Clean Drinking Water

Water treatment goes back thousands of years although early forms consisted of little more than boiling and filtering the water to get clean drinking water. In the mid-1800s the transmission of disease through drinking water was discovered and the need for clean drinking water increased. Water utilities in the United States began disinfecting water in the 20th century. The results were dramatic-a great decline in waterborne diseases such as typhoid, cholera, dysentery, and hepatitis, which had caused thousands of deaths throughout the country and still do in countries that don't treat their water. The treatment and disinfection of drinking water to get clean drinking water has saved more lives than all the doctors and hospitals in history.