Having clean, uncontaminated water to drink at home and on-the-go is one of the most essential components to keeping your family safe and healthy.
Unfortunately, safe water is not necessarily a given.
A recent study, published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that in 2015, nearly 21 million people relied on community water systems that violated health-based quality standards.
To help ensure you are hydrating healthfully all the time — at home, in your community, on trips or in emergencies – consider investing in an easy-to-maintain water filtration device that can be used anywhere in order to improve water quality.
One example is LifeStraw, first introduced for people in developing countries without access to safe water and for victims following natural disasters.
The company now makes a range of water filters and purifiers designed for uses like emergency preparedness, outdoor recreation, travel and everyday hydration.
The refillable LifeStraw Go 2-Stage water bottle features a built-in filter, and removes 99.9999 percent of waterborne bacteria (including E. coli and salmonella), 99.999 percent of protozoa while also reducing chlorine organic chemical matter and bad taste.
LifeStraw is available online and at your local Walmart, Target and Sam’s Club.
What’s great is this is also a company that gives back — for every LifeStraw product purchased, a school child in a community in need receives safe water for an entire school year.
This highlights the growing need to take precautions both at home and when you travel, and to invest in products that give back.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has shut out media from a meeting led by chief Scott Pruitt who discussed the widespread level of contaminants in drinking water.
Mr Pruitt has said the issue is a "national priority” but EPA spokesperson Jahan Wilcox barred reporters from entering and reporting about it, saying that the media were not invited, according to the Associated Press.
When the news agency’s reporter asked to speak to a public affairs person, the security guards grabbed the reporter by the shoulders and shoved her forcibly out of the building, she reported.
Others shut out included CNN, the environmental-focused news organisation E&E, and MLive, a Michigan-based news outlet.
He did not specify which media outlets were allowed into the room.
It was also not immediately clear whether reporters who were asked to leave the building at the agency’s headquarters in Washington DC, had access to the livestream or whether it was only available in an adjacent room.
The mayor also commented that he noticed a theme throughout the day’s sessions which he attended: “the need for funding” and the “desire for national leadership” on eliminating or reducing these contaminants.
Mr Pruitt also pledged to work on establishing a maximum allowable level for the chemicals in drinking water.
While state representatives, the chemical industry, and environmental groups were allowed to enter the meeting room and even tweet about it.
The Michigan city of Flint has been dealing with massive amounts of lead in its drinking water for nearly four years, causing health and developmental problems in children in particular and forcing several residents to resort to bottled water for all their needs or move out of the community.

Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath is pledging support for clean water on First Nations.
"We have a situation in Grassy Narrows that exists in too many indigenous and First Nation communities across our province.
People should be able to have access to clean drinking water," she said.
The federal government has committed to lifting 76 long-term drinking water advisories on First Nations across the country by 2021.
By Ottawa’s count, they’ve lifted 29 such advisories since 2016.
During her visit to Grassy Narrows Friday, Horwath also committed to cleaning up the English and Wabigoon River systems, adding she also wants to revisit the mercury disability board and health care for those impacted by contamination.
Wynne also addressed the issue of the waterway cleanup, while on the campaign trail in Toronto last week.
She said her government was committed to stopping the source of the leak, as well as remediation, but didn’t put a timetable on the research taking place into what method would work best for the work.
In a short statement to the media, PC leader Doug Ford agreed to work as quickly as possible to clean up the contamination.
For more information: Ending long-term drinking water advisories Mercury remediation delays ‘astonishing,’ Perley

Tap water or bottled — which is better?
Nearly everyone has a preference and in the U.S., the Safe Drinking Water Act ensures drinking water is safe.
Tap water or bottled — which is better?
Nearly everyone has a preference and in the U.S., the Safe Drinking Water Act ensures drinking water is safe.
On the topic of private wells, in rural areas like St. Joseph County, the online battle is quieter.
Tap water or bottled water?
But nearly everyone who drinks tap water has a private well at home and says the water tastes good.
Most of those polled who have city water, choose bottled water for drinking.
Why would I pay for it?” Bottled water Those choosing bottled water for purity reasons include Sturgis water customer Cassidy Sobieck who recently moved to Sturgis and chooses bottled water.
Both tap and bottled Justin Keeney of Sturgis has city water which he drinks, but he also uses bottled water.

A study of drinking water in Appalachian Ohio found no evidence of natural gas contamination from recent oil and gas drilling.
Geologists with the University of Cincinnati examined drinking water in Carroll, Stark and Harrison counties, a rural region in northeast Ohio where many residents rely on water from private underground wells.
The time-series study was the first of its kind in Ohio to examine methane in groundwater in relation to natural gas drilling.
“Some people had elevated concentrations of methane in their groundwater, but the isotopic composition showed it wasn’t from natural gas” said Amy Townsend-Small, associate professor of geology in UC’s McMicken College of Arts and Sciences.
They found no increase in methane concentration or composition in groundwater over the four years of the study, despite the presence of new shale gas wells drilled in the study area.
But researchers found no relationship between the methane observed in drinking water and the new gas wells.
Lead author and UC graduate Claire Botner said the study solicited participation by homeowners who were willing to let researchers test their wells.
Researchers hypothesized that methane concentrations in the drinking-water wells they sampled would increase over time with the growth of natural gas drilling in the area.
The study concluded that methane observed in groundwater was “biogenic,” or naturally occurring and independent of natural gas drilling.
Wirkner said gas companies test the drinking water of nearby homes before and after they drill a well to observe any changes in water quality.

Punjab Muktsar, May 19 As polluted water is flowing in canals, the water supply authorities have closed the water inlets of reservoirs so that the already stored water is not contaminted.
The underground water in most parts of the district has been declared unfit.
Now, potable water scarcity is set to hit the area.
Amritdeep Bhattal, SDO, Water Supply and Sanitation Department, Muktsar, said, “We have just got the alert regarding contaminated water flowing in canals in our area.
Now, we are informing our waterworks operators to close the water inlets so that contaminated water doesn’t enter reservoirs.
It may even affect the water supply for some days.
As of now, we will supply the already stored water.” He said most waterworks in the area were dependent on the canal water as the underground water in most parts of the district was declared unfit for drinking.
Meanwhile, farmers said they could not irrigate fields with the contaminated water.
(Archit Watts)

It is also by far the most challenging place in Pakistan to eradicate polio.
Difficulties include the large and frequent movement of people, poor water and sanitation conditions, and pockets of community resistance to vaccination.
In the northwestern part of the city lies Orangi Town.
The fifth largest slum in the world today, it is a tough place to live for the children who run around and play games in the streets outside their homes.
At many points, human waste mixes with drinking water lines.
The quality of potable water is low and filled with pathogens including bacteria and viruses, and it is the main cause of many water-borne illnesses in adults and children, including hepatitis A, acute watery diarrhea and typhoid.
Speaking on 8 May at the opening of the plant, Mr Aziz Memon, Chairman of Pakistan’s National Rotary PolioPlus Committee said: “This is the 15th water filtration plant installed in Pakistan, and the sixth in Karachi, and we will do all that we can with our partners to help raise the community’s standard of living including health.” Dr Shafiq, a representative of Orangi Town, thanked Rotary International for its continuous support of polio eradication in the area.
Combined with vaccination activities, children drinking the clean water provided by the new plant will now have an improved chance to grow up polio-free.
National Chair Aziz Memon said: “Orangi Town is one of the most underprivileged urban slums in Karachi and the supply of safe drinking water will improve health issues of the community and save children from water borne diseases.” He added that “Rotary is making intensified efforts in this impoverished area and has established a Resource Center in Bijli Nagar Orangi Town.” These extra steps towards ensuring that children are safe from disease also help to gain community trust, and form part of Rotary’s work to raise awareness of polio, and overcome vaccine hesitancy.
In 2016, Rotary International contributed over US$ 106 million to polio eradication worldwide, and in Pakistan, Rotarians are at the forefront of the fight against the virus.

Senator Grace Poe has wants a law mandating employers in private and public sectors to provide “free of charge” and clean drinking water to their employees.
She filed Senate Bill No.
“Drinking water, no matter how essential, is unfortunately not free.
For people who are working in the field or those who are obligated to move around and outside an office, bottled mineral water ranges from P18 to P40 depending on the volume: 1 liter to 1.5 liters, she said.
“Just by looking around outside one’s home or office, one could surely notice our traffic enforcers manning our streets, our policemen patrolling everywhere, construction workers building various establishments, service people catering to the needs of the consuming public, office workers, and the like,” she said.
The senator noted that the United Nations “itself recognized that one’s access to water is a basic human right.” “One could not help to wonder–how much are they forced to spend to be able to have a healthy drinking water, a basic human necessity and a UN-declared human right, especially given the fact that they work under the blistering heat of the sun?” Poe wondered.
SBN 1792 seeks to “remove the burden” of having to spend for healthy drinking water while performing one’s work off of the pockets of all employees, she said.
It seeks to mandate all employers to provide free, healthy, and accessible drinking water to all their employees during working hours whether or not the latter’s work, tasks and/or duties are performed inside or outside offide or business premises.
SBN 1792 also seeks to “penalize non-compliant employers who will deprive employees of the basic human need and human right to have healthy and accessible drinking water that is compliant with the PNSDW (Phil.
National Standards for Drinking Water).

Zero Mass Water makes solar panel arrays that pull clean drinking water from the air.
Zero Mass arrays could come in handy in areas where water sources are far away or scarce.
In 2015, it launched its first product, Source — a solar panel array that harvests and filters water from vapour in the air.
The company has installed the devices in nine countries, including Chile, Jordan, Peru and the US, where it became available in late 2017.
Each panel costs R31,200 (plus a R6,200 installation fee) and generates an average of 2 to 5 litres of water daily, depending on levels of humidity and sunlight.
The device adds minerals to increase the water’s pH levels (to make it taste more like bottled water), and stores the water underneath the panels in a reservoir that can hold 30 litres.
Friesen said the company’s ideal customer is everyone.
Duke Energy has also deployed panels in Ecuador, and Zero Mass received a USAID grant to install panels in refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon in 2015.
Friesen added that maintaining the device is low-cost.
"We want to perfect water for every person and every place," Friesen said.

The Times-Standard Three hundred miles to the south, our society rewards the makers of tech trinkets with the greatest fortunes ever amassed in history — largely, infamously untaxed.
Meanwhile, a coalition of government officials here and in Sacramento is asking you to pay a little more to ensure that everyone in the state has access to clean drinking water.
Just ask the residents of Flint.
But why should our leaders be inventing new taxes to ensure the delivery of the most basic of services when there are plenty of old taxes laying around, endlessly abused or ignored outright by a long line of corporations that are by no means in any danger whatsoever of experiencing a moment of thirst?
Let the gloriously untaxed among us pick up the canteen and walk to a well, for once, for the betterment of the society that shelters them from any of the great responsibility that should by all rights and the wisdom of Stan Lee come with the great power they’ve managed to accumulate.
The proposal currently trickling through the halls of power in Sacramento, if adopted, would take effect in July 2020.
It looks to charge most of us 95 cents a month, with heavy business and industry paying $4 to $10 a month.
Additional taxes on fertilizers and dairy products would swell the pool of revenue collected each year to around $140 million.
Color us skeptical.
Proponents of the proposed new tax tell us that 1 million Californians each year go without access to safe drinking water, and that nearly 2 million Californians lack service from a public water system.