Introduction
Among the major concerns faced by urban dwellers currently is the supply of clean consumable and portable water to their businesses and households. This is due to the numerous opportunities of water contamination such as pesticide farm runoff, industrial waste, soil run off among others. Thus, the importance of water filtration processes in order to come up with safe consumable water.
Water moves in a cycle and this is usually the first filtration process. Water evaporates from water bodies such as rivers lakes and seas to go form clouds through condensation. The water falls in the form of rain and is infiltrated into the soil. Here, it merges with the ground water system. When it hits a block, it bubbles up to form waterways such as rivers and lakes then once again evaporation takes place and the process continues.
Water supplies in the United States are regarded as one of the safest worldwide by the United State Center for Disease Control and Prevention on their web page. However, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention later affirms that water can be contaminated and this happens decontamination should be done. Concerns highlighted by the organization are those of pathogens such as Giardia Intetinalis, Hepatitis A and Cryptosporidium among other pathogens, hence, showing the importance of proper water filtration. This report however focuses on water filtration processes with the agenda to supply clean water.
Materials and method used for filtration
Three tests were undertaken. The first test had the impurities laundry detergent, vinegar, and oil. There was also six beakers, water, natural soil, funnel, and cheesecloth. Water and the three different contaminants were all put in different beakers and the mixtures mixed. Later the mixtures were run through the funnel that had the cheesecloth lined into four layers and natural soil put on top of it. The results of each mixture were poured into the remaining three beakers.
The second experiment involved several 250ml beakers, potting soil, charcoal, gravel, sand, cheesecloth, funnel, bleach, and alum. 300ml of water was mixed in two beakers thoroughly. 10ml of this water was put aside for later comparison. The rest had alum put in it to balance its pH. Later the contaminated water was run through a funnel that had the cheese clothing in it below the funnel was potting soil followed by sand followed by charcoal then gravel all of 100ml. The water was again run through the funnel filter after it settled and bleach added to it to purify it further.
The third test was made up water from the first and second experiments and bottled water. All were put in three different beakers and three different experiments to determine the possibility of there being any living microbes in all three kinds of water.
Results
In the first experiment, all three impurities mixed with water apart from oil. Oil was easier to separate but the detergent and vinegar were not. For instance, the vinegar mixture had the vinegar scent even after filtration. In the second experiment, the filtration process gave a result of clean odorless water. The third experiment yielded different results for all the three kinds of water filtered via different means.
Discussion
In the first experiment, the presence of some vinegar odor after the filtration process clearly indicates that natural soil does not offer the best kind of filtration process as impurities remain after the filtration process is over.
The second experiment resulted in clean water. Alum was used to balance the waters pH thus making it favorable for human consumption and the bleach was utilized to eradicate any odors that there may be in the water. The filtration process involving the sand, charcoal, and gravel was meant to capture any unwanted impurities such as dirt particles. However, was this water 100% consumption worthy?
The third experiment which was the final yielded somewhat unexpected results. Ideologically, bottles water is considered much safer than piped water and was thus expected to pass the test. However, the test results made by the three test strips, proved otherwise. Bottled water did not pass all the three tests but neither did any of the other three tests.
This clearly shows that the impurities expected to be eradicated probably were such as in the case of bottled water but there still were other impurities that made the water not meet the 100% mark. These other impurities may be due to chemical spill outs, rainwater mixing with volcanic ash, fertilizer spill outs, or any other impurities.
Future research and filtration process should thus focus on the impurities that are already in the bottled water to identify what they are and thus be able to come up with a filtration process that will eradicate all the impurities and thus provide safe drinking water for the people.
Conclusion:
Safe drinking water currently is hard to come by, due to the various avenues through which water contamination can take place. Yet the importance of safe drinking water cannot be over emphasized. Much as the filtration processes undertaken should be improved in order to deliver more healthy consumable drinking water, it is also the responsibility of individuals; the community, corporations and everyone else to stop pollution of water or rather ensure our daily engagements do not contaminate water.
