About Water

Water is a part of our planet’s History as it guarantees life on Earth and of all its living beings. Earth, also known as the Blue Planet, consists of 75% of water. However, most of this water is salt water and thus the percentage of drinkable water is really reduced. Therefore, Man has been specialising in the search of water for human consumption since a long time ago.

In Primitive Societies, populations normally settled on the riverside in search of water, food and natural defences. At that time, fresh water was already obtained from wells, using buckets.

Aristotle studied and described the process of obtaining fresh water from salt water by distillation (ebullition and subsequent condensation), an idea which was introduced by the Moors in Western Europe 1400 years later. The first public water supplying systems were created in the 3rd century B.C. in Rome, Greece, Carthage and Egypt, thus satisfying the needs of urban populations.

With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, Man had access to materials, equipment and techniques which enabled him to build more efficient systems for impounding, transporting and distributing water.

The 18th century saw the beginning of a new era in water supplying for public consumption, thanks to the discovery of chlorine and its application in water treatment and disinfection. Water was for the first time disinfected with chlorine in 1896 on the Italian coast of the Adriatic as a means to prevent diseases.

Water consumption has increased significantly. It is thought that in ancient Rome, there was a “per capita” consumption of 20 litres per day, whereas in today’s developed countries, this consumption can reach daily average amounts of 800 litres per inhabitant. A fact which contributed to this drastic increase was the emergence of bottling industries in the 19th century.

• Characteristics
  Water consists of two chemical elements: Hydrogen and Oxygen, represented by the formula H2O. As a substance, pure water is colourless, tasteless and odourless.
  
  Water is the purest and healthiest drink that exists. Due to its preciousness, it is becoming an increasingly rare asset. Water is not only good for quenching one’s thirst; it contains essential nutrients and plays an active role in several of the human organism’s tasks, namely in the regulation of the body’s temperature, production of digestive secretions or cleansing of unwanted impurities.
  
• Water Impounding Process
  Water is a totally natural product and it is “manufactured” by nature. Human intervention is undertaken on a treatment level – quality control and cleaning – as well as in bottling.
  
  Regarding the various water types, a distinction must be made between natural mineral waters and spring waters. This distinction is founded in the fact that the first lot is part of the State’s public domain, offering a stable physical-chemical composition and therapeutic or healthy properties. As for spring waters, these are normally detained by private entities and must be suitable for human consumption. They have no medicinal or therapeutic properties.
  
  Both categories must be bacteriologically safe at the source and the only authorised physical treatments are filtering, decantation and oxygenation (carbonic gas may also be added).
  
  When underground water emerges on the surface it has already undergone a complete natural transformation process. Mineral water is produced from the moment when rainwater penetrates in the soil and crosses the different layers until it reaches impervious grounds, where it remains. During this underground trajectory, water passes through various rock types, full of mineral substances like carbonate and calcium sulphate, which dilute in the water, thus enriching it and granting it valuable medicinal properties.
  
  When the water that accumulates underground experiences pressure from a new water volume, it rises to the surface and appears in specific places. From this point onwards, man is responsible for its destiny. He must proceed to its impounding, treatment, bottling and sale.
  
• Water and Health
  The human body expels enormous amounts of water every day (between 2 and 4 litres) either through perspiration, respiration or urination. It is therefore wise not to wait for the body to warn against thirst, but instead keep it hydrated by drinking 8 to 10 glasses of water a day. In doing so, one avoids dehydration, which in extreme cases can lead to death.
  
  An individual with a normal body weight and good health can live without food for 30 days. However, if deprived of water, this same individual may die in 72 hours.
  
  As the most important element to human life, its consumption is recommended at all times. However, due to the increasing scarcity of drinkable water and the increasing contamination possibilities, some care should be taken in the consumption of bottled water, especially in terms of its storage and conservation.
  
  Even though total mineralization of water poses no inconvenient for human health, if bottled water is drunk frequently, then one should opt for water that is low in minerals.
  
• Advices
  One may think that owing to the abundance of water on Earth we do not have to worry as it will never run out. However this is totally false. 97% is salt water and thus not drinkable; 2% is freshwater; 0.99% is underground freshwater and in steam form and therefore not readily available for consumption. To conclude, there is only 0.01% freshwater available and not all of it is fit for human consumption as most of it is already polluted!
  
  The message here is that water consumption must be done in a rational manner to avoid further jeopardy, both of the human species and of the Planet itself.