Question

What is potable wahter list any 5 methods to make water potable.

Answer 1

Dear Student,

The word ‘potable’ means safe to drink or drinkable. Thus clean drinking water is often termed as potable water.

Methods to purify water are:-

1. Boiling- By boiling water at 185° makes water sterile in minutes.

2. Filtration: In this process, all the other insoluble impurities are removed by passing the water through filter beds

3. Chlorination: In this process, chlorine is added to the water to kill the microorganisms present if any. This water is further filtered and stored and finally supplied to homes via water mains.

4. Ultraviolet Light - This light is capable of killing all microorganisms in water and make it fit for drinking.This technique is used in several water purifiers available in the market.

5. Reverse Osmosis (RO) - In this technique water is made to pass through a semi-permeable membrane from low concentration to high concentration of water. Thus, this semi-permeable membrane allows only water to pass through its fine pores but not the impurities and germs.