Principle Stages in Water Purification

Water purification is a most acknowledged term in today's scenario. Clean and drinking water is in short supply and unevenly distributed. Unavailability, unsanitary conditions, population, careless attitude to the water quality protocol by the industries, global warming and unusual climate changes are the likely reasons why water has become impure day by day.
The only thing that can save us is the latest water purification which stands on three important pillars:

Collecting and Screening
It is mainly the pumping process of water from the rivers and initial storage. Following are the different facets.

Pumping: The water is pumped out of the different water sources like lakes, rivers, groundwater resources like wells and deep tube well. Contaminants are strongly avoided in this process.

Screening: Removal of sticks, leaves, trash and other large particles which may interfere with subsequent purification steps is a constituent part of screening step. It clears water from the garbage.

Storage: Water from the rivers or lakes may also be stored in the bank side reservoirs to allow organic purification to take place. It is mainly found if the 'Slow and Sand Filtering' technique is adopted.
Pre-conditioning: Treatment of water rich hard salt with the Sodium Carbonate.

Removal Process
The thin solids and contaminants are removed from the water in the removal process generally. It consists of filters, coagulation, flocculation and membranes.
pH Adjustment: pH is a measure of the acidity of a solution in respect of active hydrogen (H+). Lime or soda ash is added in the water to increase the pH level. Though it makes the water to some extent hard, yet it is a preferable technique to ensure the effectiveness of the coagulation and flocculation processes.

Coagulation and Flocculation Processes: Coagulation and Flocculation Processes help to lower the risk of lead that might be dissolved from lead pipes and lead solder in water pipe fittings.

Sedimentation: Sedimentation is the process of depositing sediment from suspension in water. Soil, sand, minerals and other hazardous wastes are being deposited as sediments.

Filtration: Consisting of rapid sand filter, pressure filters or ultra filtration techniques, filtration process is the removal of the organic and inorganic particles are removed from the raw water.

Final Treatment Process
This part consists of polishing, pH adjustment and carbon treatment. This is the most significant process to remove taste and smells, disinfection and temporary storage to yield clear water.

Other than these usual methods, similar other water purification processes are there, namely Fluoridation, Water conditioning, Plumbo-solvency reduction and Radium Removal, etc. Finally safe water is the source of a healthy life for all the times to come.