Safe Drinking Water - The Fundamental Need

Safe drinking water is the potable water that can be consumed by human but unluckily one out of every six individual does not have access to safe drinking water.

 

Water with food and shelter is the fundamental need of human. Because of inadequate clean drinking water, about 1.8 million people die of water borne diseases like diarrhea, cholera etc. These disease can be prevented by providing safe drinking water through water treatment plant.

 

According to the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation (JMP) definition for safe drinking water and basic sanitation is as follow:

 

Drinking water is used for drinking, domestic, cooking and personal hygiene purposes.

 

The source of access to drinking water should be within 1 km of it point of use. Per day per member of a house should get at least 20 liters of safe drinking water.

 

Safe drinking water should meet the microbial, chemical and physical characteristics as set by WHO or national standards on drinking water quality.

 

The number of people using improved drinking water sources is connected to the access to safe drinking water.

 

Cost, quality, quantity and reliability are the four basic characteristics of drinking water on which safe drinking water can be graded. Hence it should fit into all the four parameters.

 

Quantity of Safe Drinking Water
According to the United Nations (UN) 20-50 liters of safe drinking water is required by an individual in a day. This water can be used for drinking, sanitation, cooking and for personal hygiene purposes.
Quality of Safe Drinking Water
Quality of safe drinking water is defined by the WHO and other allied organization that are followed across the world with each country having its own drinking water standards. These regulations define the limit of chemicals, microbes etc in drinking water. If the limit of any one of the said chemical or microbe is more than the prescribed limit then that water is not safe for drinking purposes. Industrial activities, human and animal waste, agricultural runoffs, and other natural pollutants pollutes the water and make it unsafe for drinking purposes. For this it is necessary to take action to protect the safe drinking water. For this the sewage treatment plant and different water treatment processes are followed.

 

Reliability of Safe Drinking Water
Water from different sources come with varied reliability. The reliability of safe drinking water changes with season, rain fall, location and year. Like monsoon season means more water whereas summer means less water. Same goes with the quantity of safe drinking water in lakes and rivers that vary with season and locations. Some lakes remain green through out the year whereas some may go dry with the change in season. Also these natural resources of water are drying up with the overuse of water. So reliability of safe drinking water is necessary to fulfill the demand of water.

 

Cost of Safe Drinking Water
As per the World Health Organization (WHO) the safe drinking water should be available to the people withing 1 KM from the place where they will use it through water distribution systems. The cost is both monitory and also measured by taking the traveling time into account. Some people pay money to the distributors for supplying them water and other people purchase clean drinking water in the form of bottled water.