Water borne diseases

“Water is life, and clean water means health”.

 We often heard this kind of statement for the importance of water. But have we ever tried to dig out the need of clean water in our life? This question is still open to the world including us that how we preserve the precious gift of water that God has bestowed us.

Here we should inculcate the importance of clean water and alarming condition of water borne disease which has made the lives of human being worthless.

Waterborne diseases are illnesses caused by drinking water contaminated typically by human or animal feces that enter the water along different ways.

 Waterborne diseases are caused by pathogenic microorganisms – viruses, bacteria, protozoa, or intestinal parasites. 

Drinking contaminated water and food is the most common way for a person to acquire serious pathogens that can cause waterborne diseases such as cholera, giardia, hepatitis A, salmonella, noro virus, and typhoid fever.

According to the UN water development report 2017, today, 2.1 billion people in the world do not have adequate access to potable drinking water services and 4.5 billion people lack safely managed sanitation services. 

Unsafe hygiene practices are widespread, compounding the effects on people’s health. The impact on child mortality rates is devastating with more than 340 000 children under five who die annually from diarrhoeal diseases due to poor sanitation, poor hygiene, or unsafe drinking water – that is almost 1000 per day.

According to the U.N, after every 15 second a child dies due to water related disease. Nearly 20 million people worldwide die each year of waterborne diseases.

 Approximately one-half of all of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from diseases associated with lack of access to potable water, poor sanitation, and inadequate hygiene. 

The situation is same all around the world . In this miserable condition we need to plan a practical cost effective solutions for water borne disease as we know that  plans to protect water is in fact plans to protect man. 

The way to clean water is the most crucial need of the hour to control water born disease .Here we would state some of the useful and less costly way to make water drinkable.

 Boiling the water is the oldest yet effective way to clean water for drinking purpose.Boil water for 5 minutes to be sure all bacteria is dead.Boiling water will not remove minerals,solids, or metals in the water.

 Distill is yet another effective way to remove water from bacteria,metals,minerals and other solids.

 Distillation will remove bacteria, viruses, heavy metals, radionuclides, organics, inorganics, and particulates, leaving all chemicals, toxins and waste behind and creating pure, clean water.

Essentially, distillation entails boiling the water to produce vapor, leaving behind any and all contaminants, which have a higher boiling point than H20. Once the water entirely vaporizes, that vapor is put into a clean container where it condenses back into pure water. So merely boiling the water will not distill it, it will only potentially remove few toxins.

 Iodine tablets or chlorine drops are effective at killing bacteria in the water but may result in an undesirable taste.but when it comes to the safety of life then taste should not matter. Water purification tablets are lightweight and are effortless to carry in the bag even.Moreover there is no need for any special tool for the usage of the purification tablet as it only needs a container to purify the water.Fuel, electricity or fire is not necessary to successfully use the pills.

 Ultraviolate pens kill any bacteria in the water.simply insert the bulb into the water,agitate for the specified amount of time and your water is safe to drink.

 Filters for camping come in all shapes and sizes. Most are  small enough for backcountry use. These filters usually use a ceramic and carbon-based system to clean and purify your water.

 Unlike other filtration methods, slow sand filters use biological processes to clean the water, and are non-pressurized systems. Slow sand filters do not require chemicals or electricity to operate . it is preferable as Using slow sand filters does a limited bacteria removal but can produce very high quality water free from pathogens, taste and odor without the need for chemical aids.

By adopting these solution to prevent water borne disease could be very useful especially in the backcountry.Beside that we should also aware public about the symptom of these water borne disease.

In a nutshell,water is the key foundation whose importance can hardly be overestimated and we must adhere to the mission of clean drinking water to save the world!