If there’s one thing that’s absolutely crucial, it’s access to clean water. You need clean water for just about everything from staying hydrated to cooking and cleaning.
Unfortunately, access to clean water is limited. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are about 780 million people around the world that don’t have access to the clean water they need.
So, what can you do in your own kitchen to ensure that your family has clean water they can rely on?
How can you save water and what can you use to improve the quality of the water your family has access to? Luckily, there are a few things that are made to help.
Boiling Your Water
This is a tried and true method for purifying water. When you boil your water, you work to remove the components that sully the water, making it less than pure.
However, it isn’t a perfect method. For instance, this does produce hot water, making it less than ideal for drinking water and certain recipes. On the other hand, it doesn’t require significant extra purchases.
The method for doing this is simple. If you want to go the extra mile, start by straining the water although this is really only a step to consider when there are large contaminants present.
You should heat the water to a point of boiling and let it boil for two full minutes before taking it off the heat.
Make sure that when you’re done boiling the water, you put it in a clean container. Otherwise, you risk recontaminating it and undoing all your hard work.
We’ll go over a few more options that you have in this article that will help you choose the best choice for you.
Water Filtration Systems
One great thing about water filtration systems is that they’re readily available in many forms. This way, you can choose something that suits your needs and fits your kitchen.
This includes everything from whole-home filters, faucet filters, and even stand-alone pitcher filters.
In general, water filters are used to remove compounds and minerals that affect not only the purity of your water but the flavor and smell as well.
This can include chemicals like pesticides or chlorine or even metals like mercury, lead, and copper.
However, not every water filter is the same. The CDC recommends checking to see if the water filter you’re considering is NSF-certified.
This way, you can look up the filter in the NSF database to clarify what the filter targets. Oftentimes, you can also find this information on the product information on the filter.
Water Softeners
Similar to water filters, water softeners are made to help reduce the minerals that negatively affect water purity while it retains the healthy minerals.
This includes removing minerals such as magnesium, calcium, and similar minerals. They often work by taking these undesirable minerals and replacing them with potassium or sodium.
Much like a water filter, you can purchase a variety of different types of water softeners to suit your needs and preferences.
You can choose from options like salt-free water softeners, dual-tank water softeners, and ion exchange water softeners.
The great thing about water softeners is that it does more than just improve the water you consume. Softened water is also great for preserving the integrity of items like your dishes and even the pipes in your home.
Bottled Water
If you’re worried about the quality of your tap water, one way to handle it is to just avoid using your tap water whenever possible.
You can do this by investing in bottled water to keep around the house for consumption and cleaning.
Of course, this does come with a major disadvantage. For one, continuously buying bottled water does come at an ongoing cost.
In addition, bottled water does cause a lot of waste. When possible, it’s a good idea to opt for a refillable third-party water option. For instance, buying a jug of water that you can take back and refill once you use its contents.
Conclusion
We need water for everything we do. From drinking enough water to stay hydrated to cooking and even to keep the kitchen clean.
For all of these aims, though, you need to have access to water that’s clean enough that it will do what it needs to do rather than contaminate anything it comes into contact with.
There are quite a few options to tackle this problem, as we looked at before.
- You can opt for an alternative like bottled water or you can try to improve the water quality within your home with water filters, water softeners, or even methods like boiling water.
The important thing is to consider all the benefits and drawbacks of each of these methods to find what suits your needs.
