water, water, everywhere, so let's all have a drink

[bossymarmalade]

[ 14 Valentines - Day Three: Health ]

Oh my god, is Maggie yakking about water security again? People, you should know by now that I never STOP yakking about water security. *g*

This issue is particularly angering for me right now, because when UBC was making its deals with Coke, one of the stipulations for getting Coke machines put in was that the university have NO DRINKING FOUNTAINS. Yes, when I'm at school, I have to either shell out for Dasani or Aquafina, or fill up my water bottle in the bathroom. I'm real thrilled about this.

But I'll keep it short and punchy today. Here are the salient points:

- "Aquafina brand water is actually nothing more than filtered water from municipal sources, a fact that the company will now note on its bottles. In fact, some 40 percent of bottled water, including Coke's Dasani brand, is water that it gets from the tap for free, puts through filtration processes, and then sells back to the public with a markup of up to 1,000 times."

- "It takes more than 47 million gallons of oil to produce plastic water bottles for Americans every year. Eliminating those bottles would be like taking 100,000 cars off the road and 1 billion pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere."

- "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which regulates bottled water at the federal level, permits the product to contain certain levels of fecal matter, whereas the Environmental Protection Agency does not allow any human waste in city tap water."

- "Bottled water costs from 240 to 10,000 times as much as water straight from the tap."

- "Fortune magazine has touted water as the 'best investment sector for the century.' The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has said that 'water is the last infrastructure frontier for private investors.' The Toronto Globe & Mail has stated that 'water is fast becoming a globalized corporate industry.'"

- "Water requirements for a meat-based diet are five to ten times larger than for a vegetarian diet. Even modest shifts away from meat consumption will cut water demands by a third, or, better, allow the same amount of water to provide nutritious food for more people."

Water security is about more than just recycling your bottles. It's about all of the political constructions and environmental exploitation behind the big-water industry; it's about impoverished communities in South America being forced to pay for basic potable water; it's about rural India losing its watersheds to Coke-bottling plants; it's about the natural aquifers in the grainbelt of North America depleting at an alarming rate and becoming contaminated; it's about us being trained to view fresh water as a commodity that we should be paying exorbitant amounts for.

Potable water is not a commodity. It's a human right. Use a filter.

Comments

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

>>UBC was making its deals with Coke, one of the stipulations for getting Coke machines put in was that the university have NO DRINKING FOUNTAINS.

ARE YOU SERIOUS?!

GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

It took me a long time to find a water bottle that would work for me (actually, I still need one that'll actually fit in the car's cup-holders) but I did finally get one that's OK. Filtering is essential; I grew up on tap water but the stuff in Fremont tastes terrible. I'm horribly embarrassed that I drank bottled watter as much as I did for a few years there.

Goddamnit. This whole issues makes me crazy.

[bossymarmalade.livejournal.com]

ARE YOU SERIOUS?!

DUDE FOR REAL. First I thought it was maybe just the old buildings, but after having classes in buildings in every stage of newness/oldness and talking to other students, I have discovered the hideous truth. This is one of the reasons I hate UBC so much; it's possibly the most racist, sexist, corporatist ivory tower post-secondary in all of BC.

I hear you on finding the right bottle! I lucked out and found a wonderful Oxfam one at a food fair thing at the library for school; for the car I use a Rubbermaid one. It took forever to find it and I don't like it much. It's ridiculous how hard it is to find a good one!

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

AH WTF, that's madness! That shouldn't even be legal!

I got a good carrying-around bottle at REI, but yeah, I've gotta see about a car one. Daiso makes these ice-cube trays that result in pen-sized-and-shaped ice which is great for water bottles (assaultdoor can't deal with room-temp water). We keep meaning to try that.

[tammylee.livejournal.com]

Ooh! I have links for water bottles because I was going to gift my aunt and her outdoors active family with a set!
http://www.kleankanteen.com/
http://www.nalgene-outdoor.com/
http://www.mysigg.com/

[bossymarmalade.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I am totally gonna buy bottles from one of these sites -- they look awesome!

[1000-words.livejournal.com]

the first time i heard about this issue was in your journal, and it has stuck with me ever since. i've had to succumb to the bottle once or twice since then, in desperate situations where it was my only non-soda option (i can't drink carbonated beverages), but we definitely use a filter at home. when i first found out about some of these issues, i was just completely shocked and outraged, so i talked about them with my parents. they didn't believe me at first, so they started looking into it, and when they found out what was going on, they were outraged, too. i think water issues are something where ignorance is such a huge stumbling block, because it is so, so easy not to buy bottled water, and i'm sure more people would stop if they realized the implications. thank you for posting about this.

[bossymarmalade.livejournal.com]

See, I understand that people will occasionally buy bottled water when they're on the go or haven't brought theirs with them or whatever; it's the insistence on drinking *primarily* bottled water that alamrs me. I agree completely with you about the general unawareness about the bigger issues behind bottled water, man. Most people figure that as long as they recycle they're doing their bit, but it's so much more sinister than that!

[tammylee.livejournal.com]

Yakk away! This is a really important topic that more people need to be aware of! Water should be a basic right for all living things. It should be free.

[bossymarmalade.livejournal.com]

It really should be free. All the talk about it being the next industry frontier TERRIFIES ME.

[quiet000001.livejournal.com]

I wanted to recommend Sigg brand aluminum bottles for folks wanting to just have easily portable water. They're lined with some kind of enameling process so you don't get aluminum taste in your water, and are MUCH easier to keep from developing weird tastes/smells and don't impart any plastic-taste to the water. (I'm really sensitive to that plastic/taste smell, so I went nuts trying to find something that wouldn't make my water taste awful.)

They come in a variety of sizes and designs, and you can get different tops for them depending on if you prefer to have a sports-bottle style top or to just drink from the bottle or whatever, and while they're not insulated themselves, you can get a couple of different styles of cover for them. (And being aluminum, you can put hot or cold liquid in them.) Plus the sports-bottle style tops come apart so you can clean them properly.

I have two and they seem to be holding up quite well. They are a bit of an investment (I think mine were about $25 US) compared to plastic bottles, but like I said, they seem to be holding up really well and they're MUCH easier to clean.

(In fact, I love mine so much I'm planning to get a third in the tiny child's size, so it'll fit into my bag more easily when I just want to carry some liquid around in case I need to take painkillers in the middle of the day. That's pretty much the only time I buy bottled water these days.)

[bossymarmalade.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for this! I was checking out the Sigg bottles and they are just lovely, which of course makes it more appealing to lug your own water around. *g* And your idea for a purs-sized one is brilliant!

[indirajames.livejournal.com]

I must admit, I use old beer beverage glass bottles to transport my water. I just like glass. Also, I have a collection of half-full bottles in my car. If I ever needed to have sudden hydration, well, 8 bottles later, I'd be great.

[indirajames.livejournal.com]

And here, I took the liberty of uploading a topical little song that anyone can download, if they so choose.

Mos Def - New World Water (http://download.yousendit.com/71608A8122BCE426)

[bossymarmalade.livejournal.com]

AHAHAHHA ME TOO. If I ever make sudden stops, all the water bottles roll around in the back seat. hee!

[syntart.livejournal.com]

We have a filter on the fridge and use it to refill reusable water bottles. Yay for recycling. :)

[bossymarmalade.livejournal.com]

Yay indeed! A filter on the fridge sounds like a perfect solution. Do you have any recommendations on filters? Somebody else is asking about tap filters (http://stubbleglitter.livejournal.com/451028.html?thread=7295700#t7295700), and I honestly don't know much!

[syntart.livejournal.com]

Our fridge comes with one built in. However, I do recommend Britta filters, which you can get as a pitcher or to put onto your tap. Such clear tasting water! Yum!

[cocoajava.livejournal.com]

That 'no drinking fountains' ruling is ABSURD. Good grief. Michigan State may be lacking in some things, but goldurnit, we WILL keep you properly hydrated!

- "Water requirements for a meat-based diet are five to ten times larger than for a vegetarian diet. Even modest shifts away from meat consumption will cut water demands by a third, or, better, allow the same amount of water to provide nutritious food for more people."

This is one of those statements that is news to me, but makes immediate sense. It just .... well yeah, makes perfect sense. (I'm a rabid carnivore, and I drink a LOT of water and herbal teas through the day.)

[bossymarmalade.livejournal.com]

The lack of drinking fountains is especially outrageous to me because Vancouver is on the whole pretty granola-liberal! UBC SUCKS THE BIG ONE.

I'm a rabid carnivore

Heh, me too! I like food too much to contemplate giving up entire groups of it; what I'm trying to do is not eat as much red meat, and to use it more as a garnish/flavour than a big honking half of the meal. Apart from the occasional meal of chicken wings or steak, it's turning out pretty well! *g*

[jennem.livejournal.com]

I live in an apartment, so a house-wide filtration system isn't an option for me.

Are there any tap filters that you would recommend? I admit, I buy bottled water (though I buy the generic store brand that is bottled from water resources in my state), and I've been thinking about going to a filtration system, so I can use one of the hard-plastic bottles that I own, but I know nothing about what kind of tap filter system to buy, and what the difference is between the options.

Any help you could offer would be great!

[blacksquirrel.livejournal.com]

And then there's toxin leaching from the plastic bottle into the water as well. All around, a poor deal.

Thanks for the post!

[dunv-i.livejournal.com]

I live in NYC, and our water is damn good. I can't imagine buying water bottles for drinking water - it's not like we live in Mexico or something where you can get sick from the tap water, and our water is really good, too, better than most of the US - but most of my classmates do live off of bottled water. They think drinking tap water is disgusting. (And then they can't even use a filter and reuse the damn water bottles.) I am so tempted to send them this.

[st-aurafina.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the post - down here, we've been learning the hard way about water conservation. (I have a playlist of four minute songs that I use to keep my showers under the required limit.) Better water education will keep the platypus afloat!

[longleggedgit.livejournal.com]

'water is fast becoming a globalized corporate industry.'

That's probably one of the scariest sentences I've ever read in my life.

[emeraldsword.livejournal.com]

People are so stupid about bottled water - it's completely ridiculous and your post helpfully illustrates exactly why that is! Good for you.

[ms-nerd.livejournal.com]

I have this fear that one day the US is going to invade us for our water.

[baggers.livejournal.com]

Can I just say, I love these posts you are making for 14 valentines. Especially this, and the other posts you have made, about water security. I like to consider myself a fairly aware sort of person, but this is just not something I ever considered before. I've actually relayed your post about Fiji water to a couple of other people, and they had the same "holy shit, what the hell are we doing?" reaction I did.

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU FOR THIS.

I do like drinking mineral water, but only the one that actually contains large amounts of minerals and comes from natural sources. And, uh, I recycle.