Submersible Pumps - A Revolutionized Water Pumping System

The advent of modern water pumping systems has given homes, industrial factories, hospitals, and many other business or public establishment great ease and comfort in their daily water needs and consumption.

Water is one of the basic necessities of life. Man can survive for days without food - but not without water.

Sourcing and pumping water from underneath the earth requires great skill and the use of modern equipment. During ancient times, water was sourced from the ground using a shaduf, or swipe. It is a long wooden lever that pivoted on two upright posts located in the riverbank.

Another ancient water pumping system was the wooden bucket. It is a continuous loop of buckets that passed over a pulley-wheel, thought to have been used to irrigate the gardens and farms of Babylon around 600 B.C.

Today, pumping water from the ground up takes on a new form to sustain life and make the world a better place to live in.

A submersible pump is one of the great inventions that revolutionized the way people use water. It is an electrical device which is sealed airtight. It is also called a utility pump that is marketed worldwide. It has different functions, such as emptying or draining water in homes or commercial buildings.

A submersible pump has a sealed motor that is attached in a pump body. It is designed to withstand the rigors of daily water pumping either from inside or underneath the earth's surface.

What makes this pump such a great device is that it has an excellent capacity for sucking in power as it does not depend on external air pressure. A submersible pump has a system of mechanical seals that are used to keep water from seeping through the motor that may lead to an electrical short circuit.

The four main features that should be considered when choosing a submersible pump are pumping pressure, full expulsion flow, horsepower, maximum discharge and discharge size.

Maintaining submersible pumps by checking on its parts on a regular basis s very important. Ruptured seals are one of the things to look out for. However, newer pumps are designed for more heavy-duty work and require less maintenance.

Submersible pumps come in different sizes, shapes and power. One-half horsepower pumps can do a decent work, but lower water levels will require a water pump with more power.

Submersible pumps fetch between $600 to more than $1,000, depending on the brand and horsepower. However, installation and labor to set the pumps in place requires another expense.

Pumping water nowadays has never been more convenient with the introduction of more and better submersible pumps.

Prescription Drugs in Drinking Water - By What Means Do These Drugs End Up in Drinking Water?

When we turn on the tap in our kitchens the last thing we expect to find is medicine capsules or pills floating in the water that pours out. We would probably look over our shoulder looking for the hidden camera thinking someone we know had set us up for some kind of reality TV show. Bizarre as all this sounds prescription drugs in the drinking water is a fact the world over. And if we can find drugs in the water coming out our taps then these are certainly in other bodies of water including rivers.

One example that helps us see and hopefully accept this is research carried out in a place called Petancheru near Hyderabad in India. The production and exporting of non-branded or generic drugs has put India amongst the worlds leading exporters of these products. These drugs are produced to help with conditions such as gonorrhea, heart disease, hyper tension, depression and many more illnesses.

The water from 90 pharmaceutical factories that manufacture these drugs is processed through a water treatment plant and then discharged into the local river. High levels of the drugs were found in the river water downstream from the plant. This bodes disturbing environmental consequences sooner or later for the area.

Once the drugs are imported into countries like the UK its not long before these are on the shelves of chemists etc., awaiting the doctors prescription that authorizes their purchase.

Nature takes its course after consumption and because not all of the prescribed medicine is metabolized it passes through the recipients system on its way to be processed at the nearest water treatment plant. Too many of these at present are not programmed to remove these from the water.

A fact that most of us are blissfully unaware of, is that water is recycled over and over again and its humans that put the contaminants into the water system through many different means from industrial factories to processing our waste.

These along with other ways is why we find prescription drugs in drinking water. So what can we do to remove them from our drinking water? Make use of a dual system activated carbon water filter. These are extremely effective in removing drugs from our drinking water.

Even Though It's the 21st Century, We Still Have Many Causes of Water Pollution

Historically, people didn't worry about what they put into water. They used the lakes, rivers, and streams to drink from, bathe in, wash clothing in, water their livestock, and as a repository for human waste. Industries weren't careful about the bi-products they pumped into the water, either. Everyone was complacent that there would always be more water available and that nothing they did would have any lasting effects. After all, the wastes they dumped into the water always flowed downstream and didn't bother them any more. Now we know how devastating these actions can be in polluting the water resources we all depend on, yet pollution still ends up in the water. Why is it still happening, and what can we do about it?

It seems like since the world is 70% covered with water, there ought to be plenty to take care of all of our needs. Unfortunately, it isn't that simple. Even though most people are working to keep our water supplies clean, and the majority of the population isn't adding waste matter to rivers and lakes, there is still a lot of run-off that contaminates existing water resources. For example, one huge culprit is the fertilizers and pesticides used on farm fields. Sad as it may seem, it is reality that aquatic life in the Gulf of Mexico is suffering because of the farm products being used up the Mississippi River in Iowa.

Of course, agriculture isn't the only guilty party when it comes to polluting our water. Silt and other materials wash off from other industries, too, including logging and construction sites. Septic tanks, untreated sewage, and storm drains can cause bacteria to enter waterways, and these are the pollutants that can cause the human population to become ill. In fact, tiny as these bacteria are, they've been known to devastate entire populations.

Other sources of pollution include radioactive materials, petroleum products, and heat. Petroleum often comes from tanker spills, such as the catastrophic one incurred by the Exxon Valdez. It has been estimated that for every million tons of oil which is transported, approximately 1 ton is spilled into our water resources. Radioactive wastes are discharged from nuclear power plants. The medical, scientific, and industrial communities also make use of materials which are radioactive and pollute our streams, such as waste from uranium mining and refining. When heated water is discharged from power plants and factories, the raised temperatures can cause the death of many aquatic creatures.

Although our society has made progress towards protecting our water sources, we still have a long way to go. It is the responsibility of each one of us to continue to encourage better methods of operation for industry and agriculture that won't dump so many contaminants into water, and water pollution will become a thing of the past.