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Water and Water Contaminants


Water is an essential commodity to life. In fact, water is life, and a clean portable water is wealth.

No human or animal can survive without water for a very long period of time, no matter the alternative available to such individual. It is believed that about 70% of our body mass is made up of water and also that water occupied most part of the earth than dry land. The availability of water do not mean water will be available for usage, many people live in the mist of water and yet they lack water to drink, not because there is no water but, because the available water is in an undesirable state. In order to solve this problem man devised a means to treat water, to make available water useful.


Water treatment employed various methods or techniques to treat water to a desired purpose. These methods or technologies varied from simple method to complex method depending on the desired purpose whether for domestic or industrial or agricultural purpose or otherwise. From time immemorial, man have been in the business of treating available water to meet a particular purpose. As time passed by new methods were developed, with the rise in human population water have became a scare commodity and is becoming more expensive, it is projected that water treatment will soon become the largest industrial business on earth as population increases.


Sources of water and water contaminants.

On earth there are various sources of water, and this include the following;

1. Rain water

2. Streams

3. River

4. Lake

5. Ocean

6. Sea

7. Spring water

8. Underground water.




Your source of water can be any of the above, but, non gives the assurance that this water will be suitable for all purpose you intends to use water for. Water usually contain so many undesirable contaminants and minerals dissolved in it in various concentration that can either be harmful or beneficial to humans and animals when consumed. These substances in water also varies with location, sea water and water from swampy areas usually have high salinity, industrial area with high iron concentration. 

Some heavy metals such as lead, mercury, arsenic, too find their way into water either through mining activities and this serve as a source of water poisoning. Some of these dissolved substances such as Calcium are also beneficial to humans and animals when consumed in the right proportion, situations where these dissolved substances exceeded the right proportion, treatment will be applied to correct the imbalances. 

Our water body also contains a variety of micro organisms in various proportion. These biological contaminants can either be pathogenic or non pathogenic, also depending on location and exposure and also the activities of man close to the source of water. These micro organisms can either be protozoans, bacteria, fungi, viruses, or parasites, examples are Escherichia coli, Rota virus, Crytosporidum, Salmonella typhi. All these must be considered before designing the type and method of treatment.


World Health Organization(WHO), EPA and other sister agencies played a very important role in setting standard for water both for domestic and industrial use. This standard serve as a guide to those treating water in large quantity for commercial or industrial purposes.

To achieve this set standard various water treatment methods and water testing methods and equipments were developed. Some of these water treatment methods employed the use of some certain chemicals, these chemicals help to bring about the desired result when use in the right way and in the right concentration. Some water treatment method make use of a single chemical while some make use of two or more chemicals in combination depending on the level of contaminants and the desired result, some of these chemicals are also very effective in control and elimination of micro organisms from contaminated water. 

Having discussed chemical and biological contaminants in water, it will not be enough, if we do not discuss about physical contaminants. While chemical and biological contaminants may not be seen with our naked eyes, physical contaminants very noticeable with our naked eyes and are easily remove from water with little efforts unlike the chemical and biological contaminants that required specialized methods. Physical contaminants can be chips, log of wood or plastic e.t.c. they are usually large in size.




Table 1. Shows Water Contaminants





What are the effects of water contaminants


These contaminants whether biological or chemical or physical have either positive or negative effects on our water body and on humans and animals. On our natural water body they cause harmful and unpleasant conditions such as change in the colour of water, odour, off taste, e.t.c.

Water contaminants also have beneficial and harmful effects on humans and animals when consumed.


Harmful Effects

1. Sicknesses, these contaminants can cause sickness if consumed. Example Salmonella typhi

2. Poisons, these contaminants can cause food poisoning such as lead and mercury poison

3. Can result in rashes and infections

4. Economic loses, hard water for example affect laundry and industrial machines

5. Make water treatment very expensive

6. Death in severe cases such as cholera.


Beneficial Effects of water contaminants, water supplies the human and animal body with essential minerals if consumed in the right proportion.


Types of Water

1. Hard water

2. Soft water

3. Distilled water

4. Deionized water

Water can be classified base on their nature as shown above or base on their source as shown below.

1. Rain water

2. Sea water

3. Lake water

4. Ocean water

5. Underground water

6. River

7. Spring water


Hard water is water that contain calcium and magnesium salt, while soft water do not contain calcium and magnesium. Hard water is good for the body as a source of calcium for strong bones and teeth, while soft water is good for machines and laundry.




Uses of Water

Water is very essential to live here on earth, living things cannot survive without water. Water have both domestic, industrial and agricultural uses. Below are some of uses of water

1. For drinking

2. For laundry

3. Bathing

4. For farming

5. For food processing

6. For machine use

7. For transportation

8. Fire fighting

9. For building houses







Mycleanwater Nigeria is a registered business name in Nigeria, we are into water treatment and domestic water treatment plant installation and services

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