Best water purifier for river water

Umar Shareef

The river water is very sweet. Because river water is not ground water and mostly it is pure rain water collected in the river. There won’t be any hardness in it. That too before it is supplied to family's water is purified by government authorities. So first do we really need a purifier? If so, what it is - RO, UV, Activated Carbon?

Try our water purifier selector to choose right water purifier by answering simple questions without reading any buying guide.

Many people have asked us the same question in different ways. In fact the question is asked in many other forums as well. Sample famous questions are

Which water purifier to use for river water?
What is the best home water purifier for the Cauvery water in Bangalore?
Best water purifier for the manjeera water in hyderabad?
Best water filter for processed river water supplied by Municipality?

Why we need water purifier for river water?

River water can be contaminated by the surrounding industries and factories with harmful chemicals and heavy metals.
Water is treated only to remove bacteria and viruses. The river water purification does not remove any chemicals or metals.
That too water is purified with the help of Chlorine, which is again not good for health.
Water travel long distance till it reaches your home and there can be potential pipe leakages or contaminations.
In this water pipeline supply there can be steel pipes as well. Usually water in home's router in steel pipes. The steel flakes can dissolve in the water as well.

What is the mandatory purification required for river water?

Well, as we have discussed above water is treated with Chlorine, so water should be purified with Activated Carbon purification technology. Only Activated carbon can remove Chlorine. That's the reason most of the RO or gravity based water purifier contains Carbon as one part of purification. So final suggestion is to go with RO based water purifier or Gravity based water purifier.

Is Reverse Osmosis (RO) water purifier is really required for river water?

We cannot deny the potential harms that can occur if the river water is polluted by nearby industries and contain Fluoride, Arsenic, Lead. Even these hazardous impurities present in water, there won't be any change in taste and color of water. The only way to know is to get the water tested in closer laboratory. Please read our articles on how to test the water for these impurities. If the results show in of these contaminations you should go with RO purifiers with Activated Carbon filtering. The good thing is, almost all RO water purifiers in nowadays are coming with Activated Carbon. Please see the list of best of RO water purifiers.