829 000 people are estimated to die each year from diarrheas' as a result of unsafe drinking-water, sanitation and hand hygiene. Yet diarrheas' is largely preventable, and the deaths of 297 000 children aged under 5 years could be avoided each year if these risk factors were addressed. Where water is not readily available, people may decide handwashing is not a priority, thereby adding to the likelihood of diarrhoea and other diseases.

Diarrheas' is the most widely known disease linked to contaminated food and water but there are other hazards. In 2017, over 220 million people required preventative treatment for schistosomiasis – an acute and chronic disease caused by parasitic worms contracted through exposure to infested water.

In many parts of the world, insects that live or breed in water carry and transmit diseases such as dengue fever. Some of these insects, known as vectors, breed in clean, rather than dirty water, and household drinking water containers can serve as breeding grounds. The simple intervention of covering water storage containers can reduce vector breeding and may also reduce faucal contamination of water at the household level.