What water is better to drink and how to determine the quality of drinking water?
Какую воду лучше пить и как определить качество питьевой воды? 25.06.2019

On the day, on the recommendation of experts, a person consumes about two liters of water, not counting the additional liter that comes with food. With the onset of summer, the volume of water consumed increases and can reach four liters. Many experts say that drinking water is necessary, but almost no one says which one. One can be written on the label of bottled water, but the content will not fully correspond to the data.

High-quality drinking water should be saturated with useful macro and microelements in optimal proportions and quantities. In total, there are about fifty water quality and safety indicators, including potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, fluoride and iodide - ions, silver, sulfates, chlorides, heavy metals, phosphates, nitrates and many other elements and compounds.

When buying high-quality drinking water, you should pay attention to the label where “water of the highest category” should be written and should be bought in large stores, so there is a real chance of buying non-counterfeit or low-grade drinking water from an artesian source. In addition, you need to pay attention to the label on the container with water, which should contain all the necessary information: category of water, number and name of the well, its depth, location, producer, chemical composition, description in one phrase, for example, “chloride-sulfate-sodium water slightly alkaline, registration data, as well as the date of manufacture and expiration date.

Counterfeit products usually have an untidy appearance, the label is not clearly printed, and there are no characteristic signs of protection. However, it is often difficult for an ordinary consumer to distinguish a quality product from a fake.
Drinking water packaged in a container is a food product that is bottled in glass or plastic bottles for retail distribution. The volume of containers ranges from 0.33-liter bottles to 19-liter bottles for coolers.

As you know, water is divided into mineral and drinking.

Mineral water is a category of natural water that is extracted from an underground source (well) with the original mineral composition preserved. Mineral waters have a therapeutic effect, but subject to a number of conditions, that is, there must be a certain temperature, a regimen of intake and often, immediate consumption at the source. Drinking mineral water in liters and considering it a cure is a delusion, and sometimes harm. It is possible and necessary to be treated with water, but it is desirable at the resort, if outside the resort, then under the mandatory supervision of a doctor.

 With the awareness of this problem, manufacturers of packaged water today increase the supply of table water and drinking water in the market that are absolutely harmless in terms of mineralization, that is, they focus on the purity of their products on the purity of packaged water compared to problematic tap water and better “thirst quenching” as opposed to carbonated drinks. The average mineralization of such water 0.1-0.35 g / l is considered safe and recommended for everyday consumption. In any case, water quality can only be assessed using chemical and microbiological analysis.

Unlike table water and mineral water, which do not have clear criteria (except for the general mineralization parameter), normative documentation has been developed for drinking packaged water that clearly regulates the composition and allows classifying packaged water, depending on the quality of water treatment, into two categories: drinking water of the first category drinking water of the highest category. In the second category, more stringent requirements are put forward for the water treatment process, chemical composition, organoleptic, radiological and other indicators than for water of the first category.

Drinking water should be safe for human consumption by microbiological, parasitological and radiological indicators, harmless in chemical composition, and have favorable organoleptic properties. Water that meets these requirements can be consumed by a person indefinitely throughout his life.

Currently, conformity assessment (certification) of drinking water is carried out according to 86 safety indicators (9 - criteria for aesthetic properties, 55 - criteria for the safety of chemical composition, 2 - criteria for radiation safety, 11 - criteria for epidemiological safety, 9-criteria for the physiological usefulness of macro and microelements ) In terms of total salt content, drinking water should not exceed 1 g / dm³.

Demesinova B.M.- Deputy Director
Kumasheva R.Kh. - specialist of the department of municipal hygiene,
Zhakupova Zh.Zh.-head of the sanitary-hygienic laboratory
branch of the RSE on the REM "National Center of Expertise" CPPH of the MH of the RK