Clean Water Filters

Water filters are used in many countries. In Africa many places have dirty water – if you are drinking this water you will want to filter it first. Clean water is going to become more and more scarce, if it is not already so. With much of the world without good water it has been predicted that wars will be fought over clean water resources. If you have a good water source such as municipal water it is still a good idea to filter your water. In Gauteng the ground water is contaminated with heavy metals and other chemicals. This is from the mining that has taken place over the last 100 or so years. A good water filter will also remove scale – usually from lime deposits – you will see it in your kettle.

Facts about water.

Fact 1 Water scarcity occurs even in areas where there is plenty of rainfall or freshwater. How water is conserved, used and distributed in communities, and the quality of the water available can determine if there is enough to meet the demands of households, farms, industry and the environment. Fact 2 Water scarcity affects one in three people on every continent of the globe. The situation is getting worse as needs for water rise along with population growth, urbanization and increases in household and industrial uses. Fact 3 Almost one fifth of the world’s population (about 1.2 billion people) live in areas where the water is physically scarce. One quarter of the global population also live in developing countries that face water shortages due to a lack of infrastructure to fetch water from rivers and aquifers. Fact 4 Water scarcity forces people to rely on unsafe sources of drinking water. It also means they cannot bathe or clean their clothes or homes properly. Fact 5 Poor water quality can increase the risk of such diarrhoeal diseases as cholera, typhoid fever and dysentery, and other water-borne infections. Water scarcity can lead to diseases such as trachoma (an eye infection that can lead to blindness), plague and typhus. If you are drinking local water in Africa you MUST use a water filter or water purifies. Fact 6 Water scarcity encourages people to store water in their homes. This can increase the risk of household water contamination and provide breeding grounds for mosquitoes – which are carriers of dengue fever, malaria and other diseases. Fact 7 Water scarcity underscores the need for better water management. Good water management also reduces breeding sites for such insects as mosquitoes that can transmit diseases and prevents the spread of water-borne infections such as schistosomiasis, a severe illness. Water filters are a method to clean the water. Fact 8 A lack of water has driven up the use of waste water for agricultural production in poor urban and rural communities. More than 10% of people worldwide consume foods irrigated by waste water that can contain chemicals or disease-causing organisms. Fact 9 Millennium Development Goal number 7, target 10 aims to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. Water scarcity could threaten progress to reach this target. Fact 10 Water is an essential resource to sustain life. A water purifier is essential. As governments and community organizations make it a priority to deliver adequate supplies of quality water to people, individuals can help by learning how to conserve, water filter and protect the resource in their daily lives.