OCR GCSE Combined Science Chemistry J250
Chemical Reactions
Elements, Compounds and Mixtures
Global Challenges
Monitoring and Controlling Chemical Reactions
Particles
Global Challenges
Producing potable water
- 3 things to know
- Paper 10 (Chemistry)
Overview
What potable water is and how it differs from pure water, treating fresh water by screening, filtering and sterilising with chlorine, ozone or ultraviolet light, desalination by distillation or reverse osmosis and its cost, how hard ground, salt and waste water are to treat, and taking random, representative samples from a reservoir.
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Explain why potable water is not the same as pure water.
Why is water sterilised before it is supplied to homes?
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What is meant by potable water?
Model answer
Water that is safe to drink, with low levels of dissolved salts and no harmful microbes.
- 2
Explain why potable water is not the same as pure water.
Model answer
Chemically pure water contains only H₂O molecules, whereas potable water still contains dissolved substances at levels that are safe to drink.
- 3
Describe how fresh water from a river or reservoir is treated to make it potable.
Model answer
It is passed through a mesh screen and then filtered through beds of sand and gravel to remove solids, and finally sterilised.
- 4
Why is water sterilised before it is supplied to homes?
Model answer
To kill the microbes in it that would otherwise cause disease.
- 5
Name three methods used to sterilise water.
Model answer
Adding chlorine, treating with ozone, or passing the water under ultraviolet light.
- 6
How can potable water be obtained from sea water?
Model answer
By desalination, either by distilling the sea water or by forcing it through a membrane under pressure in reverse osmosis.
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