Water is one of the most important natural resources, which is absolutely necessary to each and every human being for many purposes, especially for drinking, cooking, personal hygiene and cleaning.
Almost 71% of earth is covered with water, but only 2% of clean water is available for our day to day consumption. Also, this percentage of clean water is going down drastically.
Interestingly, 71% of our human body also contains water & 71% of the total diseases of human body are water-borne. Therefore, it is our duty to:
(1) Save water.
(2) Keep the water clean as much as possible.
(3) Keep it free from water pollutants.
Why water tanks are getting dirty?
(1) Water is stored in cool and dark place, unfortunately these storage conditions are not ideal and it is the breeding ground for bacteria, mosquitoes and micro-organisms.Due to continuous dampness the bacteria creates algae and gets accumulated on the walls of tank.
(2) Water tank is exposed to UV rays coming out from the sun for almost 10 hours, which is intense as at the surface and cause diseases and may affect the health.
(3) Sometimes the water supplied is hard or containing solvents, so as the time passes,the hard particles from water gets stuck to the walls/corners and becomes dirty.
What are the consequences?
(1) Water storage tanks, if not clean regularly or if cleaning is not done in a proper way i.e. if cleaning is done by local sweeper or plumber, then water borne disease such as Cholera, diarrhoea, typhoid, Jaundice (Hepatitis A), Guinea worm disease and other diseases may arise. This is the very first reason why cleaning of Water storage tank is necessary to be done once or twice in a year.
(2) Contaminated water can also cause skin diseases. It is obvious that tank water is not only used for drinking, but also used for bathing, washing clothes and utensils. It is well known that hard water ruin hairs; but it could be easily avoided by cleaning water tank every 6 months or so.
(3) If the water tanks are not clean for long period of time, then the anaerobic bacteria that exist in water reacts with residues & sediments causing bad odour. Sometimes foul odour in the water may not be harmful to health, but it is just impossible to drink such water.
(4) Traces of metal content (for e,g Iron, Manganese, Zinc & Copper) in the water gives a metallic taste to it and colour is slightly rusty or reddish. Another reason to have metallic taste of water is because of low pH levels (pH below 7) Therefore, cleaning of water storage tank is necessary.