Safe drinking water is one of the mankind’s most basic needs.

Safe drinking water has to have chemical,

microbial and physical characteristics complying with the latest World Health Organization (WHO) and
national standards. Bacterial contamination of water is a public health concern because it causes
numerous diseases. Organisms such as Escherichia coli (E. coli), Shigella spp., Salmonella spp.,
Vibriospp., and Cryptosporidium are known to be transmitted by water and cause ill health in
communities consuming water contaminated by bacteria and other pathogens.Hence, it is of utmost
important to purify water before its use. There are several methods used for the decontamination of
water, like chlorination, iodination, ozonation, UV-purification, reverse osmosis, using silver catalysts
etc.[ CITATION Got911 \l 1033 ][ CITATION Whi92 \l 1033 ][ CITATION Fin \l 1033 ][ CITATION Mar9 \l
1033 ][ CITATION Sha \l 1033 ]. Chemical purification, like adding chlorine or iodine or applying ozone to
kill the bacteria has several disadvantages. For example, chlorination may lead to the formation of
hypochlorous acid which can in turn react with natural organic matter such as humic acid/fulvic acid to
form disinfection by-products. These byproducts include trihalomethanes polychlorinated biphenyls and
other halogenated hydrocarbons. Some of these halo-hydrocarbons are known as carcinogens and
endocrine disruptors, and are difficult to remove from the water(6). Other methods like UV-purification
and reverse osmosis are not cost effective[ CITATION Hec07 \l 1033 ]. Ozonation may result in hazardous
intermediate substances (5).Adsorption using activated carbons find widespread use in removing
pollutants from wastewater and water. An effort has been made to give a brief idea of an approach to
water treatment, particularly discussing low-cost alternative adsorbents[ CITATION Gup09 \l 1033 ]. The
reason is their outstanding adsorption properties and high specific surface area. Activated carbons
remove contaminants via two main mechanism viz., adsorption, and catalytic reduction. Water
disinfection by coconut shell carbons is a process involving the attraction of negatively charged
contaminant ions to the positively charged activated carbon. Modification of carbon surfaces through
chemical reactions or through impregnation of new materials with attractive properties, such as
bactericidal agents increases the spectrum of its applications.

Bibliography
1. Iodine and iodine compounds, in:S. Block (Ed.), Disinfection, Sterilization, andPreservation. W,
Gottardi. Philadelphia : Lea & Febiger, 1991.

2. Handbook of Chlorination. G, White. New York : VanNostrand Reinhold, 1992.

3. Ozone andchlorine inactivation of Cryptosporidium, in:Proceedings—AWWA. Finch G, Black E and

Gyurek L. 1994 : Water QualityTechnology Conference.

4. The effect of selected metals on marrow cells in culture. Marino A.A, Berger T.J, Becker R.O. and
Spadaro J.A. 1974 : Chem. Biol. Inter., 9.

5. Advantages ofnano-silver-carbon covered alumina catalystprepared by electro-chemical method for

drinkingwater purification . Shashikala V, Siva Kumar V, Padmasri A.H,David Raju B, Venkata Mohan S,
Nageswara Sophia et al. 2007 : J. Mol. Catal.