DRINKING WATER

Unfortunately, nowadays drinking water contains multiple types of contamination already. More and more people uses local water purifier systems. The following headline supports our opinion, that we should take care of our really clean drinking water sooner then later, as it will be harder and harder to get it with time.

Drinking water will be the main problem in the carpathian basin.
Népszabadság Online on the 17th of May, 2007 (date might be a mistake, but it is ported on the internet with this date: http://nol.hu/cikk/446880/)
Drinking water will be the biggest problem of the next century.
Attila Demény (the organizer of the conference) told, that in the international project (started in 1991) 3800 scientists from over 100 countries have taken part. The 19 registered participants from Hungary reports now for the first time about their resource at home.
"The ultimate goal of the resource is modelling the possible effects in the carpathian basin. In the next century, the biggest problem will be the drinking water" he told us.
As he explained, on one hand, the quantity of water that reaches the ground will decrease which effects the drinking water supply, on the other hand, the quality of drinking water will be an issue.
Water, which is extraded currently, comes from a 10.000 year old source and is totally clear, but in a few decades (especially with increasing of the quantity of extraction) we can extract more and more contaminated water - he explained.
The class leader advised, that climate change will effect hydrogeology and the water distribution and the behaviour and character of rivers.
If underground water supply, and summertime precipitation decreases, but wintertime precipitation increases, we will have to collect and store water, which is a multi-billion HUF investment. -stated Attila Demény.
According the László Haszpra (university reader, lead advisor of Hungarian Meteorology Service ) sees water as the biggest problem of Hungary.
He thinks that even when there is much talk about the effects of climate change on agricultural production, we should not be worried about troubles in food supply even when grain production goes down to 2/3 of current.
That wont effect survival, at the same time water agency will have to face, that water quantity will be lower in the rivers and under ground -he told us.
He thinks, that if the water quantity of rivers becomes exaggerated, we have to prepare from a flood protection point of view as well.
László Haszpra stated that current models show, that the erratic component of weather will be increased. We can have a rain bigger then ever, and months of drought right after that in the same year. Big rains increase the risk of floods, so we could use the water reservoirs to prevent floods as well.
"This is a very sensitive question" - he stressed, adding that we will have to rethink a lot of things, and not only on the politics or engineer level, but considering environmental movements as well.

Drinking water grading

The allowed concentration of contaminants in drinking water.

Source: http://www.muszeroldal.hu/assistance/ivovizminosites.pdf

The allowed concentration of toxic contaminants in mg/L:

These quantities of toxic contaminants in drinking water are allowed, so drinking water can contain that much and be considered as healthy. Do you believe the same?

-In the specification, there are elements which have not to be commented, because they are heavy toxins known by everyone. Of course these are very low quantities, which will not damage our health on the short run. But who and when did examine their long-time effects on human health?
-Heavy metals, which can be found on the listing as well, wont deplete from human body, but rather build up and will only show the effects of sickness (eg. softening of the brain in older ages) when a certain quantity is reached in the body. The faster these quantities build up, the sooner these sicknesses will come.
-Water providers check the quality on multiple points. But they never check it in the pipeline and at the faucets at homes, however contaminations can get into the water in the pipeline. There were contaminations found from pipelines made with tar in the 60's. Some of this pipelines are still in use. There are also pipes made of lead still in usage everywhere in the county. For this reason, even the latest water technologies cannot guarantee the ideal quality of water.

Let's see the Hungarian standard for drinking water:

"MSZ12749 standard
Good quality water: free of contaminants, clear, natural water. The level of solutes and nutriments is low. There are no sewer bacteria. The oxygen saturation is almost full."

The built up quantity of toxins, inorganic chemicals and minerals is our body in direct correlation with our expected lifespan.