I was in Junior Secondary School 2 when I first had a serious water related issue. Then, the housemaster of our hostel dug some ponds with the help of students. He was going to raise fishes in the ponds but he didn't stock the pond for a while. As a belligerent child belonging to a caucus of obstinate children, we decided to give those ponds that had been filled with rain water a lovely visit.
On a hot Saturday afternoon, we got the motivation to go bath in the ponds. It was a very enjoyable afternoon for us as we laughed, danced and played in the pond. But it all turned sour when the housemaster got wind of what was happening. We escaped before he made it to the ponds but he caught a glimpse of the slowest moving member of our gang.
Well, after some severe beat down the silly boy ratted us out. That day was one hell of a day I'll never forget. However, the punishment meted on me by the housemaster was nothing close to the one that waited for me in the nearest future. About some weeks or so later, I noticed my urine was dark red. I was scared. And after diagnosis, it was confirmed that I had hepatitis.
Well, I was too young to understand what that meant until some questions were asked. That was when I realized I had contracted the illness during my day out in the pond. Obviously, one of the molluscs in the stagnant pond water was a carrier of the hepatitis parasite. I'm probably susceptible to it. That was why I was the only one who fell ill of about 12 of us that visited the pond. That was the first time I really got scared of water and its inhabitants. In fact, dirty water can kill as fast as anything out there.
As for how clean the water I consume is, well, sachet water is the most affordable thing to clean water that we have here. Despite its availability, I've tried my hands on other affordable methods of getting clean drinking water.
The one that easily jumps to mind is boiling water, allowing it to cool and then sieve before drinking. Though this method is touted to be effective against germs, for the few times that I've drank boiled water it felt like I was drinking "dead" water. It didn't taste soothing and refreshing like a good water should. Or, maybe I didn't do it right.
Asides boiling water before drinking, I've read that activated charcoal is also used to purify water. It kills germs and makes water safe for drinking. Also, when I worked at a water factory a UV water sterilizer was part of the setup to purify water before it gets bagged. The idea is that the UV sterilizer damages the DNA of microorganisms resident in the water.
To get clean water, I guess using a combination of activated charcoal and a UV water sterilizer should get one a clean drinking water. Its affordability is a topic for another day, though
