PROPOSAL
University of Ontario Institute of Technology
2/12/2013
University of Ontario Institute of Technology
2/12/2013
Abdul Aziz
This proposal discusses about the decontamination of contaminated water and its effect on society.
Abdul Aziz
This proposal discusses about the decontamination of contaminated water and its effect on society.
Introduction:
It is extremely essential to have safe drinking water for a healthy life but the scarcity of safe drinking water poses an immense health threat throughout the world. Recent stats according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) showed that approximately more than 1 billion people have lack of access to clean drinking water (Gary, 2010). It is due to the scarcity of clean water an estimated of 1.6 million people die from diarrheal diseases. Third world countries are facing problems against the damage wreaked on their populations due to scarcity of clean water and water related diseases. In developing countries approximately sixteen percent of the population and as high as thirty percent in rural areas acquire water from unsafe drinking water sources. Water related diseases poses a heavy burden on a developing nation. It leads to an increased risk of mortality, decreased population productivity and impaired child development.
Enteric waterborne pathogens can cause infection in humans; they enter the human body through fecal-oral cycle. A single pathogen can cause an infection hence there is no place for a tolerable lower limit. There are various different types of pathogens such as viruses, protozoa, bacteria etc. Each of them is associated with different range of illness. According to World Health Organization (WHO) improved water supply could reduce water related diseases such as diarrhea related morbidity by 21% and by using point of use disinfection could reduce diarrhea by an estimated 45%. There is various different type of water treatment one such treatment is by chemical disinfection. By means of chemical disinfection the chemical agents destroys the waterborne pathogens and resulting in a clean and safe drinking water.
This proposal will focus on clean and safe drinking water supply. Means of disinfection will be reviewed and what measures needs to be taken in the future.
Literature Review:
Safe water supply for humanity cannot be overly stressed; it is necessary for a healthy lifestyle and is a basic human right. An average human being requires approximately 3 to 6 liters of water to survive on a day to day basis (Grace, 2003). With the supply of clean and safe water almost every disease such as cholera, typhoid fever, and polio were eliminated in industrialized countries (Ravi, 2012). In order to survive on minimal acceptable scale of standard living 20-25 liters of water is required every day for drinking, cleaning, personal hygiene, cooking and various other domestic activities (Grace, 2003). According to World Health Organization (WHO) a minimum requirement of 40 liters of clean water per capita per day is required for all rural areas. It is important to have clean water sources for a nation’s social and economic development. The growth of a population has a vital influence on water supply through growth rates. However this is particularly high in urban regions of developing countries. Solar distillation is a sustainable means of disinfection in which the technique of membrane filtration is used. The materials used for this method is affordable and can function effectively at various scales and provide clean water with minute amount of water treatment (Ravi, 2012).
To ensure safe drinking water supply we have to prevent the contamination from entering the water stream and by making barriers from contamination entering the water source. There are many different methods of decontamination of water such as heat/boiling, thermal solar disinfection,