"Alun" wrote in message
news:Xns94D3EAB4D830Delektrosmdonet@130.133.1.4...
> The water in the UK is safe, and it doesn't taste of chlorine. I don't
have
> to demonstrate how they acheive that.
Ironic that the UK is the first place to use chlorinated water?
Hey, its been an interesting conversation.
> > Chlorine has a unique property from other systems in that it leaves a
> > residual that continues to protect the water once it leaves the
> > treatment facility.
>
> And which spoils the taste of the water to the extent that it is
completely
> unpalatable to those not raised from birth on chlorinated water
Let me do an informal poll around the office here. Over half the staff
comes from overseas (India, China, Russia) let me see what their feelings
are on the matter. No sense deviating from your preferred course of
examination - gut feeling and opinon.
> So you admit there are other systems that don't use chlorine
Duh. Of course. Just as there are different ways to get from point 'A' to
point 'B'. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages.
> Only if there are major infrastructure problems. Apparently the 'quick
> fix' for those is to taint the water with chlorine.
You don't need "major" infrastructure problems. All you need is warm
weather that fosters quick microbial growth. There is no 100% solution
(except intense radiation). What happens is that if you leave 1% and let
the critters multiply they will quickly resume their balance of
unhealthiness. If the UV treated water was sent through hermetically sealed
pipes straight to your tap then there would be negligable increase in
critters, but that ain't the case. For instance, many municipalities
require check valves on ever end-user's attachment to the water line. This
prevents back-flow of contaminated water into the main pipe. Lose pressure
for even a moment (water main break, maintenance requiring temporary
shutdown, etc) , and soon the lines are contaminated. I seriously doubt
that there has been a major retrofit to insure that every user has a
checkvalve.
The trick in water treatment is to expediently produce the amount of water
that can be consumed at all points within a certain acceptable level of
contamination. If the UK has set their standards at a point that it doesn't
require taste-detectable levels of chlorine to do that, then consider
yourself fortunate.
> My own experience is that the water is safe in Europe. I have no
experience
> of former Soviet bloc countries, which is what you seem to be talking
> about.
Eastern Europe is part of this world. Asia holds most of the people on the
planet, its kind of hard to ignore them and just focus on the West. Though I
appreciate you expressing your personal experiences in First World water
supply.
> I'm not sure that modern is a word that comes to mind, but anal certainly
> seems about right
Hence that's why some people pay more per unit of water than they do for
fuel for their cars.
People are willing to shell out more for something that literally falls out
of the sky than for a product that has to be found then extracted from the
ground, run through expensive refineries, shipped half-way around the globe
and piped through thousands of more miles of pipeline where it is refined
even more, doped with regional chemicals, trucked and sold by a
shelf-replenishment engineer at a convenience store.
Now why is that?
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