World Tap Water Week

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

You didn't know that it existed, did you? Well, it didn't until The Green Thing invented it in 2010 and, as far as I am concerned, this is a good idea.

The Green Thing invented this new tradition called World Tap Water Week because, as they said, it's high time the world celebrated humble, tasty tap for the everyday hero that it is.

Of course every hero needs a villain to battle, and in the case of Tap it’s the arch criminal Mineral. Mineral water is somewhat like the emperor’s new clothe, being made out to be so tremendously good for us and all that jazz. The truth is that it is not and that mineral water does untold environmental damage, tastes exactly like tap water and costs 1000 times as much. Yet people across the world fall for the mineral water and bottled water myth and think they’re buying something crucial to their health or self-esteem when they’re not. Someone’s gotta tell ‘em the emperor’s got nothing on! And someone also tell them that mineral has got nothing on tap either. In many cases bottled water actually is nothing but tap, filtered if we are lucky, and put into a plastic bottle. You must be joking...

There is nothing special about mineral water or bottled water. It is made in the same way by using two hydrogen atoms, mixed with one of oxygen, and that's it. Same as tap water. Thus they taste the same and do the same stuff, after all it is... well, pardon the pun, water. So why would you pay for water in plastic bottles that, in some cases, has been transported more than half-way around the world, and often lots of money, when you can, basically, get tap water for free.

From now on, according to Green Thing, World Tap Water Week happens every year in the third week of August. Ladies and gentlemen. It’s time. Time for tap!

We should simply create this as a tradition from now on and designate, as indicated, the third week of August as World Tap Water Week and why not?

Personally, I do not do bottled water unless there is absolutely no other option, and whenever I can it is tap water, at times filtered, at other times not, carried in a reusable bottle, including repurposed glass Snapple lemonade ones. I also refuse to pay for bottles if I can upcycle my own.

So, let's remember for next year: The 3^rd ween in August is what? It's World Tap Water Week...

© 2010

Tap water saves money

Save about £800 a year by drinking tap water

by Michael Smith

Even if you do not buy the environmental argument as regards to bottled water – and I think you should take that message on board as well – then at least buy the financial one.

From the financial point: if you happen to drink the recommended eight glasses of water a day by buying bottled water you will spend about £800 or so. If, on the other hand, you would drink the same eight glasses of water a day using tap water you will spend less than £1 a year or thereabouts.

Now in this current economic climate I am sure saving say £799 a year by switching from bottled water to tap really makes sense, alone from the financial viewpoint. Add to that the environmental point and it is really a great win for both you and the planet.

Buying bottled water in our countries where we have clean and safe drinking water on tap makes no sense and does not just hurt the environment; it also hurts your pocketbook rather badly. Do something about it: Drink Tap instead.

When we look at India or any other Third World country that you might like to name, and at what they have to do there to get drinking water, let alone clean drinking water, and at the fact that we get it for basically free in our homes; and we still buy water in bottles, which in many cases is nothing else but tap water, filtered maybe. That is absolutely and utterly crazy. We must be made, literally. The entire bottled water industry thing is loony.

Apparently Americans buy 28 billion water bottles every year, with a trend that is, the gods help us, rising. This, if we have the figures right, uses the equivalent of 17 million barrels of oil. This amount would be sufficient to fuel one million cars for 12 months worth of driving, as far as American gas guzzlers are concerned. Imagine what could be done with this isn fuel efficient cars. With less than a quarter of all discarded PET bottles being recycled it costs American cities about $70 million to clean up the discarded bottles annually. I hate to think how much the cost would be if we would combine this with say the UK and the rest of the EU.

The cleanliness rules for tap are far more stringent than for bottled. Most municipal tap water has to be tested for E.coli, fecal coliform bacteria, Cryptosporidium and/or Giardia, whereas the much vaunted bottled water does not. Yet bottled water can “cost as much as $10 per gallon compared to less than a penny per gallon for tap waters.” And people still believe the myth that bottled “spring” water is safer than tap? Yes, they do.

Stop buying bottle water, it’s messing with the environment through unwarranted materials extraction and wastage, as well as contributing to climate change. Not only are glaciers shrinking, but so are the volume of readies in your wallet or purse. Go buy and use a reusable water bottle, as long as it is BPA free – and there are a number on the market by now, and use tap water.

Also, we do not have enough fresh spring water about as it goes and we are wasting water by the gallon and flushing much of it down the drains, literally. We can, therefore, not afford this stupid notion of drinking water from bottles in countries where our tap water is perfectly safe to drink.

Let's stop this madness.

© M Smith (Veshengro), November 2008
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