• Question: How does dirty water effect us?

    Asked by to Emily on 26 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Emily Hayward

      Emily Hayward answered on 26 Jun 2014:

      Hi Lisa2505,

      What great question!

      Dirty water can effect us in lots of different ways – it depends what we are using the water for, and what it is that makes it dirty. I will give you a few examples of things we need clean water for, and what effect using dirty water would have…..this is just a short list but hopefully will gie you a bit of an idea about why its important to clean up water.

      1) Drinking water. We all like to drink water that is colousless, tasteless and odourless (has no smell). We like this partly because its what we’re used to and also because its whats good for us. If water is dirty it will ave bacteria in it, and these could make us ill. Lots of diseases can be transported by water so we need to make sure water is cleaned and these diseases are killed and removed before we drink them. We are very lucky in the UK that our water system is very good, however in countries such as africa people sometimes have to drink dirty water. When I finished school I went to Kenya for a month, and was pretty unlucky as at the end of my trip there I must have had some bad water as I got back and was really ill, and needed to be in hospital for a week….so I’m very thankful for all of the clean water we have here!

      2) water passes through our bodies and waste is removed in the form of urea when we pee…..we want to remove this from water as it would smell, and it wouldn’t be very nice to shower or drink water with someone elses waste in it….to prevent this we make sure water is cleaned very well

      3) for things like cars which run on water if there are other things in the water making it dirty then it can stop the car running as it damages the engine…..it wouldnt be fun to be half way to the cinema and then the engine stop working due to dirty water if in the future we use water as a fuel.

      4) pollution in water can kill animals which live in rivers and the sea, so dirty polluted water can have a bad effect on fish, and other sea creatures like penguins. Killing fish means food suplies would be more limited, and killing other animals effects the ecosystem and the wildlife we can see.

      I hope these examples are helpful….feel free to ask more questions if you would like more examples or more details.

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