Another Day, Another Refreshing Drink

https://www.flickr.com/photos/hdptcar/797326075

( I built upon this image )

What is it?

      Would you want to drink contaminated water? Well, A Lot of people don't actually know or understand what water pollution is and that's why I am here to tell you. Water pollution mainly comes around when harmful chemicals or microorganisms contaminate rivers, streams, oceans, lakes, or any other body of water. This usually comes as a result of human activity. The sources mainly come from waste water which comes from domestic/industrial processes, leakage from sewer lines, burning fossil fuels, mining activities, oil pollution, river dumping, marine dumping, radioactive substances, and agriculture pollution. Water contamination is also a big deal, about 2 billion people use a drinking water source that is contaminated and this is a big problem we need to fix.

Consequences

   There are numerous consequences that affect your health from your drinking water if it contains unsafe levels of contaminants. It can cause serious health effects like gastrointestinal illnesses, nervous system or reproductive effects, and chronic diseases like cancer. Some of the waterborne diseases you can also get are Typhoid, Cholera, paratyphoid fever, dysentery jaundice, amoebiasis, and malaria. Chemicals in the water have negative effects on our body’s health. Pesticides usually can damage the nervous system and that's what can cause cancer because of the carbonates and organophosphates that they hold. Waterborne diseases are a big problem coming from water contamination. Why? Well, water borne diseases are illnesses caused by microscopic organisms, like viruses and bacteria, which are ingested through the contaminated water.

What can we do?

       Don't you think water pollution is a big problem? Me too, and well it doesn't matter how old you are you can still help just by doing small things such as, picking up litter and throwing it away in the garbage or recycling bin, blow or sweep fertilizer back onto the grass if it gets into paved areas, mulch or compost grass or yard waste, wash your car or outdoor equipment so it can flow to a gravel or grass area instead of the street, and don't pour your motor oil down the storm drain, take it to the nearest auto part store, its free. Keep your water clean, you can sweep sidewalks and driveways to prevent debris from hard surfaces getting into storm drains, leave an unmowed buffer next to streams and lakes to filter the pollutants that get carried away, flush responsibly by only flushing toilet paper and not pill bottles, medicine, auto fluids, etc., use the trash and not the drain, throw out any fats, grease and especially hygiene products to prevent having clogged pipes.

Solution

        I have been thinking about my solution and my idea is to use a paper filter specifically REEVE Angel paper filters. You basically take a plastic water bottle and cut it as if it was a funnel. Then wrap the filter around the lid and pour your contaminated water through. I have tested three filters: a coffee filter, the REEVE filter and the WHATMAN filter paper. As known the REEVE paper won and that's what I used for my experiment. I have several written papers on how I can create my own paper filters too if that's necessary. Here is a link to a video of me and my partner doing our paper filter experiment.

IMPORTANT: World Water day  ( #Water2Me) is a very important day and is on March 22 and began in 1993. This day means alot to me mostly because of how much we are working on for our environment and one of my favorites is valuing our water source. Which means all water is generated by ecosystems and all of the water we take for human use eventually goes back to the environment with the contaminants they have added. It's amazing how much you can do on this day. 

My Sources!

EPA “Drinking Water” Sep 11, 2018

https://www.epa.gov/report-environment/drinking-water#:~:text=If%20drinking%20water%20contains%20unsafe,chronic%20diseases%20such%20as%20cancer.

Melissa Denchak “ Water pollution, everything you need to know” May 14th, 2018

https://www.nrdc.org/stories/water-pollution-everything-you-need-know

Aria Bendix March 27th, 2020 “Cities with the most contaminated tap water in the US”

https://www.businessinsider.com/cities-worst-tap-water-us-2019-3

Ensia September 15th. 2020 “Across the U.S., millions of people are drinking unsafe water. How can we fix that”

https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/drinking-unsafe-water-contaminants-solutions/

Pete Duffy Dec 18th, 2019 “6 Ways to prevent water pollution”

https://raleighnc.gov/SupportPages/6-ways-prevent-water-pollution

Government ( i couldn't find date or author) “Keep water clean”

https://www.dec.ny.gov/public/43661.html

“15 proven ways to stop water pollution” July 20, 2017

https://blog.arcadia.com/15-proven-ways-can-reduce-water-pollution/

By Carina