Essay On Water Filter

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A water filter is a device which is utilised in order to remove debris from water by making use of a fine physcial barrier, chemical process and/or using a biological process. These filters are mainly used to clean water in order for it to be used for irritation, aquariums, swimming pools and of course, drinking water. With water purification all contaminants are removed from raw water sources. The water is produced for a specific reason with a treatment profile to limit the inclusion of specific materials. Generally water is purified in order to be safe for human consumption. Before water is used it goes through a number of treatments. Firstly, the water is pumped from its source into pipes of holding tanks. The water is then screened by means of physically removing large debris such as branches, sticks, leaves and trash. They need to be removed in order to prevent complications with further purification processes. Water from the river banks may also be stored in reservoirs for a few days or months in order to allow natural biological purification to take place. Many waters which are rich in hard salts are treated with sodium carbonate to force calcium carbonate out by using the common ion effect. Many waters are also chlorinated to diminish growth of pollution-causing organisms on the pipe-work tanks. Chlorine gas or Sodium Hypochlorite reacts with organic compounds within the water and this causes potentially harmful chemical by-products to form. Trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids which form are both carcinogenic in large quantities. Chlorine also does not kill gardia and cryptosporidium. Chlorine dioxide create excessive amounts of chlorate and chlorite and poses as an extreme risk in handling since it is an explosive gas. ... ... middle of paper ... ...ca has a very limited capacity to do anything about. South Africa is unfortunately water constrained and Endocrine disruptors are concentrating in our overloaded rivers and recycles throughout our society. The unchecked growth in numbers of babies being born with urogenital defects need to be prevented and the loss of male fertility countered. Some of the medication taken today has endocrine disrupting capabilities and the hormones, like oestrogen, progesterone etc, are not effectively removed by current sewage and water treatment processes which leads to feminised male animals. What is not known is the effects of anti-retroviral medication entering the river systems. Medication passes through the human body in a partially metabolized form and whether these partially metabolized Anti-retrovirals will have any detrimental effect on people is unknown. (Turton 2009)

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