Hacking Clean Water for Your Health

In the United States, more than one fifth of all Americans have been contaminated by their drinking water, which is why .  Water is at the forefront of many Americans’ daily lives. Water is a crucial resource for cooking nutritious meals, cleaning a home, bathing, drinking, and nurturing a home garden. 

Thinking about the quality of the nutrients one puts in their body is essential to an individuals well being and it is important not to overlook one of the most key elements of a healthy diet: water. Ensuring that the water we use to nourish our bodies and to complete daily tasks is clean is essential as the average American utilizes nearly eighty-two gallons of water every day.  Beyond personal usage, water is also used from a production standpoint across the United States, with being used for energy production, food production, and finally, drinking water.  With water being essential to daily life, it is also vital to understand that it is a finite resource, with less than 0.5% of the earth’s water being categorized as fresh and available for consumption. There is ½ teaspoon of consumable water available to every 26 gallons of all other water on the planet. Water impacts all areas of life, from conservation and climate change to health, money, design, and technology. However, even with water being such a crucial resource, the water supply is being affected every single day by rising sea levels, higher temperatures, natural disasters, and even uncertain rain and evaporation.  Proper watershed management is paramount as it has an enormous impact on people, plants, and animals; however, nearly twenty-one million Americans still consume water that violates the United States health standards.  The lack of clean water filtration practices in the United States encompasses health issues and negatively impacts the economy.  Contaminated water accounts for 7.15 million illnesses and 6,630 deaths in the United States and constitutes nearly 260 billion dollars to be lost every year due to a lack of water filtration.  By investing in water filters individuals can take huge steps towards improving their health, ecological footprint and make significant economic savings.