March 22nd is World Water Day and marks the launch of Tapped, a movie and an online campaign to educate and inspire action on the problems with water privatization and the bottled water industry.
NRDC
That bottle of water that you carry around with you may seem rather innocuous but it's leading to the privatization of our water supply, just one drop at a time, it means that our water is being bottled and sold back to us for more than what we could pay for it out of the tap. And it's really not that much better, especially since it's been bottled in plastic, an energy sucking resource that's recyclable if it makes it and then filling landfills if it doesn't or even worse, adding to the giant plastic islands forming in the pacific ocean.
As the NRDC explains below in their take on World Water Week, the more money we poor into buying our bottled water, the less that goes into fixing the water systems we have now. Why should we care?
With a five day campaign and a thirty day tour of the U.S., the Tapped team connects the dots between the many interrelated problems of privatization of water resources and the proliferation of bottled water:
Lack of access to clean water is a very serious problem that affects people around the world, including 10% of Americans. According to the United Nations, “By the year 2030, two-thirds of the world will lack access to clean drinking water.” Typically it is the poorest communities, those least able to afford bottled water, that are forced to spend their scarce income to purchase water for drinking, cooking and bathing. Learn more about the problem of water justice from the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water.
Bottled water is a major source of marine plastic pollution, which plagues our global oceans. Plastic waste makes up 60-80% of marine debris (the term used to describe pervasive pollution in the ocean). This plastic never degrades, but breaks into tiny pieces that are ingested by turtles, birds, and other marine mammals.
Bottled water is a very lucrative industry and privatization of water often results in major conflict. When private companies extract water from municipal sources, they are profiting from a public resource. In the U.S. and around the world, disputes about access to water and privatization of this precious resource have torn communities apart and have lead to armed conflict.
The U.S. municipal water and sewage infrastructure is falling into severe disrepair, and buying bottled water exacerbates this problem. When we purchase water, we give money to large, private corporations rather than calling on our government to maintain good infrastructure to provide citizens with reliable access to clean water. The film looks at examples of Cities such as Atlanta that were convinced to enter into private water supply contracts with terrible results.
Finally, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and many other chemicals are appearing in our water supplies. Rather than buying bottled water, which is rarely tested, we need to focus on protecting our water supplies and reducing the chemicals from agricultural and sewage.
The good news is that you as an individual can make simple lifestyle changes that will help solve these problems. Here are some ways you can Take Action:
Carry a steel reusable water container rather than buying bottled water.
Tell your municipal, state, and federal leaders that you want safe water municipal water supplies and solid infrastructure.
Reduce your bottled water use! Take the pledge to only use bottled water when absolutely necessary.
Or, become a fan of Get Off the Bottle on Facebook.
NRDC
Water is important and we all need to learn more about why we should care about the privatization of this resource, one of our most vital of resources and one that many of us take for granted.
And it's not just the water but the bottles themselves. The oil it takes to MAKE the bottles and the chemicals in those bottles that are unhealthy for us!
But what about the single-serve plastic water bottles that so many of us tote to the gym or keep in the trunks of our cars? Those are made with a different type of plastic called PET or polyethylene terephthalate, which is also not free of its harmful effect. Scientists at Goeth University in Frankfurt found in a laboratory experiment in 2009 that estrogenic compounds leach from the plastic into the water. The lead researcher of the study, Martin Wagener, and a colleague used genetically engineered yeast, which changes color in the presence of estrogen-like compounds to analyze 20 samples of mineral water. Nine samples came out of glass bottles, nine were bottled in PET plastic and two were in cardboard, juice-like boxes.
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It takes 1.5 million barrels a year of oil just to make the plastic water bottles Americans use. Add to that the energy needed to extract the water, refrigerate the bottles, transport them around the country (and the world), and you are looking at 50 million barrels of oil a year, according to the Pacific Institute. To add yet another nail to the coffin, a study by the environmental working group found that their samples of bottled water contained disinfection byproducts, fertilizer residue, and, not surprising, pain medication. Where do we think all the medication we take -- or worse yet, dispose of in our toilets -- ends up? Back in our water system. And most public water sanitation systems do not filter out medication or drug metabolites.
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You aren't just drinking water when you buy bottled but everything else associated with the bottling from the oil (not literally of course) to the toxic bottles that they put it in, to the municipal tap water that you can get for free at home.
But of course the tragedy are those who cannot get access to safe drinking water, to those who must travel distances on a daily basis to get to water and it is usually women and children who suffer most from this lack of sanitary conditions. This is the tragedy.
National Geographic has Freshwater Conflict Photos on their site.
Photograph by Ron Haviv/VII/AP
A weary girl carries water for her family in a refugee camp outside Nyala, North Darfur, Sudan, during the summer of 2005. Some 2.7 million people were displaced by the conflict in Darfur, which appeared to be easing toward a close in early 2010. Refugee camps lack basic infrastructure, and residents must spend much of their time on survival tasks like finding clean water.United Nations officials say each person on Earth requires 5 to 13 gallons (20 to 50 liters) of clean water a day for drinking, cooking, and keeping themselves clean. Refugees must make do with far less, and are often dependent on aid groups or governments to deliver water by truck.
Want to learn more? National Geographic has a complete issue dedicated to this important topic, free for you to read.
Just one of the projects brought to you by Waterday.org
Provide clean water and sanitation in Southern Sudan
Project Summary
Action Against Hunger is providing communities with increased access to sustainable clean water and improved sanitation and hygiene conditions in Southern Sudan. The organization is constructing 10 new water points; rehabilitating 100 non-functioning boreholes; working with committees to manage clean water resources, including hand pumps; providing materials and support for latrine construction; and training communities members to act as focal points for hygiene promotion activities.
Issues
A community’s health and well-being require a lasting supply of clean water and the knowledge of how to use and care for it properly.
Southern Sudan is in a state of chronic emergency, particularly in the sectors of nutrition, food security, and water and sanitation. The region lacks basic infrastructure, and the population continues to face displacement due to political tensions, localized conflict, natural disasters and outbreaks of disease. Action Against Hunger's programs focus on assisting the most vulnerable populations in areas where high rates of malnutrition prevail by working with communities to improve water quality and quantity, sanitation infrastructure, and hygiene practices.
Goals
The humanitarian organization is mobilized to provide access to clean water and sanitation for more than 75,000 people in Gogrial West, Twic, and Aweil East counties of Southern Sudan.
Country, Region, or Ocean : Gogrial West, Twic, Aweil East counties
State, Province, or Area: Warrap and Northern Bahr el Ghazal
Project Contacts
Susannah Masur
Action Against Hunger
247 W. 37th St., 10th Floor
New York, NY 10018
United States
Phone: 212-967-7800
www.actionagainsthunger.org
smasur@actionagainsthunger.org