Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why Prepared water?

Tap water may contain bacteria, virus, salts, fluoride, heavy metals and harmful chemicals which are know to cause a variety of health problems. These may include heart disease, fatigue, gastrointestinal upset, nerve disorder and kidney failure.

2. What are the benefits of drinking prepared water?

Benefits may include better stress management, higher energy levels, beautiful skin, sharper vision, a boosted immune system and overall improved brain and body function. Purified water also tastes wonderful, which makes it easy to drink for both children and adults.

3. How many glasses of prepared water should be drunk per day?

You should drink the equivalent of half of your body weight in glasses. For example, a 60Kg person needs approximately six glasses of pure water per day to avoid dehydration and reap the benefits of improved health, beauty and vitality. Six to eight glasses of pure water are recommended for most people.

4. Why should we drink so much water?

Water, after oxygen, is the second most important substance for human health. Water is a universal solvent and transport medium, and because of that it is the basis of all biological processes in the human body. Water is mainly important for the digestive system, because it contributes to the constant supply and export of products and substances. The transport of nutrients can only take place through a solvent, and as such water acts as the main transport medium of nutrients. Water also attends heat regulation in our bodies. For humans it is of vital importance that the body temperature stays at a standard level. That is why we have to drink water, when we are infected with a fever. Water takes up heat and transports it out of the body while we are transpiring. We can survive without food for about 30 to 40 days, but we can only survive a few days without water. This is a factor that proves how important water is for us.

5. What is safe drinking water?

Safe drinking water is water that is acceptable for humans to drink and use for other domestic purposes such as food preparation and bathing. Drinking water should contain no harmful concentrations of chemical or micro-organisms, and should ideally have a pleasant appearance, taste and odour.

6. Where does my drinking water come from?

Our drinking water comes from two sources, surface water (rainfall and its runoff into rivers or dams), or groundwater (water that has collected in underground stores or aquifers). These sources are sometimes close to the communities that they serve, or may be some distance away. Therefore, when thinking about where drinking water is coming from, it is important not only to think of where the water is abstracted, but rather about the whole catchment – the area over which rainfall is caught and drains into a water source. The raw water is abstracted from the source (dam, river or borehole) and transported to a water treatment works where it is treated using different treatment processes. After treatment, the water is stored in reservoir or tanks and then distributed to users.

7. Why is it necessary to treat drinking water?

Water must meet certain basic requirements to make it fit for domestic uses. The most important requirement is that it must be safe to drink. Many water sources contain harmful micro-organisms or other substances in concentrations that make the water unsafe to drink. These micro-organisms and substances must therefore be removed from the water by means of treatment processes to make the water fit for consumption.

8. When is it necessary to treat drinking water?

It is not possible to tell if water from a particular source has to be treated simply by visual inspection of the water. The reason is that water may contain substances that are not visible, but can make the water unfit for drinking. It is therefore essential to take samples and analyse the water that is to be used as a source for domestic use. An assessment must then be done to determine whether the water is fit to drink as it is, or whether certain contaminants need to be removed and what treatment processes are required to remove these substances.