With populations thriving around the world, there is a developing problem which threatens to seriously threaten whole populations and bring the world economy tumbling to a halt. It isn't a lack of food, as many people worried about, especially in the 70s and into the 80s. Genetically modified crops, resistant to frost and with shorter growth periods, granted untold amounts of food onto the world, saving millions of people from starvation. Nowadays, the problem is water. With more people than ever before needing water, there is less of it to go around. Any pollution that enters the water supply will affect more people than ever before, so drinking water quality parameters are our only safeguard against the many pollutants that we might find in water.

Nasty Side Effects

If you think that water is already pretty clean and that we don't need to worry about it, it's because we already have drinking water quality parameters in place. In other areas of the world without drinking water quality parameters, people face malaria, cancer, and other serious side effects from their only sources of water. Other pollutants take a long time to build up, and once in place, we might not even have the technology yet to rid the water of them. Take for example medicinal traces. Several recent news reports have shown high levels of several popular drugs. These can be extremely dangerous to people who don't require them, and the side effects will be even worse in seniors and children. We need drinking water quality parameters to make sure that these problems are taken care of prudently and efficiently instead of letting these problems build up.

With guidelines in place, we need to actually check the water. Yearly drinking water quality reports are delivered by July 1, and they allow everyone to see how well their water stacks up. If problems are detected, you can be sure that they will be taken care of quickly, but you'll still be able to adapt your lifestyle to use alternate sources of water like water bought from the store in the meantime. These will be taken automatically for anyone using town or city water, while well users will need to schedule appointments with their local water testing company to verify the safety of their water supply. As technology improves and we develop many new types of materials, some of them are bound to be classified as pollutants as their harmful side effects become apparent. With drinking water quality parameters, we can ensure that the pollution never gets out of hand.