What makes clean water

Tablets can be used to disinfect water and are popular among campers and hikers, as well as in other countries. They are available in different sizes and made to treat specific amounts of water. To disinfect water with tablets:. Many portable water filters can remove disease-causing parasites such as Cryptosporidium and Giardia from drinking water.

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Section Navigation. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate. Making Water Safe in an Emergency. By making these bits clump, they become bigger — and easier to remove. Next, the water flows into big tanks where it will sit for a while. During this settling period, the solid sediments begin to fall to the bottom 2. The cleaner water atop it then moves through membranes. Like a sieve, they filter out smaller contaminants 3. Then the water is treated with chemicals or ultraviolet light to kill harmful bacteria and viruses 4.

Following this disinfection step, the water now is ready to flow through pipes to homes throughout a community 5. Different communities may tweak this process in some way. They may add chemicals at different stages to trigger reactions that break down chunky, toxic organic molecules into less harmful bits. Some may install an ion-exchange system. Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. You cannot download interactives. Watch this brief, video picture of practice that captures everyday classroom life and provides real-life examples of how students learn and think about freshwater topics.

Students review each step of the water-treatment process used to make water potable and analyze the order in which the steps occur. Join our community of educators and receive the latest information on National Geographic's resources for you and your students.

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Related Resources. If Your Water Ran Out! To receive updates highlighting our recent work to prevent infectious disease, enter your email address:. Drinking Water. Section Navigation.

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate. Water Treatment Minus Related Pages. On This Page. Figure courtesy of EPA. Healthy Water Sites. Get Email Updates. To receive updates highlighting our recent work to prevent infectious disease, enter your email address: Email Address.