There are a few simple methods that are used to purify water at home. These are regular daily activities, and by carrying out one or more of them, it's possible to achieve certain levels of safety as far as domestic drinking water is concerned.
Boiling
Water is host to many dangerous pathogens, bacteria and parasites. Experts advise that it should be boiled from one minute to five minutes, depending upon the height of the location from the sea level. Boiling water makes it taste bland, though, due to the removal of oxygen. In order to avoid this, water can be put in a bottle and shaken well or poured back and forth between two containers.
Distillation
This method can be used to acquire freshwater out of saltwater. It removes metals, hardness, and particulates and also kills microorganisms. In this process of purification, water is heated, vaporized, cooled and converted back to liquid. The pollutants that remain behind in the boiling chamber should be regularly flushed or cleaned by scrubbing or application of acid. The bright side of drinking distilled water is that it's free of toxic organic compounds and heavy metals. However, it also can't be denied that distillation removes most of the natural minerals and makes it taste bland.
Disinfecting drinking water
The solar water disinfection (SODIS) method is a simple yet an effective means of disinfecting water. Household bleach, chlorine, iodine, potassium permanganate and granular calcium hypochlorite are the chemicals that are generally used for sanitizing water and to make it safe for drinking. Such chemical purifiers are available in liquid as well as tablet forms.
Filtration
Soil and sand are natural filters and purifiers. Rinsing the water repeatedly through sand until it looks clear makes water free of particles but not of bacteria. Soil too acts as a filter by removing sediment and other pollutants. Oxygen in the soil filter aerates the wastewater and fuels the microbes to break down pollutants.
Water can also be simply filtered by straining through a cloth. But this does not remove bacteria, foul gases or tiny particulates.
Domestic filters made up of porcelain, clay and earth and molded into candles or cylinders are good and effective. But the cylinder or candle can get worn-out by constant cleaning and may become inefficient gradually. The candle should be sterilized by boiling every third day which may come across as a hassle. Charcoal or ceramic filters are very useful too, but the problem with them is that they may get clogged and must either be cleaned or replaced.
Modern means of filtration
Nowadays, there are different brands and varieties of commercial filters available in the market, like the sophisticated reverse osmosis (RO) systems and the whole house ultraviolet sterilizer (UV) systems. Modern market also has a wide variety of whole-house sediment and carbon filters to tackle any water filtration needs as well as an innovative low-cost iron reduction filter that removes iron, manganese, and hydrogen sulfide odor.
In addition to these, it is also advised that the mineral water sold in bottles and jars in Kathmandu should always be boiled and filtered. These are just small ordinary things. But if we pay heed to them, we might be saving ourselves and others from a whole lot of diseases and the troubles that impure water brings along with it.
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