ABSTRACT
The origins of the term water quality are not certain, and its first usage to describe suitability of water is unknown. The concept of water quality likely started at the beginning of civilization. Our ancestors settled near water resources such as rivers and lakes and probably evaluated water quality solely based on physical or aesthetic properties of water such as color, smell, and taste. Historical evidence shows that early humans developed methods to improve water quality as early as 4000 BC (USEPA, 2000). Ancient Sanskrit and Greek writings documented water treatment methods indicating that “impure water should be purified by being boiled over a fire, or being heated in the sun, or by dipping a heated iron into it, or it may be purified by filtration through sand and coarse gravel and then allowed to cool” (Jesperson, 2009). Egyptians used a chemical (alum) to remove suspended particles by flocculation as early as 1500 BC.
