There are probably at least a hundred times in any given day when you go to the tap, faucet, or hose for water and don’t even think about all the dangers that could possibly be hiding there.
That’s because you're lucky enough to have access to safe water, and that means you can take a drink or a bath, cook a meal, and wash up afterward without ever worrying about water-borne diseases or other contaminants, and you have your local neighborhood plumbers to thank in part for that.
Doing Your Part to Save Water That’s Free of Water-Borne Illnesses
There are lots of people involved in making sure that your family and your community have access to clean water, including your local plumber, and you can thank these people by taking steps to conserve that water in your house.
Here are some great water-saving tips to get you started:
Bathroom: Take shorter showers, never flush garbage or food, turn off the water when you're brushing your teeth or lathering up, and upgrade to low-flower showerheads, faucets, and toilets.
Kitchen: Run the dishwasher only when there's a full load, fill the sink to hand-wash dishes, reuse cooking water in the garden, stop using the garbage disposal, and don’t buy bottled water.
Garden: Plant drought-resistant flowers, grasses, and plants use a rain barrel for watering, add mulch to the soil to retain moisture, and only water in the morning or evening.
What’s the Harm in Drinking Contaminated Water?
If drinking clean water is a good thing that brings health and vitality to your body, then drinking contaminated water has the capability of being the exact opposite. There are many different types of pollutants that can make water unfit for drinking, including pesticides and herbicides (this is especially problematic in agricultural communities), nitrates, heavy metals, and pathogens like viruses and bacteria, including:
1. Cryptosporidium
2. Legionella
3. Giardia
4. Salmonella
5. Norovirus
6. Hepatitis A
7. E. coli
The symptoms you'll experience from drinking contaminated water will depend largely on the specific pollutant and your overall health, but the effects can include vomiting, appetite loss, weight loss, nausea, confusion, headaches, respiratory distress, organ damage, restricted oxygen flow, reproductive problems, neurological disorders, and death, in severe cases.
Plumbing Superstars: Protecting You from Water-Borne Diseases
If you were to look at a plumber’s list of duties, you might be surprised to find providing clean water to communities on there, but these tradespeople play an enormous role in making sure water gets safely from its source to your house.
After the water leaves the municipal treatment plant or another source, it must travel long distances to get to your taps, and there are plenty of things that can go wrong between points A and B.
For instance, the water could become contaminated with a dangerous pathogen, could be thwarted by a blockage, or could seep out through a leak and never reach its destination.
Plumbers have the skill and expertise to maintain and manage the piping systems that control your drinking water, making them crucial people in the process that provides your home and your San Francisco, CA community with clean water.T
he next time you make coffee, have a bath, cook a pot of rice, or otherwise use the wonderfully clean and safe water from your taps, say a silent thank you to the plumbing superstars who make sure you’ve got access to that water when you need it. And to thank them in a more direct way, get your family on board with water conservation around the house, and save money and the planet while you're at it.