The Essential Of Life- Water

We can say a thousand and one things about water. It is just mind-blowing. Water is ubiquitous; It's found everywhere, seen everywhere, used everywhere, and felt everywhere. How? Water is in the air. Water is in the soil. Water is in the plants and animals. Water is in man. What else? Both living and non-living things have some percentage of water in them. Some scientists have concluded that a place without water is a place without life. Let’s come to human body. The human body contains from 55% to 78% water, depending on the body size. To function properly, the body requires between one and seven liters of water per day to avoid dehydration; the precise amount depends on the level of activity, temperature, humidity, and other factors. Most of this is ingested through foods or beverages other than drinking straight water. Specifically, pregnant and breastfeeding women need additional fluids to stay hydrated. The Institute of Medicine (US) recommends that, on average, men consume 3.0 liters and women 2.2 liters; pregnant women should increase intake to 2.4 liters (10 cups) and breastfeeding women should get 3 liters (12 cups), since an especially large amount of fluid is lost during nursing. Also noted is that normally, about 20% of water intake comes from food, while the rest comes from drinking water and beverages (caffeinated included). Water is excreted from the body in multiple forms; through urine and faeces, through sweating, and by exhalation of water vapour in the breath. With physical exertion and heat exposure, water loss will increase and daily fluid needs may increase as well. Potable (drinkable) water is essential to human body. Approximately 1 billion of people in the world still lack access to safe drinking water. While 2.5 billion lack access to adequate sanitation. This is in contract to how ubiquitous water is. Though available, but could not be accessed by many. And those that could be accessed are not easily usable. Water can be purified in so many ways. It can be purified through storage in copper vessels, filtration, distillation, chlorination, ozonation, ultraviolet irradiation (exposure to sunlight), boiling, dipping hot iron/metal inside water, and addition of chemical compounds that kill pathogens. Water has got several purposes. From domestic (cooking, drinking, bathing, washing), to industrial (manufacturing, recreational, swimming, rafting, boating, hydropower generation), to agricultural (farming, gardening, fishing) and to transportation. Water has helped our world immensely and it’s joy to have it all around us. Happy Weekend.