Topic: Water For Life – Reverse Osmosis
Our allocated chapter for this Blog is “Water for life” and the Chemical Concept we have selected to research and write about is “Reverse Osmosis”.
The reason for selecting “Reverses Osmosis” is a simple one.
Water is an extremely important part of the world and it is vital to our livelihood as humans.
On a molecular level, water is required for plants to carry out photosynthesis and it is also required by us humans to replenish and transporting of nutrients in our body.
Beyond just for human consumption and to ensure we live, water is also necessary to sustain human society as a whole. Without water, we would not be able to grow crops, raise livestock or power factories to produce power or products. It is evident the uses of water stem far and wide.
Different uses of potable water in human society.
Without clean water (potable water), people will become sick from drinking or consuming the water. Hundreds of thousands of people have died in the past from diseases in polluted water.
In 1854, 55000 people in Britain died from Cholera which was transmitted through contaminated water.
According to the World Health Organisation, “3.4 million people, mostly children, die annually from water-related diseases.”
In 2010, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that More people die from unsafe water than from all forms of violence, including war.
Therefore is it is important for water to be clean.
Water is predominantly obtained from 2 sources; Surface Water and Ground water. Surface water provides water from lakes, revers and reservoirs while ground water is water pumped from wells drilled into underground aquifers.
Mankind is highly dependent on water. The average American consumption of water is a staggering 100 gallons a day. With increase pollution by poorly constructed landfills, abandoned mines, to say a few, our natural water of potable water is slowly dwindling.
Climate change has also resulted in infrequent and unpredictable weathers, resulting in droughts across the world. Just last year, California suffered a long drought prior to a heavy downpour in December.
To ensure mankind has a sustainable amount of potable water, scientist have come up with ways to combat and clean up dirty water.
Reverse Osmosis (RO) is a common method for water purification to produce potable water. This process is achieved through applying hydrostatic pressure externally to reverse the natural flow of water and substances moving across a semipermeable membrane.
We picked RO specifically because it is one of the key steps in Singapore’s NEWater treatment which was developed to promote sustainability for Singapore’s water supply and to reduce reliance on Malaysia for water.
Besides being a useful and applicable process for making clean water, it is highly applicable and relatable to Singapore’s context.
References:
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/publications/publishing.nsf/650f3eec0dfb990fca25692100069854/ca25774c001857caca2577d8007b5424/WebPageBody/1.3CCC?OpenElement&FieldElemFormat=gif
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_water
http://puretecwater.com/reverse-osmosis/what-is-reverse-osmosis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholera_outbreaks_and_pandemics
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=34150#.WMjeshid7zU
http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/takingcharge.html
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