Don't Be in Denial About Your Water

The Nile is the largest source of water in Egypt and for the ancient Egyptians it was also the only source of water to bathe in, drink from and was used to irrigate crops and farmland. The Nile's waters were revered - seen as a source of life in the desert - but it was also a source of something else: the biggest source of tape worms and other nasty intestinal dwelling creatures that eventually made their home inside the body of every unsuspecting Egyptian who came into contact with it. Unfortunately that was just about everyone who lived near the Nile, since it was the major source of water for its people. We know how the tainted Nile waters affected the population based on mummies from Egypt that show evidence that tape worms were present in almost every person regardless of age, gender or social class and probably made life fairly miserable for those who lived with and died with their constant, unwanted companionship.

Thanks to water treatment plants, we can now turn on the taps and rest assured that not only does our water look pure and clean but it is pure, clean and parasite free. We probably take it for granted, in fact, and never think twice about bathing in it, swimming in it, drinking it or cooking with it. But according to the Environmental Protection Agency, regulating our water to keep it clean has taken an act of congress to accomplish. The Safe Drinking Water Act was passed in 1974 with the goal to ensure that all water was safe to drink by regulating the sources of our public water supply and is upheld under the umbrella of the EPA.

Water can be contaminated in several different ways including human activity or animal activity. Insecticides from farming can make their way into the soil and into the ground water. Improperly disposed of human or animal waste can seep into the ground water and eventually the main water supply.

Without the EPA regulating and testing our water supply we would be exposed to a wide variety of harmful toxins and, like the ancient Egyptians, we would be completely in denial about the whole thing. According to the EPA, water treatment plants process 34 billion gallons of water every day to protect us from parasites, poisons and toxins that could kill us or make us sick if we consumed the untreated and unpurified water. 

Despite what some consumers may think, we don't have an endless supply of clean water. If we didn't have water treatment methods to purify our water, we would have run dry long ago and be forced to live with water that could make us sick or kill us every time we had any innocent contact with it. Thankfully we have come a long way from the Nile's tainted waters to our clean, parasite free water, and we can safely assume the EPA and our water treatment plants are doing their job every time we fill up a glass of water.