Few things which you should know about packaged or bottled drinking water

Over the past ten years there has been a spree in the sale of packaged drinking water which is also known as bottled water. There was a time when no one could imagine water as a saleable commodity. But in today’s world various companies are selling millions and millions of bottles of packaged drinking water.

Now you might be thinking what led to this boom in the packaged drinking water industry. The single most important reason was the contamination of drinking water fetched from tap and well. Of course there were other factors like convenience and portability which were also considered by the customers. In India there are several packaged drinking water plants. In Kolkata itself, Doctor Water which is a leading water treatment plant manufacturer has installed such plants. Let us consider drinking water in Kolkata

Recent studies have revealed that there is a high level of pesticides and other toxic chemicals in the city’s drinking water. Are you aware of the fact that a high amount of packaged water comes right from the tap? In this way packaged water is very much susceptible to contamination. In fact, sometimes packaged drinking water can be less safe that tap water. This fact needs to be given due consideration by concerns like Doctor Water which installed packaged drinkingwater plants in Kolkata and other places like Assam, Odisha and Bihar. Actually the seriousness of the situation is because of the absence of stringent regulations on bottled water in our country. The regulations are less strict on packaged water than on tap or well water. This leads to an increase in the overall risks.

Although a lot of people use bottled water packaged in packaged drinking water plants in Kolkata and other cities, you should also consider the various water filtration and purification systems which are also manufactured by concerns like Doctor Water. Such systems which use various processes like reverse osmosis,  exposure to ultraviolet light, carbon filtration and ceramic filtration, are quite safe and of a very high quality. However you should not jump to the conclusion that packaged drinking water is unsuitable for drinking. Bottled water packaged at a typical packaged drinking water plant in Kolkata is being used by a huge chunk of the population. The reason being the multiple uses of bottled water such as in offices, public places and during travelling. Things would surely improve if more stringent regulations for packaged drinking water are applied. That is an urgent necessity given the market share of bottled water.

Is the presence of fluoride compounds in your drinking water safe for you?

Recently there has been a lot of discussion and debate on the presence of Fluoride in drinking water. This controversy is here to stay as those people who are sceptic about the presence of fluoride compounds in drinking water seem to have a lot of information at their disposal and they also refer to research to back their contestations.

You must have heard that there are various benefits of fluoride compounds. Yes, it is true that small amounts of fluoride indeed prevents tooth decay and is thus good for your dental health. Going by this logic it must seem to you that presence of Fluoride in your drinking water is also beneficial for you. Indeed some municipalities across the world do add fluoride to drinking water. According to government standards, 1 ppm (parts per million) of fluoride is tolerable for our body. However these standards do not take into consideration the fact that we are exposed to fluoride through our mouthwash, toothpaste as well as various food items and beverages which we consume. In fact if you combine all of these you will find that at the end of the day we are easily consuming 2 to 3 ppm of this potentially harmful chemical.

Although calcium fluoride is not that harmful for us, there are other compounds of the chemical such as Silcofluoride and Sodium fluoride which can be quite harmful to us. Such harmful chemicals are removed from drinking water in fluoride removal plants with hand pumps. In Odisha there are many such fluoride removal plants with hand pumps which have been installed by Doctor Water which is a leading manufacturer and supplier of water treatment plants. Such fluoride removal plants with hand pumps in Odisha are doing a great service to the people of the state by providing safe drinking water.

What are the various processes which are used to treat water in a water softener plant?

The process applied to remove magnesium, calcium and other such metal cations from hard water is known as water softening. It is much easier to clean something with detergent or soap using soft water as there is no wastage of soap or detergent because of any bonding with calcium or magnesium ions. Use of soft water also increases the life of pipes and other fittings used in plumbing as there is much less scale build-up in those pipes or fittings through which soft water flows.

Generally lime or ion-exchange resins are used for water softening. However the use of reverse osmosis membranes or Nano filters for water softening is also increasing in water softener plants in Kolkata and other such places. The domestic appliances used in our homes rely on the ion-exchange resins for the removal of ions such as magnesium and calcium which are responsible for the hardness of water. In the ion exchange process calcium or magnesium ions are exchanged with sodium or potassium ions.

Doctor Water is one of the leading suppliers of water treatment plants in India. The company has installed various softener plants in Kolkata and various cities in Assam, Bihar and Odisha. Doctor Water’s softener plant in Kolkata uses the process of reverse osmosis for removal of ‘hardness ions’ from water. In this process, a pressure gradient across a semi permeable membrane is used to overcome osmotic pressure which removes water molecules with hardness ions from the treated solution.  The pores in the semi permeable membrane allow water molecules to pass through them but they trap the calcium and magnesium ions. However these membranes require regular maintenance or even replacement in some cases. In some water softening plants the method of distillation is also used.