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The Importance Of Safe Drinking Water

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Introduction Water is known to many as the ‘elixir of life’ and is essential to the very existence of human life on Earth (Saunders, n.d.). It is thus imperative that water is made available to humans in an acceptable quantity and quality (Mohanty, 2006) at any given time. Visually, this may seem easy enough to achieve given water is present all around us in various forms and mediums (eg. rainwater). However, the crux of this problem lies in the fact that humans can only consume freshwater. Up to 97.5% of the water on Earth is saline water and out of this remaining 2.5%, only 30% is available readily in the form of groundwater and surface freshwater (refer to Fig 1.). Fig 1. Distribution of the World’s water supply. The impetus to seek …show more content…
Safe Drinking Water According to the World Health Organization (WHO), safe drinking water is defined as water with microbial, chemical and physical characteristics that meet WHO guidelines. WHO has developed a comprehensive framework (refer to fig. 3) for countries to follow to ensure drinking water safety. Fig. 3 WHO-designed framework in ensuring drinking water safety. In general, the WHO framework revolves around target-setting, forward planning and surveillance before deciding on the most appropriate application in order to achieve the goal of safe drinking water provision. While WHO’s framework just serves as a general guideline for countries to follow in their quest to provide safe drinking water, some countries have gone a step further by introducing laws that ensure high quality of drinking water is maintained. Countries that have implemented such laws include New Zealand with its’ Health (Drinking Water) Amendment Act passed in 2007 (Ministry of Health – Manatū Hauora, 2014) and United States’ Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) which was passed in 1974 (USEPA, …show more content…
According to the US Food and Nutrition Board, each individual’s reference daily intake (RDI) of drinking water ranges from 2.7 to 3.7 litres. Hence, each LifeStraw can provide approximately 100 days of safe drinking water to an individual. Its’ convenience is also unparalled as individuals can drink directly from any water source available using the LifeStraw.The relatively low unit cost of a Lifestraw which retails at US$19.95 also makes it accessible and affordable to most around the world in comparison to more large-scale and expensive

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