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Water is one of the few things that is absolutely essential to our survival, yet we do not seem to give it the weight that it deserves. In reality, we do not need that much water, but we have become accustomed to having much more than we require. Of all the water on the planet, only about 1% of it is useful for us, so we need to do a much better job of taking care of the small amount that we have.

Fortunately, two things can be done by each individual who has access to fresh potable water. First, use as little as possible, and cut down on wasteful practices. Second, each person can make a more concerted effort to maintain water’s purity by not contributing to its contamination.

The conservation part of the equation really comes down to sensible use. There are many things that can be done to achieve water conservation, and most have multiple benefits. The simple acts of putting aerators on your faucets or capturing rainwater for use in your garden are both good places to start.

When it comes to keeping water pure, the cumulative effects of small actions can be enormous. To be brief, everything we dispose of affects our water supply. Whether it is poured down the drain, dumped in a landfill or burned in a backyard, waste ultimately affects the Earth’s water supply.

The water that makes its way into our homes, public spaces and places of work really should be treated more seriously, with specific attention to its quality. The good news is that it is possible to remove more than 99% of the impurities found in most municipal water supplies – impurities that range from suspended particles such as colloids to dissolved inorganic salts, dissolved organic compounds, microorganisms, pyrogens and dissolved gases.

Because water is of such great importance, compromising its quality would not be not wise. We are capable of making the water in our homes safer to drink, bathe in, cook with and clean with. For something so vital to our survival, it is important to make our water as healthy as we possibly can.

So, why not provide our families with the best quality water possible? Technologies and systems are available to ensure that our water is of the highest quality, and since we realize what a precious commodity fresh water is, we should use the technologies and systems that exist for its preservation as well.

How do we ensure that we are getting the best quality possible? Let’s begin by examining how we consume our water because this will allow us to discern what we can do to ensure maximum quality. How do we use the water that enters our homes? We clean our bodies with it, we clean our clothing with it, we wash our food with it, we cook with it, we drink it, and we clean our plates with it. So, doesn’t it make sense to use the cleanest water available? This can be done through purification and filtration. We can filter the water that is used for cleaning, bathing and washing. When the municipal water supply is filtered, many impurities such as chlorine, trithalomethanes, phthalate plasticizers, and hundreds, if not thousands, of other contaminants are removed, many of which we know very little about.

The water we drink and cook with seems like the most logical place to start when talking about purifying your supply. By purifying your water, you are preventing toxic elements from entering your body. By utilizing a point-of-use drinking system, you can eliminate the senseless consumption of plastic bottles (made from petroleum), the need for trucks that burn diesel fuel to deliver those bottles of water each week, and save yourself from feeding your body a lower quality resource. While the bottled water industry is an enormous annual business in America ($9.3 billion in 2004), the quality of what people buy is below average. In a four-year study, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) found that out of more than 1,000 samples from 103 bottled water companies, 34 of them were of lower quality than straight tap water. Include the fact that it is estimated that more than 30 million plastic water bottles become garbage every day and it’s a wonder why people continue to buy bottled water.

Once we do what we can to ensure quality, why not take action to ensure that clean water will be there for the next generation? This is what is meant by conservation, and there are many ways to carry it out. By studying our habits, we can find areas where we could use less water. Turn the tap off while you’re brushing your teeth. Set your dishwasher to the setting for water conservation. Put aerators on all of your faucets. Water your garden at night (less evaporation, more goes into the ground).

To bring it all around full circle, if we can get a hold on the amount of waste we generate and find more efficient ways of processing it, our water supply will benefit directly, and as a result, so will humanity. We absolutely need water in order to survive. Why not do what we can to ensure a sustainable future?

The main problem is that we are not doing what we can to prevent our water supply from being contaminated. We still dump toxic chemicals down our drains, fill landfill sites with nonbiodegradable items, and continue to knowingly dump waste and pollution into lakes, rivers and oceans. If we could find a way to deal with the waste that we generate, we would not have to find ways to clean our fresh water supplies. We need to be pro-active, rather than reactive, which is the state that we find ourselves in today. If we can all make a concerted effort to value the supply we have, we will eventually be able to do away with the devices that we currently need. That said, let’s look at how to generate the high quality water that translates into a higher quality of life.

The development of purification and filtration technologies makes it possible for us to provide ourselves with higher quality water. This is the water that we need for drinking, bathing our bodies, cooking our food, washing our clothes, watering our gardens, cleaning our homes and feeding our beloved pets. Our water needs to be treated with more respect if we want our future generations to thrive.

Ricky Cappe founded Green Built Consultants, Inc., a firm that specializes in “sustainabliving” with special emphasis given to building and construction. Green Built Consultants assists homeowners and business owners find more sustainable solutions to their daily living requirements.
Contact: (310) 749 5766 or http://www.greenbuiltconsultants.com

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