WATER SAFETY

Water is a fundamental human need. Each person on Earth requires at least 20 to 50 liters of clean, safe water a day for drinking, cooking, and simply keeping themselves clean.

Safe drinking water is essential to humans and other lifeforms even though it provides number of calories or organic nutrients. Access to safe drinking water has improved over the last decades in almost every part of the world, but approximately one billion people still lack access to safe water and over 2.5 billion lack access to adequate sanitation.

There is a wide range of both chemical and microbial contaminants that may be found in drinking-water, some of which can have adverse health effects on consumers.

Water from any system can be contaminated from

·         chemicals and minerals that occur naturally, such as arsenic;

·         viruses, bacteria, and parasites;

·         local land-use practices, such as pesticide use;

·         industry; and

·         sewer overflow and failing septic systems.

The objectives of a water safety plan are to ensure safe drinking-water through good water supply practice, that is:

• To prevent contamination of source waters.

• To treat the water to reduce or remove contamination that could be present to the extent necessary to meet the water quality targets.

• To prevent re-contamination during storage, distribution and handling of drinking-water.

Water safety plan essentially consists of three components;

·               System assessment.

·               Operational monitoring.

·               Management plans documentation and communication.

The best way to protect yourself is to avoid local tap water and instead seek out bottled water; when that's not available, boiling tap water generally kills most micro-organisms, and there are a number of good water filters and purification tablets that can easily be stowed in your carry-on.