WHY WATER? Because Our "Living" Body Is A Water Machine!

The human body is, as are bodies of all "living" species, essentially a machine with one unique feature - water is one of the necessary ingredients that make up our bodies and water is necessary for our bodies to work properly.
What's A Machine?

Source - tophdcars.com

Source - t-mobile.com

What comes to mind when we think of machines? Usually, a series of objects uniquely connected to each other that together accomplish a desired and useful task e.g. a machine we call "car" produces movement in a specified direction and the machine we call "cell phone" transmits our voice all over the globe and captures only those voices that we want to hear. The car and cell phone are just two examples of machines made by humans.

Resources for Artificial Machines

Source - telegraph.co.uk

Electricity Icon- Reddy Kilowatt
Source - creativepro.com

Artificial machines, like the car and cell phone, require at least three natural resources:

- water is necessary to make each and every artificial machine

- one natural resource (at a minimum) in its natural form or in an artificial form, makes up the physical body of every artificial machine

- at least one other resource, that we call "fuel", is necessary for the machine to operate: The car requires gasoline (petrol) while cell phones require electricity. 

All resources, except water, are typically used up (do not exist in their original form) after the artificial machine has completed the task it was designed to do.

Water is used up only in the sense that it still exists in its original form but is contaminated in some way and can only be used again after the contamination is removed.

The Human Body - A Natural "living" Machine

On average: 72% is water
Source - dorchesterhealth.org

Natural "Living" machines are exactly like artificial machines in three ways: 

- Both kinds of machines cannot exist in the absence of water: artificial machines require water in their manufacturing process, while the human embryo can only exist in an aqueous solution

- Both kinds of machines do not transform water, at its molecular level, while they use it
- Both kinds of machines do contaminate the water they use in some way to make used water unusable.

Natural "Living" machines differ from artificial machines in two ways:

- Water continues to be a necessary ingredient that makes up physical bodies of natural "living" machines, but is not a necessary ingredient of artificial machine bodies.

- Water is a necessary ingredient for both natural Living" machines to function and properly do all the tasks that it is designed to do. Water is not a necessary resource for artificial machines to operate.

Life as we know and define it, is not possible in the absence of water. This is the first and fundamental reason why safe water must be locally available in abundant quantity.

Safe Water Delivery Using Artificial Porous Materials

We can have an endless, but not infinite, supply of safe drinking water if we could only extract the water in the air we breathe. 
Wiping Air with a Sponge or an Eraser

Source - redbookmag.com

This extraction of water can be visualized as a gizmo that acts like a sponge or a chalkboard eraser when we move it in the air where we need to extract safe water.
This gizmo would "clean" the air around us of water molecules, with the same motion that we use to wipe a blackboard clean of chalk!
Later, once the gizmo fills up with extracted water, we could squeeze out (literally speaking) this water.
Luckily, materials that may be very suitable for just such an action already exist.
MOFs - Metal-Organic Frameworks

Source - ucla.edu

Source - labroots.com

MOFs are structures consisting of organic molecules and metal ions. The organic molecules hold metal ions in a 3-D grid pattern that is porous to another, a third, material.
The structures can have virtually any 3-D configuration - the configuration essentially depends upon the organic molecules and the metal ions that comprise the structure.
As we may also expect, the combination of organic molecules and metal ions define what materials will be absorbed by a specific structure.
Cavity size, number of cavities and absorption rates can also all be controlled.
Water Absorption
Chemistry of organic molecules can, in the presence of moisture and under different ambient temperatures, get compromised but a list of water-stable combinations have been developed. The focus, however, has been on using MOFs for energy applications like hydrogen and other gas absorption, storage and release.
All that remains is to focus this research on water absorption, storage and release! 
A local supply of safe drinking water using a MOF that extracts moisture from the air we breathe can be a reality in our very near future!

TOOOOO Clean Water is NOT Safe Water!

It may come as a surprise but we can clean water to the extent that it becomes unsafe for consumption by humans and many other living things! Maybe, this is why water that is clean to the extent of being pure water does not occur in nature!
Clean Water
There is no single hard specification for water that is "clean" for human use.

Source - ift.org

Water "clean for human consumption" contains more than only molecules of water.
It contains dissolved salts and minerals.
Our "clean water standards" recognize that water is a natural solvent and some of the dissolved minerals and materials not only don't harm the human body but, in reality, provide necessary nutrients.
But we have the technologies that make it possible for us to remove all the many materials in water and end up with water that consists only of water molecules.
End-Use Determines Water Cleanliness

Source - manufacturingchemist.com

Dissolved ingredients that can interact with artificial manufacturing and storage technologies can produce results we deem as negative.
For example, medical and pharmacy needs require that "clean" water be free of agents that are toxic to artificially produced medicines and do not worsen diseases.
Manufacturing of specialty chemicals also requires that water be cleaned of certain ingredients that inhibit or accelerate the process in unacceptable ways.
Lone Water Molecules are "Hungry" Molecules

Source - en.wikipedia.org

Water molecules seem to have a natural tendency to behave as a solvent.
Water molecules do not naturally exist alone by themselves: they tend to absorb (i.e. dissolve) non-water molecules. Water's affinity to dissolve something makes water a universal solvent.
This "hunger" of "totally clean" water can be toxic and also beneficial.
The toxic impact of "hungry water" is through its removal of materials necessary for human body chemistry if "hungry water" is consumed. 
The beneficial impact has been harnessed to clean chips of "metals" and other materials that can inhibit chip performance.

"Clean" water is thus a misnomer. Or at least confusing. "Just Clean Water" may probably be a better label for safe drinking water.

Water: The New Oil?

There is a lot of press on the subject of Water becoming the New Oil. What does it mean for any resource to be named as the New Oil?

Water, not at all like Oil?

Source - whatswrongwiththat.org

Water and oil are two very different liquids. The most significant differences:
1. Not much on the Earth, as we know it, could exist in the absence of water:
- Nothing artificial would exist as everything man has produced requires water during the production process
- Not much of "life" - as we define it and know it - would exist in the absence of water.
- Even the attributes of Earth that we label as "natural" would cease to exist e.g. the Grand Canyon would be missing as there would be no river to carve it out. 
There would, of course, be an Earth, but it could resemble, or not, any of the other bodies (e.g. planets and asteroids) that make-up the universe. Oil deposits would, of course, still exist on many bodies making-up the universe.
2. All cultures recognize the significance of water to human and other forms of life and, thus, water is a sacred political and, social issue that everyone everywhere is intimately familiar with. 
Oil, on the other hand, simply has no such cultural or social implications other than those that economics and lifestyle assigns to it.
We can do without oil but not without water

So, Why the Press?

Parched land
Souce - gg2.net

Dry Lake
Source - citydictionary.com

Water suppliers and ordinary people are concerned about the reducing quantities of water in the sources that we historically have used for supplies. Images of half dry lakes, polluted sources of water , etc. worsen this perception which, in any case, is an incorrect perception. 

Milk Cartons
Source - acrolabels.com

To understand why the perception is incorrect, let's take a look at what happens when we run out,for example, of milk, or bread or any other commodity. When we find that we are running low or out, we simply get some more from the grocery store that we typically shop at. If this store has none we find another that has some in stock.
This decision to look for new sources is not a new one for us. Strong evidence points to the fact that water scarcity (or search for new water sources) was a primary motivation behind human migration out of Africa. The aqueducts that the Romans built were engineering marvels of their time that became real only because Roman cities needed the water. Examples of ways to transport water to places where people choose to live are everywhere.
Water, the new Oil!
The call "water, the new oil, is simply a call to "find new sources". It is no different than what we think or ask someone else to do when we need milk: "get milk" or "Can you bring some milk?"