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I live in Bangkok and read how water comes to customers here:

I understand from the chart that water go through Thon Buri treatment plant (west Bangkok) and Mahasawat treatment plant (east Bangkok) before being pumped and transferred to the customer.

In the chart I clicked the links for these two treatment plants and read information in other parts of the site and understood water is treated at least either by chloride, fluoride and sulfate based chemicals but it wasn't clear to me if water is purified from bacteria by heating (boiling).

Does treated water in big cities get heated (boiled) to destroy bacteria as well as proteins, and if so, where does all the amino acid residue go to?

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    $\begingroup$ The most important parts in freshwater treatment is clarification (get the turbidity, caused by microscopic impurities, down, by sedimentation with the help of clarifiers). That already takes care of the greatest part of bacteria and other single cell organismns. Then comes filtration, and the tiny rest that still comes through there is killed via chlorine (or, more modern, ozone). $\endgroup$
    – Karl
    Dec 30, 2019 at 15:15

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No. Heating usual water would be extraordinarily expensive. In all water treatment plant, all over the world, bacteria are destroyed by adding chlorine gaz Cl2 or similar substances delivering Cl2 when dissolved in water. The bacteria are killed by chlorine. So the customer drinks water containing dead bacteria. It does not hurt.

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  • $\begingroup$ I don't want to be gross, but today I saw a man spitting on a paved road. I told myself, if someone spits or pisses in water reservations, shouldn't these be boiled at least from an aesthetic perspective? I guess I must go for "mineral water" (whatever that means); maybe these are indeed boiled... $\endgroup$
    – user61828
    Dec 30, 2019 at 13:29
  • $\begingroup$ @JohnDoea Isn't it against the law to spit on a paved road, aren't there heavy fines or stringent punishments for such violaters? $\endgroup$
    – Zenix
    Dec 30, 2019 at 13:48
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    $\begingroup$ @Zenix I can't speak about the law of every state but I can tell you that I would prefer boiled plus well chemically treated water on not... $\endgroup$
    – user61828
    Dec 30, 2019 at 13:52
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    $\begingroup$ Chlorination is very oldschool (creates lots of toxic chlorinated compounds, ozone is used instead in modern installations), and before chlorination or other chemical treatment, you need to filter the water so good it would be drinkable already (the pipes would still foul over time with this water, hence the chlorination). $\endgroup$
    – Karl
    Dec 30, 2019 at 14:55
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    $\begingroup$ @johnDoea - LOL, you do realize where the waste from fish, birds and turtles in a river goes, don't you? $\endgroup$
    – MaxW
    Dec 30, 2019 at 17:01
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As mentioned above, boiling all the wastewater would be incredibly expensive. One technique not mentioned in the other answers is that the wastewater treatment center has portions of infrastructure where the water sits in open air pools for a certain amount of time. The UV rays from the sun kill some bacteria.

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  • $\begingroup$ Joe, shouldn't such water be covered to prevent more bacteria to enter than to be destroyed as well as to prevent dirt - I mean, shouldn't there be some transparent (glass?) covering? $\endgroup$
    – user61828
    Dec 31, 2019 at 1:50
  • $\begingroup$ Any bacteria to enter from the air or particulate probably wouldn’t be pathogenic as would be some species in the wastewater. It probably comes down to cost though, the pools are rather large $\endgroup$
    – Joe
    Dec 31, 2019 at 2:37
  • $\begingroup$ They also bubble O2 in to kill anaerobic bacteria $\endgroup$
    – Joe
    Dec 31, 2019 at 2:44
  • $\begingroup$ UV irradiation for water sterilisation is done, but surely not in the open with sunlight. What a nonsense. You are aware what a perfect habitat for algae that would be? $\endgroup$
    – Karl
    Dec 31, 2019 at 7:11
  • $\begingroup$ Bubbling with oxygen (air, rather) is a common wastewater treatment method. For freshwater, you want 99.999% of the bacteria out, not just dead. $\endgroup$
    – Karl
    Dec 31, 2019 at 7:15

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