For some people that live in an urban area, water isn’t a hard-to-find source. This can be occurred, due to the application of pump wells or using the service of water supply company. For those who obtain their water supply from the water provider company, they don’t have to worry and also concern about the quality of water. Water comes from the water supply company indeed through multiple stages of filtering, processing, and other related processes, so that water is worth consumed by humans.
Then, how about water that came from well? Water sources that came from the ground or known as groundwater, of course, had been through a filtration process or natural filtering. As we know, groundwater itself is classified into 2 types which are shallow groundwater and deep groundwater. There are several differences between shallow groundwater and deep groundwater. The basic difference between shallow and deep groundwater based on its position. Shallow groundwater is found in approximately 15 meters beneath the ground surface. While the deep groundwater can be found in more than 40 meters in depth.
In terms of quality, indeed deep groundwater possesses better quality compared to the shallow groundwater. However, it doesn’t mean that shallow groundwater is poor in terms of quality. In the rural area, many of its inhabitants use shallow groundwater (well) to fulfill their households’ needs. But, there are also some urban people that use shallow groundwater. The important thing is as long as the shallow groundwater meets the quality parameters of water.
Currently, there are many urban citizens turn to use water provided by the water supply company, instead of using groundwater or wells. This because lots of groundwater has been contaminated that the groundwater is no longer safe to drink or use. A significant factor that caused the shallow groundwater to become improper is the position of the shallow groundwater is too close to the surface. Therefore, the shallow groundwater tends to pollute by hazardous materials that penetrate the ground, although it has been filtrated by rocks and other mineral sediments. But, only this isn’t sufficient and the water still polluted. Then, how to preserve the quality of water, especially shallow groundwater? Here are 5 methods to preserve the quality of water.
1. Don’t litter in rivers or other waterways
River can be an example of shallow groundwater. In the past, people used rivers as the water sources to fulfill their daily needs, because of the condition of rivers in that time were clear and free of any hazardous materials, so the water was safe to drink. However, currently, many rivers have been polluted because of many people litter in the rivers. They assume that if littering in rivers is more practical and the garbage is quickly washed away by the stream. Indeed this act isn’t right. Littering in the river can reduce the quality of water, so the water isn’t safe to drink or use. So, no wonder that in the dry season, many people will be in trouble finding clean water, and in the rainy season, the river will overflow which leads to flood. Flood is one of the hydrological natural disasters.
2. Reduce the usage of product with hazardous chemicals
Every type of chemicals that aren’t suitable with certain standards of use, of course, are very harmful. One of chemicals that is proven to reduce the quality of water is from detergent. Foam that produced by detergent while washing clothes contains a lot of hazardous chemicals. When the dump the laundry waste, some portion of the waste found its way to the ground and contained in the impermeable layer as shallow water ground. Imagine if the shallow groundwater is contaminated or polluted by chemicals of the detergent, of course, the quality of groundwater is decreasing. This doesn’t mean that we don’t have to wash our clothes by using detergent, for better impact on the environment (especially groundwater) we should use friendly environment detergent and use it sufficiently.
3. Avoid disposing of chemicals carelessly
Chemicals aren’t only came from detergent, but it can be derived from other sources such as oil, lubricant, factory waste, paint, and many other sources. These kinds of chemicals waste could contaminate water sources and there is a possibility it can be harmful or poisoning if it drank or used by humans. Besides that the chemicals may may carried away to the ocean by river or any water flow. This will create some harmful effects of chemical spills in the ocean. It’s better if the wastes are processed first before dump it to the river or sea, especially for the industrial sector such as factory. In addition, households need not dump hazardous chemicals to area that nearby water sources for the water isn’t polluted by the wastes and can be utilized in human life.
4. Use clean water efficiently
Indeed water is so important for all living organisms in this world. But, as humans, we should use clean water wisely and according to our needs. There are a lot of ways to save the available clean water supplies, one of the ways is to turn off water tap if the storage already full.
5. Maintain distance between septic tank and water source
Generally, the recommended distance between water source and septic tank is 10 meters. This has a purpose which is the water isn’t easily contaminated by waste that came from septic tank. But, in reality, this distance isn’t ideal for urban areas. This problem can be solved by knowing the direction of groundwater if the direction is already known, so the septic tank must be positioned opposite to the well or the other way around. It will be better if the direction of groundwater that came from well towards the septic tank.
Those are 5 methods to preserve the quality of water. Hopefully, this article can inspire and enhance your knowledge.