• Do not quench thirst with colas, tea or coffee

The best way to effectively quench your thirst is to drink water that is free from contaminants and has an adequate amount of minerals. Another effective method is to drink nimbu paani with some sugar and a pinch of salt in it. In summer, water melons and musk melons are also great thirst quenchers.

• Ensure the quality of the water you are drinking

To prevent being struck with deadly waterborne diseases, it is important to drink clean and safe drinking water. This means that the water must not have contaminants in the form of deadly micro-organisms and chemicals. The quality of tap water is not necessarily adequate, particularly in summer. To ensure quality, the water must be filtered with one of many inexpensive devices and then boiled for more than 5 minutes. It may be filtered again to remove residual impurities.

Another way is to attach to water taps fairly effective readymade filters that also expose the water to safe but effective levels of iodine.

• Avoid packaged drinking water if you can

In our fashionably fast-paced times, most of us resort to bottled/packaged water. It is convenient and handy and has therefore spawned a huge market with clever marketing that preys on health and safety concerns. Consumers are ready to pay 250 to 10,000 times the cost of tap water for this product.

But packaged drinking water, unless it says otherwise, is nothing but ordinary tap water treated, in most cases, with ozone to meet certain quality standards. Not surprisingly, several surveys in India and the USA have found that most packaged water is akin to tap water and many brands were found to be contaminated and unsafe.

... contd.