How Can You Get Rid of Bacteria That Contaminates Water
September 28, 2009
Water in many cases are unfit for drinking as it contains bacteria that can cause a variety of infectious diseases, which can sometime prove to be fatal. Some of the most common diseases caused by bacteria-infected water include dysentery, hepatitis, cholera, typhoid etc. Therefore, it is imperative that you take serious measures in order to remove the bacteria from your water.
How to detect the presence of bacteria
The testing of water for specific water borne disease is often expensive. Moreover, special training and equipments are also required. However, you can’t afford to neglect the process as it may lead to fatal diseases. Therefore, the best way to detect the presence of bacteria in water is to test for coliform bacteria. However, in order to find the exact source of the bacteria, a specified test is necessary as coliform bacteria are also found in soil or decaying vegetation.
Another form of bacteria is the iron bacteria, which can be identified by the presence of reddish brown slime in pipes, fixtures or toilets. It is mostly found in places where the water stands for several hours and therefore needs immediate removal as it is a very harmful bacteria that contaminates water.
Ways to get rid of bacteria
There are different ways to remove bacteria from water. Different circumstances require different types of treatment but whatever the way, the measures are necessary for you and your family’s well-being. For instance, if your source of water is a spring, try to be cautious as spring water is highly contaminated. However, if proper protection is taken in the form of a well-planned well, along with a pitless well adapter and an approved cap, it can be a useful source of water.
Shock chlorination
An effective method of getting rid of bacteria is shock chlorination, which involves high-duty chlorination of water treatment equipments such as water softener, iron filters, sand filters etc. However, chlorination requires some prior measures that include going through the manufacturer’s brochure since some water treatment filters like carbon and charcoal filters and reverse osmosis units should not be chlorinated, as it would destroy their effectiveness.
Moreover, chlorine solutions are strictly prohibited in cleaning agents or ammonia as it may produce toxic gases. The shock chlorination requires 50 to 200 milligrams of chlorine per liter and the highly chlorinated water is kept intact in the pipe for 24 hours so that the bacteria present in the pipes are killed. After that, the water is flushed out to make the pipes safe all over again.
Iodine for disinfection
Addition of iodine in water makes it safe for drinking as it kills off the pathogenic bacteria in the water. However, the time needed to purify the water depends on the amount of water that you need, as it requires at least 20 minutes of holding time to get the water purified. Once the iodine completes its job of killing the bacteria, you can remove the iodine by a carbon filter prior to drinking, since excess of iodine can harm your health.
Boiling water is a superior process
Boiling water is one of the oldest and most effective methods of purifying drinking water when it is infected with bacteria. The effectiveness of this method is beyond question, as it not only gets rid of the bacteria in your water, but also kills other disease causing organisms and giardia cysts. Though using ultraviolet filters can be a good way of killing bacteria present in your water, it does not kill the giardia cysts.
Other methods
Some of the other methods that you can use to remove bacteria from water, include, microfiltration, ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, disinfection and so on.
Learn more about bacteria in your drinking water or compare filtration systems
