‘Tis the season to give thanks for family and friends. Here at Nu Flow, we are also thankful for clean, indoor water and safe plumbing systems, especially after the last couple of years of having to more frequently clean, sanitize surfaces, and wash our hands. The unfortunate news is that 785 million people across the globe still do not have access to basic water services, according to the CDC. Here in the United States, you would think that everyone has access to clean water, but that’s not true. According to Medical News Today, as of 2017, 1.1 million people in the US have insecure water access, and these aren’t people living in rural communities. Roughly 65,000 of these people live in New York.
Global Clean Water Fast Facts
While we tend to take safe, clean water for granted in the United States, many people don’t have access to safe water, and unclean water can lead to severe illnesses, like cholera and diarrhea. The good news is that access to safe drinking water is increasing. In 2000, only 61 percent of the global population had access to clean drinking water. It has since increased to 71 percent.
- 5 billion people across the globe have access to safe drinking water
- 1.4 billion people have access to basic water services
- 206 million people have access to limited clean water resources
- 435 million people use water from unimproved sources
- 144 million people still use surface water, like water from streams, rivers, and lakes.
- 3 billion people have access to sanitation services, like toilets with a piped sewer system
- 2.2 billion people have access to basic sanitation services
- 701 million people use unimproved sanitation, like pit latrines and outhouses
4 Reasons to Be Thankful for Chicago Plumbing Systems
1. We Don’t Have to Reuse Water
Having modern indoor plumbing means that we do not have to reuse water for multiple cleaning tasks. For example, when homes in the US were without indoor plumbing, a single bucket of water had to last because every bucket of water meant going out to the well and physically pumping it from the well or dropping a bucket on a rope into the well to pull out water. This resulted in individuals not taking daily baths. When they did take baths, a single tub was filled once. The adults generally took their baths first, then the older children, and finally babies. This is where the phrase, “don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater” originated because the water was often so dirty after the entire household bathed that you couldn’t see the baby in the water.
Now, let’s think about cleaning the general household. For these tasks, no one was going to pump thirty gallons of water from the well so that each cleaning task could be performed with a fresh bucket. Instead, water was used in the order of cleanliness. For example, the cleanest water would be used for cooking and drinking. If multiple items were to be cleaned, you might want to wipe down tables and counters first, then do dishes, and finally, scrub the floors. Once all the cleaning was completed, the bucket of filthy water was thrown out, usually on the ground outside the back door.
2. Cooking Food is a Breeze
Even if you don’t have a pot filler over your stove, you still have easy access to clean, running water when you cook. You can easily fill pots and pans, boil vegetables and wash your hands as well as surfaces to prevent cross-contamination between meats and vegetables while you’re preparing the food. Water that is dirty or unused simply flows down the drain, and once you’re done cooking and cleaning, you can use fresh water to wash the dirty dishes, clean the sinks and wipe off the tables.
3. Washing Clothes is No Longer a Time-Consuming Chore
Before household plumbing systems and washing machines, families, usually, the matriarch, had to wash all clothes by hand, using either a wash bucket and board or by hauling a basket of clothes down to the nearest creek, stream, river, or pond. The clothes would be scrubbed on the washboard using a bar of lye soap. Then, they were rinsed and wrung out by hand before being hung on a line to dry in the sun.
Today, all we have to do is throw our clothes in the washer or take them to the laundromat, add soap and wait for the wash and rinse cycles to complete before throwing the clothes in the dryer, which significantly decreases the effort and time involved in washing clothes.
4. We No Longer Have to Worry About Water-Borne Illnesses
In the past, untreated water was used to cook, clean, and bathe, and if the outhouse was located near the well, people could end up with human feces in the water. This can lead to diarrhea, cholera, typhoid, scabies, and parasitic infections. In fact, you really didn’t want to drink or use the water to cook without boiling it first. Today, we only have boil water orders if a plumbing pipe has recently been repaired or an area has flooded due to a major storm. In fact, many of us don’t even think about contaminants in our drinking and cooking water.
Maintaining Your Indoor Plumbing System
While we don’t have to worry about where we get our water, and we can enjoy indoor plumbing in homes, residential multi-unit buildings and in commercial buildings freely, we still have to worry about maintaining our plumbing systems and keeping the water free of contaminants, like lead and copper. Thankfully, even more, recent developments in plumbing system rehabilitation have made plumbing pipe maintenance even more affordable and convenient, and one of those methods is epoxy pipelining and coating. By lining or coating your pipes, you are repairing your wipes in an affordable way and extending their useful lives.
Pipelining for Your Building’s Plumbing System with NuFlow
Here at Nu Flow in Chicago, we offer epoxy lining for plumbing pipes, which is a revolutionary and trenchless way to restore plumbing pipes, prevent chemicals from leaching into the water and stop leaks before they result in mold, mildew, and building damage.
To learn more about how epoxy lining for plumbing pipes helps keep your indoor water clean, contact us at 815-790-9000.