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Water
From TipThePlanet
Water is a chemical compound of hydrogen and two oxygen ions.
- It is very essential to life. The human body needs 1-1.5 liters waters daily to function properly. But water is also used in the home an in industry and agriculture. Water consumption varies considerably throughout the world. In most of the European countries the daily consumption per head of population is about 200 liters. In some urban areas of the USA the figure can be as high as 500 liters. In developing countries, on the other hand, some countries manage with less than 12 liters per person, per day.
- It is a transparent, odorless, and tasteless kind of liquid.
- Water on Earth continually moves through precipitation and evaporation.
- It is the vital and most important to any forms of life.
Contents |
[edit] Vital Uses
- For drinking
- For industrial uses
- For cooking and food processing
- For fire extinguishing
- For agricultural purposes
- For chemical purposes
- For washing any kind of thing
[edit] Types of Water
- Sea water
- Fresh water
- Waste water
- Potable water
- Distilled water
[edit] Demands and resources
- Domestic water consumption is on the increase, but industry put the greatest demand on water supplies. It takes 300kg of water to produce 1kg of finished steel, although some of this is returned to the source. The total average of water consumption in European city - domestic, commercial and industrial - maybe as high as 2,000 liters per head. The demand for agriculture can be even greater. To produce 1kg of wheat a farmer requires up to 1,500kg of water from rain, irrigation or both.
[edit] Collection and storage
- Water is normally collected from underground sources by drilling and pumping. The old farmhouse well and bucket provide an example of extraction of flowing groundwater by the simple expedient of digging until the natural table water is reached. In case of trap "fossil" water, sometimes found under deserts, the water is not replaced by natural flow and the process of removing it is a form of mining - the extraction of limited resources. Deep-lying water under pressure can be tapped by the bore-hole of an artesian well, in which the water is forced up the bore without the need for pumping.
[edit] Water purification
- Natural water, other than the rain, is rarely pure.Rivers in peaty moorland pick up traces of organic acids. Groundwater takes up mineral salts, including common salt (up to 0.1% makes water unacceptably "hard") and fluorides (amount above 0.0001%, are said to reduce tooth decay).
- The principal processes of water treatment are sedimentation, filtration, aeration and sterilization.
- Sedimentation is merely settling, carried out by water to stand in large, shallow basins; solid particles sink slowly to the bottom.
- Filtration is carried out by passing water through a sand bed - 100m by 40m is a typical size.
- Aeration (usually affected by passing water over a cascade) increases the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water, reduces the carbon dioxide content by as much as 60% and aids natural inorganic purification by aerobic bacteria.
- Sterilization (killing harmful micro-organism) is achieved, where bacteriological pollution has been high, by the addition of small quantities of chlorine or ozone. A dose of 1-2mg chlorine per liter rapidly destroys all bacteria.
[edit] Water Tips
[edit] External Links
- See Water
- See also Functions of water
