Potable water is a necessity.

Water is very important for every living organisms. In fact necessary. The quality of life that one lives is highly dependent on the quality of water at one's disposal. Unfortunately, availability of potable water remains a mirage in most parts of Nigeria.

I grew up in a rural area where the available sources of water were not clean, yet the people had no choice than to consume it like that. When I was in secondary school in my hometown, my cousins and I would wake up as early as 4 am to go and queue for water. All we had around us were wells. All except one were open wells. Any day we fetched from the open well, the water would serve as laundry and cleaning water. We could use it to cook too. When we were able to fetch from the well with cover, the water would be stored for drinking. Sachet water was luxury.

There were repercussions for all these. Of course, hospitals had many visitors as a result of water related ailments. The situation has improved slightly over the years with the construction of boreholes.

Water pollution is a major problem. A few years ago, I conducted research on removal of nickel and chromium ions from wastewater using Nigerian bentonite clay. I sourced the water from a stream in an industrial town. Villagers living close to the stream far away from the town that host the industry drink from the water. The analysis of the water showed me that there was the presence of the heavy metals above the acceptable minimum concentration. The clay was able to achieve more than 80% efficiency in removing the ions.

You can imagine how people drink water that has grievous effects on their health. Should we blame them? I don't think so. They were just making do with what they have.

Currently, I live in the city and I can say that the situation is just a little better than the village. Clean water is scarce and wherever you have it available, it's unaffordable to the low income earners. The most popular source of drinking water is sachet water. It is popularly called pure water because most people believe that it is in pure form. However, many water factories compromise the production standard. Bottle water is better but the affordability remains the challenge.

I make use of two water sources in my house; the borehole and sachet water. We use the borehole water for laundry and cooking while we drink the sachet water.

On rare occasions that I drink the borehole water, I boil it and allow it to cool before drinking. I have a few sachet water brands that I have tested and trusted. I don't buy water from random companies because there are a lot of fake ones out there.

The process of water purification includes coagulation, sedimentation, decantation, filtration, chlorination etc. All of these steps are very important. This is why the production of potable water is a serious business that shouldn't be compromised.

In the event that one has no other option than to purify water at home, you should make sure that the water is boiled and properly filtered. Boiling it would help to kill the germs to a greater extent.

One should be deliberate in making sure that you take in the purest form of water you can afford into your system. Drinking clean and potable water is far cheaper than visiting a hospital to cure water related ailments.

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