In fact water is more essential than food. You can live for weeks without food but only a couple of days without water. Water is essential for every organ, in fact when our cells lose water they lose their shape.

Water plays an important role in digestion and absorption as well as circulation and is essential in the regulation of your body temperature, lubrication of joints and the texture of our skin. Water is the carrier of nutrients through the body and essential in the removal of metabolised waste material.

Most of us do not drink enough water and are therefore dehydrated to some extent.

Dehydration increases muscle glycogen use, which leads to premature fatigue. A slight 3 - 5% decrease of water in the body can lead to light-headedness, headaches, dizziness and nausea. In fact, when you're dehydrated by just 4.3 percent, your performance drops by 22%. A 7% decrease can lead to hallucinations or worse, major organ stress.

It's a known fact that a well-hydrated athlete always functions at a higher level than one who exercises in a dehydrated state.

When you exercise for one hour, you can lose a 1.136 litres of water. Each 500 grams of weight lost during exercise represents 450 mls of fluids, a condition leading directly to dehydration.

If you're active and exercise regularly, you should be drinking at least the minimum of 8 glasses of water a day. (2 litres) If you plan to engage in prolonged and strenuous exercise you should drink 500mls of water two hours before exercise to allow time for adequate hydration and excretion of excess water. While exercising vigorously, you should be drinking 150 mls to 350 mls of water every 15 minutes to match sweat loss. After all, sweat is 90-99 percent water.

Dehydration also raises the body's core temperature, which can lead to delerium, heat stroke or in extreme cases, death. The solution, of course, is to keep hydrated and drink plenty of water.

However the quality of drinking water, which has surface water as its source, is steadily deteriorating because of pollutants and acid rain. Even surface water is becoming acidic.

First, let's look at pH or the degrees of acidity or alkalinity.

pH ranges from 0 -14 with 7 being neutral. l - 6 is acidic and above 7, base or alkaline.

Our body organs and systems work to keep our blood and the fluids surrounding our cells slightly alkaline. The process of metabolism, i.e. - the digestion and burning of our foods to produce energy, - results in acidic waste products.

If conditions were ideal, we'd get rid of our acidic wastes as fast as they formed through breathing and through the kidneys, bowels and skin.

Even under the best conditions, a diet of largely fresh alkaline foods and regular exercise - acidic wastes build up in our bodies.

Air pollution, processed foods, pesticides, and too much stress are adding to the toxic waste burden our systems struggle to eliminate from the body.

Bacteria, algae, chloroform (from chlorinating), nitrates and dangerous heavy metals, for example cadmium and aluminium, may have acidified poor quality water.

There is growing concern over the pollutants and bacteria found in tap water - despite standards and treatment requirements being set. These pollutants may come from factory discharges, agriculture, sewer pipes, water mains and acid rain.

Water sustains all forms of life, polluted water may therefore pose a significant health risk.

Research has shown that the use of chlorine is not good for our health. Chlorine is a potentially harmful chemical and is being replaced in modern water treatment plants by ozonation systems.

Many water purification systems obtain their water from surface sources where animal waste can contaminate them with bacteria such as coloforms, giardia and cryptosporidium.

Other substances which can enter your drinking supply are rust sediment, oil, storm-water and lead. Boiling water is not always the answer. In fact, if the pollutant is not a bacterium or virus, boiling can make it worse by concentrating the substance!

For the body to function properly, it is imperative to be properly hydrated.

Drinking an ionised alkaline mineral water and using a water filtering and purifying system can help restore the body's natural balance.

"We age because we accumulate acidic waste products." - Sang Whang.

Many health experts agree that an overly acidic system also burdens the immune system and leads to disease.