My working escapades once-upon-a-time took me to northen Kenya.
The rugged, semi desert landscape I had pictured in my mind was suddenly made real before my very eyes.
I at all times felt some unique love for camel pastoralists and here I had a front seat opportunity to attach with them.
In fact tending after livestock comes with its justifiable share of responsibilities and water provision may be essentially the most key.
WATER
A number of the landscape within the North is dotted with boreholes, wells and water pans.
But after all this just isn’t the norm since water is a really scarce commodity in these parts of the world.
But where its found, its a blessing no matter the impurities in it.
On account of the high evaporation and presence of calcium rocks within the water table its no surprise encountering hard water in these regions.
I remember sitting in a restaurant which had a water dispenser doubling up as a water softening filter.
It had outlived its lifespan and at this point it was more of a show than an actual filter.
Besides, for a lot of up north, the inconvenience of hardwater is nothing in comparison with the dearth of it altogether.
Many have acquired a taste for hard water since its the one available.
So I kept asking myself whether there’s a necessity for a water filter here?
Probably it would serve a purpose among the many privileged urbanites meaning to quench their thirst with ‘sweeter’ water.
POINT-OF-USE WATER FILTER
A degree-of-use water filter is just because the name states…one which is used to filter water at the purpose of drinking.
It uses filter material that’s capable of remove unwanted pollutants that might harm our health.
These may include pesticides, metals , fluoride, microorganisms etc.
There are a big selection of filters being sold out there from the straightforward ones that function also as a dispenser to the more complex ones which require technical assistance to repair.
Lots of these filters are used for water softening and disinfection.
Though they’ve played their rightful role in delivering sparkling clean water to our tumblers, an emerging brand of pollutants are rendering their use ineffective.
PHARMACEUTICALS
I do know… I do know…
These usually are not belongings you would expect find in our drinking water…
Tap water to be precise.
But pharmaceuticals and their byproducts are gaining notoriety as emerging contaminants in our drinking water.
A part of the issue on account of poor disposal of human waste, irresponsible behaviour in industry and within the heathcare systems etc.
Intake of pharmaceuticals equivalent to antibiotics through drinking water might expose many to antibiotic resistance – the flexibility of disease-causing agents to develop into immune to antibiotic treatment.
But some pharmaceuticals are related to one other brand of pollutants that’s increasingly becoming wide spread.
ENDOCRINE DISRUPTORS
These are mostly chemicals released from industry or industrial products we use at home.
They’re known to interfere with the hormonal system
They’re suspected to provide rise to some lifestyle diseases equivalent to hypertension, diabetes and even cancer.
Water sources found near industrial zones are sure to be polluted by a major level of endocrine disruptors if checks and balances usually are not put into place.
But besides these, one other more concerning group of pollutants have the potential to make our drinking water even riskier.
FOREVER CHEMICALS
These are a bunch of chemicals also present in industry and in industrial products which take time to degrade (so the name ‘endlessly’).
Their effects are suspected to be kind of like those of endocrine disuruptors although their link to cancer is stronger.
WATER TREATMENT
Do not forget that water treatment plants in even essentially the most progressive nations may not have a way of removing these sophisticated pollutants.
Also, a few of these pollutants occur in specific regions and never others.
Due to this fact municipal water treatment plants may not give them a priority.
Due to this fact the point-of-use water filter might possibly develop into more significant within the near future.
Innovators have a possibility to research on and design filters with materials which are capable of remove these stubborn pollutants because their levels will increase substantially as industries flourish.
There are opportunities in developing products equivalent to drinking water bottles with straw filters, water dispensers with fitted filters, water jugs with fitted filters and even filters used to treat industrial effluent.
IN CONCLUSION
Over time, the informed consumer will demand such products on account of increase in lifestyle diseases.
Indeed even today, some communities can’t get access to filters which remove pollutants equivalent to fluoride.
So that is an area of interest to anyone who just isn’t only excited about delivering water but quality water to households.
So there’s some extent in using the point-of-use filter domestically.
Examples of startups on this regard:
Cyclopure, aquagga, envicoreinc
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