FAQ
Water Bottle Station or Fountain
These water sources are places where you should find safe fresh potable water for human and animal consumption. H2O Finder aims to identify only the fountains and Water bottle refill stations which are maintained and controlled by local water / environmental authorities, charities and local governing bodies or community groups.
Drinkable
These are water sources which for recreational activities and possible human consumption. These water sources are likely to be good for swimming, fire fighting, farming activities, agriculture, irrigation, and environmental water flows such as; lakes, rivers, waterfalls estuaries, wetlands, aquifer or retarding facilities.
Non- Drinkable
These water sources are not suitable for consumption or use and may contain substances which could be harmful to health or have an adverse affect on recreational activities. Sources include closed industrial systems and commercial facilities for specific land use.
Treatment Required
These are water sources which may be suitable for drinking or other recreational activities such as farming or livestock once the water has had a level of treatment applied to it, such as boiling or purification tablets or distillation including distribution supply reservoirs.
Sample Data
These are locations which have undergone a level of Water Quality Testing and examination.
Basic Water Quality Parameters
Turbidity
The measurement of turbidity is a key test of water quality. Turbidity is the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by large numbers of individual particles that are generally invisible to the naked eye, similar to smoke in air. The measurement of turbidity is a key test of water quality. Governments have set standards on the allowable turbidity in drinking water. Many drinking water utilities strive to achieve levels as low as 0.1 NTU.
The World Health Organisation establishes that the turbidity of drinking water should not be more than 5 NTU, and should ideally be below 1 NTU.
pH
In chemistry, pH is a numeric scale used to specify the acidity or basicity of an aqueous solution. It is approximately the negative of the logarithm to base 10 of the molar concentration, measured in units of moles per liter, of hydrogen ions. The pH of pure water is 7. In general, water with a pH lower than 7 is considered acidic, and with a pH greater than 7 is considered basic.
The normal range for pH in surface water systems is 6.5 to 8.5, and the pH range for groundwater systems is between 6 to 8.5.
Conductivity
It is the reciprocal of electrical resistivity (ohms). Therefore conductivity is used to measure the concentration of dissolved solids which have been ionized in a polar solution such as water. The unit of measurement commonly used is one millionth of a Siemen per centimeter (micro-Siemens per centimeter or µS/cm).
Typical drinking water in the range of 5-50 mS/m, while sea water about 5 S/m (i.e., sea water's conductivity is one million times higher than that of deionized water).
You can find the Standards for Drinking Water by the World Health Organisation here:
