Water Supply and Pollution Contro

Abstract

The human search for pure water supplies must have begun in prehistoric times. Much of that earliest activity is subject to speculation. Some individuals may have conveyed water through trenches dug in the earth. They may have used a hollow log as the first water pipe. Thousands of years probably passed before our more recent ancestors learned to build cities and enjoy the convenience of water piped into houses and wastes carried away by water. Our earliest archeological records of central water supply and wastewater disposal date back about 5000 years, to the city of Nippur, in Sumeria. In the ruins of Nippur there is an arched drain, each stone being a wedge tapering downward into place [1].Water was drawn from wells and cisterns.An extensive system of drainage conveyed the wastes from the palaces and residential districts of the city. The earliest recorded knowledge of water treatment is in Sanskrit medical lore and Egyptian wall inscriptions [2]. Sanskrit writings dating to about 2000 B.C. tell how to purify foul water by boiling it in copper vessels, exposing it to sunlight, filtering it through charcoal, and cooling it in an earthen vessel. Nothing is written about water treatment in the biblical sanitary and hygienic code of the early Hebrews, although three incidents may be cited as examples of the importance of fresh water. At Morah, Moses is said to have sweetened bitter waters by casting into them a tree shown him by God [3]. When the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness, the Lord commanded Moses to bring forth water by smiting a rock [4]. At a much later date, Elisha is said to have “healed unto this day” the spring water of Jericho by casting “salt” into it [5]. The earliest known apparatus for clarifying liquids was pictured on Egyptian walls in the fifteenth and thirteenth centuries B.C. The first picture, in a tomb of the reign of Amenhotep II (1447–1420 B.C.), represents the siphoning of either water or settled wine. A second picture, in the tomb of Rameses II (1300–1223 B.C.), shows the use of wick siphons in an Egyptian kitchen