The earliest recorded attempts to find or
generate pure water date back to 2000 B.C. Early
Sanskrit writings outlined methods for purifying
water (Early Water Treatment 2009). These
methods ranged from boiling or placing hot metal
instruments in water before drinking it to filtering
that water through crude sand or charcoal filters.
These writings suggest that the major motive in
purifying water was to provide better tasting
drinking water. It was assumed that good tasting
water was also clean. People did not yet connect
impure water with disease nor did they have the
technology necessary to recognize tasteless yet
harmful organisms and sediments in water.
Although various techniques have been deve-
loped in order to purify water so that it can be
made safe and wholesome but large scale
purification involves lot of finances. Research
is being conducted worldwide in order to develop
newer methods which can be used to purify
water and that too at an affordable cost.
The main objectives of this study is to
highlight the impact of various water pollutants
which have rendered the water unsuitable for
drinking and other domestic purposes and to
enumerate new and affordable techniques which
can be used to purify water for various purposes.
Facts and Figures Related to Water Pollution
Disease spreads by consumption of polluted
water. It has been estimated that 50,000 people
die daily world-wide as a result of water-related
diseases (Nevondo and Cloete 1999). A large
number of people in developing countries lack
access to adequate water supply. In South Africa,
it has been estimated that more than 12 million
people do not have access to an adequate
supply of potable water (Nevondo and Cloete
1999). Polluted water also contains viruses,
bacteria, intestinal parasites and other harmful
microorganisms, which can cause waterborne
diseases such as diarrhea, dysentery, and
typhoid. Due to water pollution, the entire eco-
system gets disturbed.
Unsafe drinking water,
along with poor sanitation and hygiene, are the
main contributors to an estimated 4 billion cases
of diarrhoeal disease annually, causing more than
1.5 million deaths, mostly among children under
5 years of age (WHO 2005). Contaminated
drinking water is also a major source of hepatitis,
typhoid and opportunistic infections that attack
the immuno-compromised, especially persons
living with HIV/AIDS (UNICEF 2011). Almost 1
billion people lack access to safe and improved
water supply. More than 50 countries still report
cholera to WHO (World Health Organization).
Millions are exposed to unsafe levels of naturally-
occurring arsenic and fluoride in drinking water
which leads to cancer and tooth/skeletal damage.
An estimated 260 million people are infected with
schistosomiasis (WHO 2004). 1.3 million people
die of malaria each year, 90% of whom are
children under 5. Impoverished slum dwellers in
Angola draw drinking water from the local river
where their sewage is dumped. Farmers on the
lower reaches of the Colorado River struggle
because water has been diverted to cities like
Las Vegas and Los Angeles. In large parts of
Africa, more than 60 percent of city dwellers are
in fact slum dwellers. For many of them, water
comes not from faucets inside their shacks but
from water tankers or standpipes, neither of which
is reliable as a water source. Open sewers
increase the risk of water-borne diseases (UN
works 2010)