Unit four
Drinking water
treatment
, 4.1 Introduction
There are many impurities in the raw water
These impurities can be grouped into three categories:
Physical: materials that do not dissolve in water and make
the water appear "dirty"
Chemical: substances dissolved in the water from both
natural and man-made processes
Biological: viruses, bacteria, algae, and other small living
organisms.
, Is the drinking water that comes out of our tap "pure"?
No "Chemically pure" water, entirely free from any other materials,
does not exist in nature.
Distilled water, is usually flat and tasteless and few people enjoy
drinking it.
It would be prohibitively expensive and possibly unhealthy to purify
our entire water supply to that level.
"Natural water", free from any man-made additives, contains
concentrations of minerals such as Ca, Mg, and Fe which are
beneficial to human health in small quantities.
,
Drinking water
treatment
, 4.1 Introduction
There are many impurities in the raw water
These impurities can be grouped into three categories:
Physical: materials that do not dissolve in water and make
the water appear "dirty"
Chemical: substances dissolved in the water from both
natural and man-made processes
Biological: viruses, bacteria, algae, and other small living
organisms.
, Is the drinking water that comes out of our tap "pure"?
No "Chemically pure" water, entirely free from any other materials,
does not exist in nature.
Distilled water, is usually flat and tasteless and few people enjoy
drinking it.
It would be prohibitively expensive and possibly unhealthy to purify
our entire water supply to that level.
"Natural water", free from any man-made additives, contains
concentrations of minerals such as Ca, Mg, and Fe which are
beneficial to human health in small quantities.
,
