What Is Contaminated Water: A Brief Discourse

For healthy living, we are often advised to drink 8 glasses of water a day. What if the weather effects, pollution, and lack of treatment make the physical changes to water? Well, no matter what’s the source of pollution, the presence of certain chemicals and microbes makes the water non-drinkable and makes it a concern for consumers to know what contaminated water is.

Flooding, run-off from everyone’s yard or nearby farms cause the fertilizers and other chemicals to contaminate the water by seeping into the ground or being washed away to nearby water sources. Here in this blog post, you will get to know what makes water contaminated and how to take necessary measures against it.

What are the different types of contaminants?

Water gets treated, while it is pumped through the mains and goes to the houses. Though it is supposed to be the clean water for consumption and use, there are major categories of contaminants that seep into the water, which are physical, chemical, biological and radiological. Read on this brief section below to know the types of contaminants found in the water-

Physical contaminants: Such contaminants are referred to things that change the physical nature of the water. The contaminants will include sediment suspension or soil erosion that affects the clarity of the water.

Biological contaminants: When living organisms like bacteria and parasites contaminate water, it causes waterborne diseases. 

Radiological contaminants: When an unbalanced number of neutrons, protons gets into the water, it causes radioactive water pollution. It is directly linked with cancer. However, if you are not living too close to a chemical plant, then there is nothing to worry about the release of the unstable chemicals in the ground or water supply.

Chemical contaminants: These contaminants are generally found in domestic and agricultural places where bleach, pesticides and fertilizers are in use. Moreover naturally occurring chemicals like chlorine and nitrogen can also contaminate water.

What are the Signs of contaminated water

Upon drinking the contaminated water, the health effects may not show up immediately. Moreover, other factors like physical condition, age, and health determine the actual effects of water pollution on our physical condition. However, drinking impure water can cause waterborne illnesses like nausea, diarrhea, and dehydration, stomach cramping and gastrointestinal problems. Here are a few signs to tell that the supplied water is contaminated-

• Cloudy appearance: Most of us get hard water in supply. As a result, the water contains a lot of minerals and other naturally occurring substances. However, safe and pure water shouldn’t come up in cloudy or tinted form. Hence, a right water filtration system is necessary to eliminate such a foamy appearance.

• Smell of chlorine: All public water treatment facilities add chlorine to kill bacteria. However, too much of anything is bad and so is the chlorine. Consumption of chlorine mixed water in high amounts can cause dehydration and intestinal distress.

• Metallic test: Pure water doesn’t have any taste at all. So, if you find any metallic taste, contact a specialist to test the quality of supplied water. Water with any taste means it contains substances like industrial chemicals, herbicides and pesticides, which shouldn’t be consumed.

• Sediments: Do you notice sediments in your tap water? Well, this happens due to rapture in the main water line or potential contaminants in the soil surrounding the pipe. Consuming such a water supply without proper filtration may cause health risks.

• Rusting silverware: Streaks of rust or brown spots are the indication that your tap water contains excessive iron and such issues reduce the lifespan of silverware. However, a proper water filter can eliminate such issues.

Mitigation and prevention:

For an affected individual, antiviral, antibacterial or anti-plastic medications are used depending on the nature of the diseases. However, common precautions are taken to maintain hygiene and stop the spread of any sort of ailments. It is also necessary to maintain personal hygiene to reduce waterborne diseases.

You should make sure that drinking water is filtered and purified. It is also necessary for communities to educate people about the risks and precautions of contaminated water accordingly. Besides, it is important to do mass recycling of water and carbon sequestration to combat environmental pollution. Natural water sources and land protection should be another strategy to fight climate change. On top of it, effective irrigation techniques must ensure optimal usage of water during farming.

So, when it comes to ensuring the tap water is safe and contaminant free, there must be a method to test the water. An experienced water filtration provider can perform the water tests for residential and commercial areas. It will let you know what is in the contaminated water and steps to improve the water quality. To get purified water for your home or business, a filter is necessary to install according to the usage. Swift Green Filters offers refrigerator water filters, commercial water filters, under sink filters using an advanced filtration method that uses 100% recyclable technology made of dried coconut shells.