Water Filtration

 Introduction
Humans may live for a month or more without food, but only a few days without water; only oxygen is more important. Each day, the body loses up to three quarts of water. A loss of only 10-20% of the body's water content could be fatal.

When we take untreated water from a river or reservoir, the water often contains natural wastes and pollutants, such as bacteria, solids (like mud, sand, and debris), inorganic minerals, and decayed organic compounds, as well as trace amounts of certain other contaminants. Such water is not good for human consumption.

Water suppliers transfer this water to a treatment plant where water will be filtered and chemically treated to be ready for human use.

 
Material and instructions
How can dirty water be filtered to produce clean and healthy drinking water? This project is an opportunity to learn about water filtration and water safety. You may also learn that some commercially produced filters may create more risk and they may introduce more bacteria into your water.
Details of this project
Support and more information on this project is available for the members of ScienceProject.com. You may also find a Science kit for this topic at MiniScience.com.