Wonders of water, we need water as much as we need air in order to live. We can go without food for perhaps four weeks, but not more than four days without water. Water is life, for us and for every living thing on earth.
You may be surprised to know that all living things consist mostly of water. A chicken is about 75 per cent water, and a pineapple and a potato are about 80 per cent water. A tomato is even more watery— it is about 95 per cent water!
Our bodies, too, are not as solid as they seem, if you could squeeze out a human like a lemon, you would get around 50 liters of liquid! About four liters circulate in the blood vessels alone, and bathes all body cells. The amount of liquid in the blood always stays the same, no matter how much water you drink. The body behaves rather like the thrifty old man who stores his savings for a rainy day! Extra water is stored away in the intestines, the liver, the kidneys and the muscles. It comes in handy when the body begins to get dehydrated.
Biological Solvent
The body makes use of one of the most amazing properties of water—its unique ability to dissolve almost any substance. It can dissolve the hardest of rocks as it flows over the earth. It also dissolves the nutrients that living things need. This makes water essential to all living beings, who use water-based solutions like blood and digestive juices as mediums to carry out their biological processes.
In course of one day, about 10 liters of water moves around inside our body, assisting every process. Our bodies need water to take in food and make use of food. For instance, saliva from the salivary glands helps you in chewing and swallowing, enabling food to pass into the stomach, intestines and blood. Very soon, the water of the salivary glands is replaced by water from nearby blood vessels.
Other solutions help to dissolve the digested food and carry it to all parts of the body. Through chemical reactions these food substances are changed into energy as well as materials needed for growth and repair. These chemical reactions can take place only in a watery solution.
Also, water is needed to carry away wastes and impurities. Water is an essential drink for plants as well. It dissolves nutrients vital for the plant in the soil. The roots of a plant spread themselves out in damp soil to take in this water. The water travels up the stem and branches into the veins in the leaves. The veins carry water to the cells where food is manufactured. Then leaves, which are the ‘food factories’, manufacture food from carbon dioxide and water in the presence of sunlight. This process of making food in plants is called ‘photosynthesis’.
Water is thus vital to every process that occurs in human beings, plants and animals.
Water Balance
Water is lost in many ways all the time—as sweat, in urine and in feces, and even as water vapor in exhaled breath. A little is lost through mucus, tears and saliva, though much of the latter is swallowed and returned duly into the circulation through the digestive system.
Think of how much you sweat during a cricket match on a hot day! It leaves your clothes quite damp. On a hot day, as much as one and a half liters of sweat may be produced, mainly from the armpits, forehead, soles of the feet and palms of the hands. It is the body’s most effective way of reducing its temperature.
To balance this loss of water, you feel you could gulp down any amount of water and cold drinks. These replace the fluids you have lost through sweat. Otherwise, there is every danger of your being dehydrated.
How much water do you drink every day? To stay alive and to be healthy, you must drink about two-and-a-half liters (84 oz) each day in some form. Even if you drink no water at all during the day, you do take in about a liter of liquid from the food you eat. Fruit, vegetables, meat, and bread consist mainly of water. In addition, you need to drink at least one and a half liters of water which is about 51 ounces, as fluids, to maintain the level of water in your body.
Nature too finds her own amazing ways to do with a little water. Many forms of life in the desert must adapt to harsh and arid conditions here, for some deserts get no rain for years. It is not just hot deserts that are starved of water. Even cold deserts are drv, for most of the water remains frozen permanently under the soil, and plants and animals cannot use it.
The word ‘desert’ comes from desertum (Latin) meaning ‘something left waste’. Did you know that the world’s deserts cover almost a quarter of the total land surface? Yet only five per cent of the earth’s population lives in them. As we saw earlier, life in the water less desert is indeed a difficult struggle. It is no wonder then that it is so deserted!
Desert shrubs make efficient use of every drop of water in the most marvelous manner. Most have little or no leaf surface. A layer of wax on the leaves prevents excessive evaporation of water from the plants. Some shed their leaves in bad conditions. Common desert plants like cacti have an extra-thick waterproof covering. They store water in the tissues of their thick, fleshy stems and shrivel as this is used up. They grow long roots to absorb the limited moisture in the soil. The mesquite bush of the American desert gets water by sending its roots over 50 meters deep to where the soil is always moist!
Desert plants usually lie dormant during the dry or hot season, or drop seeds that can survive this period. These seeds quickly germinate when any moisture is available. They grow into plants that flower rapidly and drop more seeds. The plants are now ready to survive the long, dry season.
Desert creatures, too, must do without water for long periods. The hot and dry conditions do not bother the sturdy camel which is built for the desert. It survives by drinking vast quantities of water, as much as 120 liters at a time, before an arduous desert trek! Many of the smaller desert creatures do not need water at all. They get whatever liquid they require from the sap of plants and from the night dew on leaves or stones.
In such arid conditions, is it any wonder that desert folk regard an oasis as a gift of God? Many tribal wars were fought for the possession of these fertile spots in the desert.
Today, dams and irrigation canals have turned parts of the desert green, for desert soil is very rich in the minerals that the crops need. For instance, the Rajasthan Canal Project, the largest of its kind in the world, uses the waters of the Satluj, the Ravi and the Beas rivers to irrigate the parched lands of north-western Rajasthan. Its main canal, the Indira Gandhi Canal, is 468 kilometers long. This is just a small sampling on the wonders of water.
About Us
OB Water Store Inc. has been serving Ocean Beach and its outlying areas for over 10 years, our water is considered the finest in San Diego. 100% Purified through a 13 Stage Reverse Osmosis Technology System, Our 8 Indoor Fill stations is one of the largest in San Diego with ample space for your convenience. We also have a 24 hour outdoor vending machine serving both our purified and alkaline water.
Our 13 stage filtration system is custom made for us and designed to filter the city water that comes into our facility since the water can vary from neighborhood to neighborhood. This insures that the water you purchase is the best tasting and healthiest water that you have ever had.
Starting out in Ocean Beach right next to Robb Field we continuously sought out the best ways to improve our water for our customers. We also did extensive testing and studying on alkaline water and after two years we implemented the system for our customers. Realizing we needed more room and better parking for our customers we moved to our current location.
We are now located at 3960 West Point Loma Blvd, in the Midway Towne Shopping Center, near the Souplantation and Wells Fargo Bank, just a 1.5 miles from our original Ocean Beach location. We have plenty of spigots for both our purified and alkaline water and plenty of parking. We have heavy duty carts you can use for transporting your filled bottles to your car or if you need assistance we can carry and load the bottles into your car.