How Water Purification Has Evolved Through Time

People used to have no choice but to get their water from rivers, streams, and lakes. You basically found any source of water that was nearby that looked and smelled clean and useable. And that created problems because water can look as pure as the driven snow and smell like whatever water happens to smell like but not be safe or clean to drink. As a result people got sick and the sometimes these water borne illnesses were deadly like E coli. 

But since the beginning of time, man has gotten smarter and learned from his mistakes and figured out that clean looking water may not be safe without some sort of water purification process. 

And so each culture in turn developed their own ideas about water purification using the tools and skill set that they possessed at the time to do so. Some ancient cultures used minerals like cooper or iron and would boil it in their water to purify it. The minerals may have altered the taste a bit but more likely than not the real purification method came from boiling the water to kill the organisms and bacteria that weren't visible to the naked eye.

Other cultures latched on to the idea of using plants for the water purification process such as water lily roots or added amla which is also known as Indian gooseberry and is a bitter tasting fruit the size of a lemon that may have done little more than added some much needed vitamin C to their diets through their water.

Today the only people in America who have to rely on these primitive hit and miss methods are back country hikers in an emergency situation. Since we know have a better understanding of the filtration process. 

And part of that understanding of the filtration process is similar to how the ancient India cultures began to use sand and gravel to purify the water and then boiled the end product to make it safe for consumption.

Today our city water purification system is similar but maybe less environmentally green since we use chemicals not available for our ancestors to use as they relied on minerals or plants instead. 

Most public water starts out being purified with chemicals that make the gunk and dirt cling together from a chemical reaction and the weight of their combined clinging causes them to sink to the bottom. The water left on to then goes through several filtration systems similar to the India method of gravel and sand and the final product is then treated chemically one more time with chlorine to kill the bacteria or organisms that managed to filter through all of that.

The end result is generally clean, pure drinking water that is safe for public consumption. The entire process is regulated by the EPA to ensure its safe and drinkable for the millions of people who count on it every day in America alone.