Kannan was getting ready to go to school and Yazhini was going to preschool. Their mother was filling up a water bottle.

Kannan: “Mother, you prepare hot water for us every day … why mother?”

Mother: “Because it helps in healthy digestion and elimination of toxins in the body. When we boil water, it will kill the germs. It will help maintain body weight, dissolve body fat, and offer various other benefits. Therefore, doctors recommend using hot or lukewarm water.”

Kannan: “Can we drink and use any water?”

Mother: “You must drink clean water. The properties of water are three. These include the colour, taste, and smell. If these are different then of course it is not clean water. We should not drink it. Contaminated water can only harm our body. But drinking clean water only benefits us. Such benefits include:

• Helps to increase physical performance.
• The brain maintains better cell function.
• Helps to relieve constipation.
• Water is also a drink to relieve fatigue.
• Physical health will be maintained.

It also helps prevent and treat headaches. When we drink lot of water, it also helps in treating kidney stones.

By drinking contaminated water,

• Diarrhea and vomiting may occur.
• Fatigue in the body can lead to decreased physical activity.
• In addition, the entry of harmful germs into the body through contaminated water can affect the health of the body.

We need to drink clean and hot water to protect ourselves from these. Chlorine will be placed to purify the water. Chlorinated water is clean. We can drink that water too.”

Kannan: “Mom, can we drink boiling hot water?”

Mother: “You can have tongue burn by drinking extremely hot water. We must be careful. If that hot water is accidentally spilled on our hands or feet, we cannot withstand the heat? This can also cause scarring. So we should drink only boiled water or lukewarm water.”

Kannan: “Okay mom. You pour hot water into the bottles for us. I’ll take it.”

Mother: “Okay dear”