Clean water – life depends on it!
"Pure water is the best of gifts that man to man can bring"
- Spectator, July 30, 1920
What's in a glass, a sink, a river full of water?... A refreshing drink... a cleansing wash... an invigorating swim... a home for plants, insects, fish, birds and mammals. It all depends on the water quality.
We tend to think of water in terms of a particular purpose: is the quality of the water good enough for the use we want to make of it? Water fit for own use may be unfit for another. We may, for instance, trust the quality of lake water enough to swim in it, but not enough to drink it. Along the same lines, drinking water can be used for irrigation, but water used for irrigation may not meet drinking water standards. It is the quality of the water which determines its uses.
Scientists, on the other hand, are interested in other aspects of water quality. To them quality is determined by the kinds and amounts of substances dissolved and suspended in the water and what those substances do to inhabitants of the ecosystem. It is the concentrations of these substances that determine the water quality and its suitability for particular purposes.
Drinking water, for example, is regulated by guidelines stringent enough to protect human health. Lack of such guidelines can lead to a variety of health problems. It has been estimated, for example, that contaminated water and poor sanitation cause 30 000 deaths around the world daily – the equivalent of 100 jumbo jets crashing every day!
Water is the lifeblood of the environment, essential to the survival of all living things – plant, animal and human – and we must do everything possible to maintain its quality for today and the future.
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