Drinking water hardness

Summary: In order to estimate whether the water from a particular water supply is fit to drink or not, you would have to ascertain the drinking water hardness levels. But before that you would have to recognize what exactly is water hardness.

Although Bob Dylan has a song titled Hard Rain is Gonna Fall, it can be assumed that Dylan was/is not referring to drinking water hardness. Water hardness is a completely different field, which requires understanding in order to estimate whether a particular water supply is fit to consume or not. Water hardness is essentially measured as the capacity of a given sample of water while reacting with soap. Hard water is the water type that consists of high degrees of dissolved minerals and it takes considerable amount of soap to generate lather.

To be specific, water hardness is caused by the dissolved polyvalent metallic ions like calcium and magnesium in the water. Apart from calcium and magnesium, other metallic ions that cause water hardness are barium, strontium, iron and manganese . Hardness in water is caused by both natural and industrial sources. The natural sources of water hardness include the seepage from sedimentary rocks, and soil runoffs to ground water. The industrial sources of water hardness are derived from inorganic chemicals used by industries and the mining industry. Excess of these ions is definitely not recommended in drinking water as it can have adverse health effects like ionic imbalance within the body.

Drinking water hardness should necessarily be within a particular limit to make the water fit for drinking. For water to be made fit for drinking, it should be run through modern age water treatment plants that can rectify the water hardness levels to be within a specified limit. Such treatment plants should have idyllic parameters that should be guiding their efficiency. The water treatment plants should be compact and easy to install, apart from being very efficient in rectifying the drinking water hardness to the required degree. The ideal water treatment machines should not be using chemicals for water treatment, and neither should there be any waste water from the water treatment procedure. Finally, the machine should definitely not be too expensive so as to make it accessible to anyone even with limited resources.