FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Index
FAQ’s on Water Quality and Drinking Water
| What are drinking water standards? | Go to Top | |
| Drinking water standards for packaged and non packaged water are as follow: | ||
| DRINKING WATER | Non Packaged | Packaged | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SR NO. | IMPURITY | IS Desirable limit as per IS 10500: 2012 | USEPA Maximum Contaminant level as per EPA: 2012 | WHO Guideline value as per Vol.1, Recommendations 2011 | IS DesirableLimit as per IS 14543: 2004 |
| 1 | Colour Hazen units | 5 | NA | 15 true colour units | 2 |
| 2 | Odour | Unobjectionable | 3 threshold odour number | Not offensive | Agreeable |
| 3 | Taste | Agreeable | NA | Not offensive | Agreeable |
| 4 | Turbidity, NTU | 5 | 5 | 5 | 2 |
| 5 | Dissolved solids, mg/l | 500 | 500 | 1000 | 500 |
| 6 |
Total hardness Calcium mg/l Magnesium mg/l |
300 75 -- |
NA -- -- |
500 (as CaCo3) -- -- |
NA 75 30 |
| 7 | PH value | 6.5 - 8.5 | 6.5 - 8.5 | 6.5 - 8.5 | 6.5 - 8.5 |
| 8 | Copper mg/l | 0.05 | 1.3 | 1.0 | 0.05 |
| 9 | Iron mg/l | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.1 |
| 10 | Manganese, mg/l | 0.1 | 0.05 | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| 11 | Chlorides, mg/l | 250 | 250 | 250 | 200 |
| 12 | Sulphates, mg/l | 200 | 250 | 400 | 200 |
| 13 | Nitrates, mg/l | 45 | 10 | 10 | 45 |
| 14 | Fluorides, mg/l | 1.0 | 2.0 | 1.5 | 1.0 |
| 15 | Phenolic compounds, mg/l | 0.001 | 0.001 | 0.001 | Absent |
| 16 | Mercury, mg/l | 0.001 | 0.002 | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| 17 | Cadmium, mg/l | 0.01 | 0.005 | 0.003 | 0.01 |
| 18 | Selenium, mg/l | 0.01 | 0.05 | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| 19 | Arsenic, mg/l | 0.05 | 0.01 | 0.01 | 0.05 |
| 20 | Cyanide, mg/l | 0.05 | 0.2 | 0.1 | Absent |
| 21 | Lead, mg/l | 0.05 | 0.015 | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| 22 | Zinc, mg/l | 5 | 5 | 3 | 5 |
| 23 | Anionic detergents, mg/l | 0.2 | -- | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| 24 | Total pesticides, mg/l | NIL | 0.0005 | 0.0005 | 0.0005 |
| 25 | Total bacterial count, CFU/ml | -- | Not more than 500 | -- |
100/ml at 20°C 20/ml at 37°C |
| 26 | Total coliform per 100 ml (including Fecal coliform & E-coli) | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
| 27 | Viruses (Enteric) | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
| Isn’t bottled water better than tap water? | ||
| Water from tap can be turbid, may contain high levels of Ca, Mg and many other microbial/chemical contaminants where as bottled water is a processed water by UF, RO or silver ionization, so generally if the bottled water company is certified by BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) and product water is meeting the specs of packaged drinking water IS 14543, bottled water is better than tap water. | ||
| One alternative of getting safe water is to have tap attachment - Suraksha POU purifier unit. | ||
| How much water does a person use each day? | Go to Top | |
| In India, the average water use is around 145 litres a person each day with the following break up. | ||
| Water usage Quantity | (lpcd) |
| Drinking | 3 |
| Bathing | 30 |
| Toilets/Flushing | 45 |
| Laundry | 30 |
| Kitchen/Dish washes | 22 |
| Leakages | 15 |
| Total | 145 |
| Why does tap water often smell like chlorine? | ||
| To remove bacteria from drinking water and to protect it from re-contamination during distribution, municipal treatment plants add chlorine during treatment. Chlorine is a very effective disinfectant, which is used to kill any harmful bacteria that might be present in the water source. Generally, around 0.2 mg/l of free residual chlorine is maintained for complete disinfection. Although 0.2 ppm is the minimum required level at Point of use, presence of 1 ppm and above excess chlorine gives rise to smell in tap water. | ||
| Isn’t my municipal water treated? | Go to Top | |
| Many municipalities treat water with clarification, filtration and chlorine to kill bacteria. Their goal is to only meet minimum drinking water requirements. Many times, water gets re-contaminated during distribution through long pipe line net work. | ||
| With chlorine, water may get disinfected but there may be other chemical impurities accidentally seeping in to municipal water pipelines which could be industrial chemical contaminants like arsenic, fluoride, mercury, pesticides, volatile organic compounds, etc., which cannot be removed by just chlorination, sophisticated treatment technologies like Reverse osmosis would be required to remove these contaminants. | ||
| To eliminate these contamination problems, Point of use home water treatment system is often necessary. | ||
| What is hard water? | ||
| Water is hard when it contains minerals such as magnesium and calcium. If you have hard water, you may see staining on your sinks, tubs, showers and clothing; and build-up on your glassware. Hard water can produce a rock-like scale that builds up in pipes, dishwashers, water heaters, ice machines and other appliances. This scale can also reduce water flow and clog valves and vents to create maintenance problems and reduce service life. You may also notice less lather from your shampoo and soap. | ||
| How to make water soft? | Go to Top | |
| Water can be made soft by removing the ions that cause the water to be hard, in most cases calcium and magnesium ions. Iron ions may also be removed during softening. A water softener is often used to remove this hardness from water. | ||
| Water Softer Unit | ||
| Softener can be connected directly to the water supply. | ||
| What are pathogens? How they can be removed? | ||
| Pathogens are disease causing microorganisms. | ||
| These include Protozoa, Bacteria and Viruses. | ||
| The two most common protozoa pathogens are Giardia lamblia (Giardia) and Cryptosporidium (Crypto). Protozoa are responsible for many cases of amoebic dysentery. Protozoa cysts range is size from 2 to 15 µm (a micron is one millionth of a meter), but can squeeze through smaller openings. In order to insure cyst filtration, filters with absolute pore size of 1µm or less should be used. | ||
| Bacteria are single celled microorganisms, which lack well defined nuclear membranes and other specialized functional cell parts. They are so small, that humans cannot visualize them. We can only see them through microscopes, by which the cells are greatly enlarged. Bacteria are smaller than protozoa and are responsible for many diseases such as typhoid fever, cholera, diarrhea, and dysentery. Bacteria range in size from 0.2 to 0.6 μm, and a 0.2 μm filter is necessary to filter these. | ||
| Waterborne pathogenic viruses range in size from 0.020-0.030 μm, and are too small to be filtered out by a mechanical filter. All waterborne enteric viruses affecting humans occur solely in humans, | ||
| There are various methods of removing microorganisms. These include boiling, Chlorination systems, Iodine based resin systems, RO systems, etc. | ||
| Chlorination systems - | ||
| Iodine based resin systems - | ||
| RO systems - | ||
| How do pathogens enter drinking water? | Go to Top | |
| The pathogens enter drinking water through faulty municipal pipeline, unprotected and unhygienic open wells & human and animal waste. They are the carriers of microorganisms that find entry in to drinking water sources. | ||
| What are the diseases caused by various bacteria and viruses? | ||
| Waterborne diseases | ||
| Viruses | Diseases |
| Hepatitis virus | Jaundice |
| Poliomyelitis | Polio |
| Rotavirus | Gastroenteritis Dysentery |
| Bacteria | Diseases |
| Vibrio cholerae | Cholera |
| Shigella spp | Dysentery |
| Salmonella | Typhoid |
| Is boiling water enough for safe drinking? | Go to Top | |
| Boiling kills almost all pathogens from water. It is safe when only microbial contaminants are of concern. It effectively kills Giardia cysts. Water disinfected by boiling can conform to IS 10500 drinking water standards for bacteriological quality. It does not remove bad taste, odour, colour, dissolved salts and chemical contaminants from water. | ||
| What dangers can be there in drinking water other than microorganisms? | ||
| Besides microorganisms, there are several problems that can affect the quality of drinking water. Fluoride is very common element, found in earth's crust. Fluoride also enters in the aquatic system in the dissolved form through industrial discharge form through aluminium industries, phosphite industries, coal plants, etc. Higher concentration in drinking water can affect the health adversely. The World Health Organization (WHO) guideline for fluoride is 1.5 mg/liter in drinking water. As per IS 10500 standard the desirable limit for fluoride is 1 ppm and permissible limit is 1.5 ppm in drinking water. Ion Exchange has fluoride removal resin and activated alumina based Fluoride Removal Units. | ||
| De-ferrous unit | ||
| Arsenic contamination is a serious problem found in ground water in Eastern part of India (West Bengal) & Bangladesh. The normal concentration of arsenic is around 0.1 to 1.5 ppm. In most of the areas, concentration varies from 0.2 to 1.0 ppm. However permissible limits for drinking purpose is less than 50 ppb. The excess intake of arsenic leads to skin diseases like hyper pigmentation, keratoses melanomas that disfigure the skin like in leprosy. Ion Exchange has developed Arsenic Removal Units (ATU) for removing arsenic from drinking water. | ||
| Nitrate in drinking water can cause cyanosis, a reduction of the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood. This is particularly dangerous to infants under six months of age. Ion Exchange has Nitrate removal resin for removing nitrates from drinking water. | ||
| Lead can enter the water supply as it leaches from copper pipelines. As the water streams through the pipes, small amounts of lead will dissolve in the water, so that it becomes contaminated. Lead is a toxic substance that can be quickly absorbed in the human systems, particularly those of small children. It causes lead poisoning. | ||
| Iron is another common pollutant found in nature. Water percolating through soil and rocks, dissolves iron and subsequently enter to ground water supplies. High concentration of Iron cause reddish brown stains on laundry and household fixtures. Sometimes it may clog water distribution pipes. High level of iron can impart a bitter sweet or metallic taste to drinking water. The drinking water standard for iron is 0.3 ppm as per USEPA 2012 and as per IS 2012. | ||
| Ion Exchange has developed Iron Specific Resin (ISR) media and De-ferrous unit for removing iron from water. | ||
| Chorine in municipal water when combined with organics, forms Trihalomethanes (THM), which are carcinogenic Volatile organic compounds (VOC's) also are cancer causing contaminants. | ||
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