Drinking water -
our most valuable commodity

Drinking water is first and foremost a very clean and pure fresh water. A water that the population of Europe is provided with by the state and for which the state guarantees quality through its drinking water ordinance. Furthermore, it is the substance without which life itself would not be possible.

Pure and clean drinking water is not directly available to most of us, because very few people nowadays have access to a pristine spring or a usable, clean well. To get access to water, we need large infrastructure, which must be maintained and cared for. This servicing is the job of municipal water suppliers. Citizens in developed countries are used to get water from the tap by merely turning it on, and the so-called drinking water flows. You could call this the modern world. However, it is not quite so simple.

Nowadays, municipal water suppliers must be painstakingly treat water. They provide a valuable service to the public - albeit an increasingly costly service.
Drinking water is obtained from various sources. Groundwater, enriched groundwater, spring water, lake and dam water, river water, river bank filtrate, and well water is used, and also seawater is becoming more important. Drinking water from wells can be produced by drilling shafts that protrude into the layers of surface water. In some areas only around 5 - 15 m depth may be sufficient whereas elsewhere deep wells of up to 400 m depth or more are drilled. Natural springs used to produce drinking water are divided into stratified springs or overflow springs. For seawater desalination, reverse osmosis is used.  
 

The clean and drinkable form of water has become a precious commodity. Precious because we humans have managed to contaminate up to almost 90% of this water treasure in the last 50 - 60 years. Substances that do not belong into the soil are mixed with groundwater.

Today, almost all drinking water may contain some amount of pharmaceuticals, pesticides and other potentially harmful substances which can affect our bodies negatively. Drinking water is much more important than food, for example. Without water, the human body can only survive for about three days. Drinking water is also an essential material to detoxify our body. However, drinking water can only fulfill this function if it has as few ingredients as possible and if it is not already contaminated with harmful substances.

Do not be impressed by the omnipresent advertising lie that mineral water should have a positive influence on your life. Long term water is only digestible for the body when it is just empty. Rain forest Indians and the Inuit with access to clean water have hardly any of our civilization illnesses such as kidney or gall stones and heart disease. The minerals and trace elements we need to live are almost without exception provided by our food and plants. As such human beings are omnivores.

If you take a critical point of view and look back a few hundred years into nature you will realize what works best for your health. Back then we only drank rainwater, spring water and river and stream water and were healthier than today. Today there is hardly a person who does not require his or her first chronic medication at the age of 40 or 45. Often and usually even earlier.

All this would not be necessary if we would drink clean and pure water to clean and keep our body clean.

NORMALLY, THE AMOUNT OF NUTRIENTS CONTAINED IN DRINKING WATER IS NOT SUFFICIENT TO COVER THE NEEDS OF THE HUMAN BODY. FOR SOME NUTRIENTS THIS IS NOT NECESSARY EITHER, AS THEY ARE MAINLY SUPPLIED TO THE BODY THROUGH FOOD INTAKE.