Strategies and limitations of water treatment methods for point-of-use application

Abstract

Water-related diseases threaten human survival across the globe. This is because of the severe contamination of water all over the world. Water is being contaminated due to the rapid growth of population and industrialization. As a result, the demand for potable water is increased in many developing countries. The surface sources for potable water are rivers, lakes, and aquifers. Particularly, to ensure its quality, water obtained from these sources should be free from chemical and biological contaminants. In developing countries, most of the people (60%) depend on the groundwater source. However, groundwater needs to be treated as the soil does not remove all the contaminants. Moreover, in various parts of the world, water supply is done through the network of pipelines to the individual consumers from water treatment plants. The quality of water may get degraded due to the formation of rust while flowing through pipes. Chlorination is a widely adopted method in many countries for water disinfection. It exhibits low disinfection efficiency and results in the generation of toxic by-products. This chapter describes the strategies and limitations of water treatment methods to remove both chemical and biological contaminants for point-of-use applications.