Can someone give me a grade for this essay:
Research and investigate the use of chlorine in water treatment, include both chemical and ethical aspects.
What I wrote:
How it works:
Chlorine serves as a method to further purify water, it can do this by killing the microorganisms that can cause disease (pathogens) that are still left after the sterilisation by breaking down the lipids that make up their cell walls and reacting with the enzymes and proteins inside, deeming them as unusable.
Why is chlorine a great chemical to use in water treatments?
The main sources of water are seas, rivers, and lakes. Living near one of these sources can help get water, but for countries in Sub-Saharan Africa even living near these sources will not help as the methods you have to then purify are not reliable or not safe enough. In countries which are in this economic state with poor water quality, the number of deaths and illnesses caused by badly disinfected drinking water means that the by-products (also known as carcinogens) caused when chlorine reacts with chemicals in the water or in the body become less of a priority. Due to the great amount of poverty in this region, chlorine is a great option due to its price and accessibility, the average price for a water well is around 8,000 USD (£ 6,455.76) , whereas the average price for a chlorination service comes in at around £300-1500 depending on the requirements and the size of the water system that needs to be chlorinated.
To conclude what was said, although chlorine does come with its limitations just like every other method, disinfection by chlorine is still the best guarantee of microbiologically safe water, especially in countries in this region.
Why chlorine is not the best chemical to use in water treatments?
Chlorine is a highly effective method of disinfection. However, when travelling in pipes, if the source of water has higher levels of germs, they could react with chlorine which could produce small amounts of toxic chemicals called DBP’s (by-products) .
Another reason why chlorine is not the best chemical to use in water treatments is because the conditions need to be very specific for chlorine to work optimally; the pH needs to be just right as well as the temperature of the water which needs to be 18 degrees Celsius of higher, decreasing the temperature would increase contact time, the process must therefore be adapted to take into account all of these factors which can be a lengthy process and extremely hard to achieve, putting people at risk in their own homes.
Other effects that it can have on humans is that it has been reported that asthma can be triggered by exposure to chlorinated water . Episodes of dermatitis have also been associated with exposure to chlorine and hypochlorite.
Methods that could be used instead are: UV radiation, Ozonation, Reverse Osmosis, Sodium Ferrate and many more. All of these have their advantages and disadvantages, but the one that seems most like chlorine and has possibly the least amount of toxic products left after being used is Sodium Ferrate, which is capable of decomposing many toxic chemicals into less toxic products and destroying microorganisms. This new reagent also doesn’t form toxic substances in the process of water purification and scientists believe that it can also neutralise chlorine in water. This process is believed to be useful in countries with developed sewage systems, as well as regions requiring local treatments for drinking and wastewater.
Conclusion
In Conclusion, to sum up all the points made, I think that Chlorine is a great way for developing and poor countries like Yemen and Kenya to use, as it can be easily accessed and isn’t too expensive compared to other methods of sterilising and purifying water for example; water wells or boreholes, but, in countries like America and other developed countries I think Chlorine is not a necessity but a want because countries like that can get easier access than other countries to UV radiation, Ozonation, Reverse Osmosis, and Sodium Ferrate due to having an economy which is a lot more stable and has the money to afford these, and of course all of these methods still come with their benefits, limitations and of which can also be more expensive, but on the other hand has they have the same if not better results to chlorine.
