Water

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            Water is so plentiful around us that we take it for granted. Water is very important; for, without water, there would be no life at all. Do you know that bodies of plants and animals contain more water than any other substance? Besides the air we breathe, water plays a big part in our daily life. Aside from having water for our personal use, water is also used for power and transportation.

            About seventy percent of the earth’s surface is water. It can alter the face of the earth by it movements. Climate is determined by water current. Water could be harnessed as electric power to drive machine of factories and homes. Because water runs downhill, it can create a force that can be harnessed as electric power.

            Water provide a means of inexpensive transportation of commodities and materials to almost any place on earth. Water expands about 1700 times when converted into steam, thus creating a power that can drive a locomotive.

            Water is a universal solvent. It dissolves many different compounds. From seawater, bromine, which is used in anti-knock gasoline, could be produced. Potash used for fertilizer could be produced from inland waters.

            Water is used in many engineering tasks because it is almost incompressible. Water has a higher specific heat than most substances although it is a poor conductor of heat and electricity. Water has been adopted as the standard of measurement of specific gravity and specific heat.

            Protoplasm, the fundamental source of life, is greatly made up of water. The sap of plants as well as the blood of man are primarily water.

            If man is not able to drink water for eight or ten days, he would die. Man needs to drink a great deal of water. In fact man’s body is made up of more than two-thirds water.

            Water, generally, has some impurities in it except rainwater and the water found in the ice fields around the North and South Poles. Seawater contains a great deal of salt in the form of sodium chloride, while mountain water contains large amounts of iron salts and sulfides. These impurities maybe harmful and distasteful when used for drinking. They may even be harmful to equipments using water.

            We hear of the term hard water which is generally applied to water containing large amounts of calcium and magnesium chlorides and sulfates. The water is considered soft when these minerals are absent from water. The white scaly substance which appears on the bottom of a tea kettle after a period of time is calcium carbonate found in water. A process known as deionization removes salt from the solution through the use of certain chemicals.

            Health centers were established to test water and to study and recommend means to eliminate harmful impurities in water since it is the fundamental substance of human life.

            The city operates a purification plant designed and establishes by engineers trained in this work in highly populated areas where water is taken from rivers or lakes for home use.

            The addition of chlorine to the water is the most practical one among the many purification methods. Chlorination prevents contamination of water in swimming pools rendering it safe.