My field trip to the water treatment plant

As the bus rolled across the concrete bridge, I looked out of my window. A brown, trash-filled river greeted my eyes. I almost swore. This is what humans do to the rivers that supplied them with water for thousands of years? Fools. Water from this river 500 years ago was pure and safe to drink. Now it has to go through an expensive purification process for it to be considered safe. My class took a field trip to the AETRA water purification plant to see how water from this dirty river was turned in water to be consumed by the people of Jakarta. It was an interesting field trip, and at the end of it we got to taste the water. The purified water tasted like normal water and I couldn't believe that this water once had bacteria and other deadly germs that could have been fatal. This particular plant processes 5000 liters of water PER SECOND. Whoa, that's a lot of water!

How to purify water in 6 steps:

Step 1: Gather water that you are going to purify. Pass it through large, coarse filters to filter out large debris like cans and plastic bags. Pass it through a second set of fine filters to remove small debris like leaves and straws.

Step 2: Add minerals like iron and magnesium to make the water slightly cleaner.

Step 3: Add alum and stir it into the water. The alum will act like a magnet and draw together dirt particles to form clumps. These clumps are called floc.

Step 4: Pass the water through a bed of sand. This should remove the floc and further improve the quality of the water.

Step 5: Pass the water through more sand; 1 meter of it. The sand should be extremely fine. Add chlorine to kill any remaining germs.

Step 6: Add disinfectant and, once tested for e-coli(a type of germ that causes stomach cramps and,in some cases, death), send it to a reservoir. The water is now ready to drink! Mmmm. That tastes good!