Our bodies take in water from food and drinks. We even get some water when we respire by burning glucose to release energy. We lose water in sweat, faeces, urine and when we breathe out, on a cold day you can see this water as it condenses into vapour.
For the cells of our body to work properly, it is important that their water content is maintained at the correct level. This means our body must maintain a balance between the water we take in and the water we lose. This is done by the kidneys. Blood is brought to the kidneys to be filtered, and then returned, to be circulated around the body. As the blood passes through the kidneys, all the small molecules are filtered out of the blood.
This includes molecules of water, salt, glucose and urea. The kidneys then reabsorb all of the glucose and as much water and salt as the body needs, putting them back into the blood. This leaves some water and salt, and all of the urea, which is now called urine. The urine passes from the kidneys to the bladder, where it is stored prior to being excreted from the body.
The kidneys do more than just control the body water balance. They also control the level salts in the blood and the excretion of urea and other metabolic waste. The kidneys maintain our water balance by producing urine of different concentrations. When the water level of our blood plasma is low, more water is reabsorbed back into the blood and the urine becomes more concentrated. When the water level of our blood plasma is high, less water is reabsorbed back into the blood and our urine is more dilute.
The level of water in the blood plasma can vary depending on:
* External temperature - when it is hot, we sweat more and lose water, thereby making the blood plasma more concentrated.
* Amount of exercise - if we exercise, we get hot and increase our sweating, so we lose more water and the blood plasma becomes more concentrated.
* Fluid intake - the more we drink, the more we dilute the blood plasma. The kidneys respond by producing more dilute urine to get rid of the excess water.
* Salt intake - salt makes the plasma more concentrated. This makes us thirsty, and we drink more water until the excess salt has been excreted by the kidneys.
Drugs that affect water balance are Alcohol which causes the kidneys to produce a greater volume of more dilute urine that can lead to dehydration and Ecstasy causes the kidneys to produce a smaller volume of less dilute urine. This can result in the body having too much water.
The concentration of our urine is controlled by a hormone called ADH. ADH is produced by the pituitary gland that is situated just below the brain. The pituitary gland monitors the concentration of the blood plasma. It releases ADH into the bloodstream, which travels in the blood to the kidneys. The more concentrated the plasma, the more ADH is released into the blood. When the ADH reaches the kidneys, it causes them to reabsorb more water. This keeps more water in the body and produces more concentrated urine.

Think of water as a nutrient your body needs that is present in liquids, plain water, and foods. All of these are essential daily to replace the large amounts of water lost each day. When your water intake does not equal your output, you can become dehydrated. Fluid losses are accentuated in warmer climates, during strenuous exercise, in high altitudes, and in older adults, whose sense of thirst may not be as sharp. Here are some reasons to make sure you are drinking enough water every day!
1. Drinking Water Helps Maintain the Balance of Body Fluids. Your body is composed of about 60% water. The functions of these bodily fluids include digestion, absorption, circulation, creation of saliva, transportation of nutrients, and maintenance of body temperature. When you are low on fluids, the brain triggers the body thirst mechanism.
2. Water Can Help Control Calories. For years, dieters have been drinking lots of water as a weight loss strategy. While water does not have any magical effect on weight loss, substituting it for higher calorie beverages can certainly help. What works with weight loss is if you choose water or a non-caloric beverage over a caloric beverage and/or eat a diet higher in water-rich foods that are healthier, more filling, and help you trim calorie intake.
3. Water Helps Energize Muscles. Cells that do not maintain their balance of fluids and electrolytes shrivel, which can result in muscle fatigue. When muscle cells do not have adequate fluids, they do not work as well and performance can suffer. Drinking enough fluids is important when exercising. These guidelines of American College of Sports Medicine recommend that people drink about 17 ounces of fluid about two hours before exercise. During exercise, they recommend that people start drinking fluids early, and drink them at regular intervals to replace fluids lost by sweating.
4. Water Helps Keep Skin Looking Good. Your skin contains plenty of water, and functions as a protective barrier to prevent excess fluid loss. Dehydration makes your skin look drier and wrinkled, which can be improved with proper hydration. But once you are adequately hydrated, the kidneys take over and excrete excess fluids. You can also help lock moisture into your skin by using moisturizer, which creates a physical barrier to keep moisture in.
5. Water Helps Your Kidneys. Body fluids transport waste products in and out of cells. The main toxin in the body is blood urea nitrogen, a water-soluble waste that is able to pass through the kidneys to be excreted in the urine. Your kidneys do an amazing job of cleansing and ridding your body of toxins as long as your intake of fluids is adequate. When you are getting enough fluids, urine flows freely, is light in color and free of odor. When your body is not getting enough fluids, urine concentration, color, and odor increases because the kidneys trap extra fluid for bodily functions. If you chronically drink too little, you may be at higher risk for kidney stones, especially in warm climates.
6. Water Helps Maintain Normal Bowel Function. Adequate hydration keeps things flowing along your gastrointestinal tract and prevents constipation. When you do not get enough fluid, the colon pulls water from stools to maintain hydration -- and the result is constipation. Adequate fluid and fiber is the perfect combination, because the fluid pumps up the fiber and acts like a broom to keep your bowel functioning properly.

What is exactly meant by water quality? It can be identified as a measure of the suitability of water for a particular use based on selected physical, chemical, and biological characteristics. More specifically, water quality is measured against federally passed water quality standards to access its overall safety before reaching the drinking populace. To determine water quality, scientists first measure and analyze characteristics of the water such as temperature, dissolved mineral content, and number of bacteria. Selected characteristics are then compared to said numeric standards and guidelines to decide if the water is suitable for a particular use. Different uses raise different concerns and hence different standards are considered. Natural water bodies will vary in response to environmental conditions. Environmental scientists are working to understand the functioning of these systems, which determines sources and fates of contaminants. Environmental lawyers and policy makers are working to define water laws that designate the fore mentioned uses and natural conditions. The vast majority of surface water on the planet is neither potable nor toxic. This remains true even if sea water in the oceans is not counted. Another general perception of water quality is that of a simple property that tells whether water is polluted or not. In fact, water quality is a very complex subject, in part because water is a complex medium intrinsically tied to the ecology of the Earth. Industrial pollution is a major cause of water pollution, as well as runoff from agricultural areas, urban storm water runoff and discharge of untreated sewage. Aside from the definitions about what water quality actually means, the only way water is determined if it is safe for public consumption is put it through scientific testing. To identify the substances present in a stream or lake, scientists collect samples of the water, of living organisms, and of suspended and bottom sediments. Technicians then analyze these samples in a laboratory with specialized instruments and procedures. Certain measurements such as temperature, dissolved oxygen, turbidity and conductivity can be taken in the field with portable equipment. As the use of technology heightens the quantative analysis of water we will surely improve the drinking water quality. At the same time such discoveries will also reveal new problems and pollutions within our water that will demand new water quality standards and treatment methods to continuously produce a successful drinking water for the population of the world. In the future, water quality will continue to be an enormous issue, partly because of the tremendous growth of the population and urban expansion and development. All this growth puts great stress on the natural water resources, and, if we are not diligent, the quality of our waters will suffer.

Water makes up more than half of our body weight, and a person can't survive for more than a few days without it. Why? Our body has lots of important jobs and it needs water to do many of them. For instance, our blood, which contains a lot of water, carries oxygen to all the cells of the body. Without oxygen, those tiny cells would die and the body would stop working. Body uses water in all its cells, organs, and tissues to help regulate its temperature and maintain other bodily functions. Because your body loses water through breathing, sweating, and digestion, it's important to rehydrate by drinking fluids and eating foods that contain water. The amount of water we need depends on a variety of factors, including the climate we live in, how physically active we are, and whether we're experiencing an illness or have any other health problems. Water protects your tissues, spinal cord and joints acting as a cushion. It also helps body remove waste. Increasing our fluid intake will cure constipation. It helps in digestion and prevents body from getting dehydrated. We can help our body by drinking when we're thirsty and drinking extra water when we exercise and when it's warm out. If so, our body will be able to do all of its wonderful jobs and we'll feel great!

Water is a transparent, colorless, tasteless, and odorless substance that is essential to all forms of life that we know of and is the main constituent of Earth's streams, lakes, and oceans, and the fluids of most living organisms. Water covers 71% of the Earth's surface. It refers to the liquid state of that substance, but often refers also to its solid state or its gaseous state. Other than that water occurs in nature as snow, glaciers, ice packs and icebergs, clouds, fog, dew, aquifers, and atmospheric humidity.Safe drinking water is essential to humans and other life forms even though it provides no calories or organic nutrients. Access to safe drinking water has improved over the last decades in almost every part of the world, but approximately one billion people still lack access to safe water. Ordinary rain water in many countries is polluted and therefore not safe to drink. This natural resource has become scarce with the growing world population, and its availability is a major social and economic concern. Once Margaret Atwood of Canada praised about water, We can not live without it, so maybe we should start respecting it.

While the Amazon Basin is home to the world's largest tropical rainforest, the region consists of a number of ecosystems ranging from natural savanna to swamps. Even the rainforest itself is highly variable, tree diversity and structure varying depending on soil type, history, drainage, elevation, and other factors. This is discussed at greater length in the rainforest ecology section. Today the Amazon River is the most voluminous river on Earth, eleven times the volume of the Mississippi, and drains an area equivalent in size to the United States. During the high water season, the river's mouth may be 300 miles wide and every day up to 500 billion cubic feet of water (5,787,037 cubic feet/sec) flow into the Atlantic. For reference, the Amazon's daily freshwater discharge into the Atlantic is enough to supply New York City's freshwater needs for nine years. The force of the current -- from sheer water volume alone - causes Amazon River water to continue flowing 125 miles out to sea before mixing with Atlantic salt water. Early sailors could drink freshwater out of the ocean before sighting the South American continent. The river current carries tons of suspended sediment all the way from the Andes and gives the river a characteristic muddy whitewater appearance. It is calculated that 106 million cubic feet of suspended sediment are swept into the ocean each day. The result from the silt deposited at the mouth of the Amazon is Majaro island, a river island about the size of Switzerland.

With a 13% total RTD volume CAGR over 2009-2014, energy drinks were the fastest growing category in soft drinks, which saw a 4% CAGR. Growth is, however, beginning to slow as the category becomes more mature. Over the 2014-2019 period, an 8% total RTD volume CAGR is projected. The top five markets for energy drinks in total volume terms are the US, China, the UK, Vietnam and Japan. In total value terms, the top five markets are the US, China, Japan, the UK and Brazil. Energy drinks companies see China and Brazil as key focus markets for the future. Companies are expected to launch more natural, zero-or low-calorie, reduced-caffeine varieties, with green coffee bean or tea extracts and fruit juices, instead of powdered caffeine and taurine, to address consumer and governmental concerns about the safety of high-caffeine drinks.

Asia Pacific is further widening the growth gap between east and west, as it continues to be the strongest performer in beverage packaging. PET, beverage cans and brick liquid cartons saw the most dynamic growth, due to their low cost and rapid growth in key end user categories such as bottled water, RTD tea and juice. Asia Pacific offers ample opportunities for packaging manufacturers; however, value-for-money solutions will be instrumental to success, due to the low incomes of most consumers. Driven by strong growth in China, Asia Pacific has become the leading contributor to global beverages packaging industry, with a CAGR of 7% over 2009-2014. However, China is not the only significant contributor, with India seeing dynamic growth in 2014.