Meryl's Notes Blog
Things wordy, geeky, and webbyBlog Action Day 2010: Water
Friday, October 15th, 2010 at 9:40 AM |This post joins Blog Action Day 2010: Water.
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of “water”?
Maybe you think… Scarce. Critical. Dirty.
- Image via Wikipedia
Me: Wasteful.
Since reading an article on water in the early 1990s, I’ve been drinking at least 64 ounces of water daily. For years (still does), a big drinking cup with a lid has accompanied me at home and at work. When I go places, I always figure out how to have water with me. The how depends on where and how much I can carry.
One thing stays the same. The water content. It’s always store-bought water.
It’s about taste. Not about thinking bottled water is better than tap water.
Because we need water, I’m trashing the planet. It pains me to say this especially when you have African women walking over 40 billion hours every year to gather water, and it’s often not safe drinking water. And to make matters worse…
“17 million barrels of oil are needed to manufacture those water bottles, 86 percent of which will never be recycled,” writes Tara Lohan in change.org. Well, at least, I recycle every single bottle. But I still feel bad.
I’d love to save money and avoid piling up on the trash by drinking tap water. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the last time I lived in a place where I can stand the taste of tap water. In the early ’90s, we had a water cooler. In the late ’90s, we tried the filtered pitcher route. My fridge has a built-in filter, but it fails to filter the taste.
People challenged my taste buds, and the bottled water brands I like won every time. However, some bottled water brands lost. Evian did.
I feel bad about buying water instead of using tap water. Goodness knows, I’ve tried to drinking from the tap. Whenever I did, I didn’t drink enough water. You know humans need water just like we need to breathe.
Maybe it’s time our cities figure out how to improve taste and some of us may finally stop buying bottled water, or at least cut down.
A side note: Washing our hands is one of the best things we can do to fight illness. Yet, it takes 20 seconds of hand washing to ensure we have clean hands. I recently read somewhere that antibacterial hand cleaners don’t do as good a job as soap and water.
Clearly, we need solutions to help us stay healthy without using up a lot of water.
How do you conserve water?
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8 comments
Bottled water is ridiculous! People need to come together on this important issue! Here’s a link to my article about water. Thanks for helping us spread the word!
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What do you get when you spell Evian backwards? Ha ha.
Some bottled water like Dasani and Evian taste terrible, but I definitely agree with you re bottled water tasting better. Due to my sparkling personality, I am a sparkling water guy so I have no choice but to drink bottled water.
Still, it is pretty wasteful.
Dave, thanks for sharing your story and stopping by.
@Mir, love your sparkling comment. Yes, it’s wasteful. Maybe some brilliant scientist will come up with a solution.
I’m not particularly concerned with reduction of water use. The water I use, gets put back into the environment in a predictable pattern.
I am concerned about water bottle waste (I use a cool refillable one (http://www.gocontigo.com/autoseal-water-bottle-24-oz.html).
What is really of concern to me about water pollution. I have a filter on my water, but the sources are getting more polluted.
My post probably didn’t show up because I put a link to my favorite waterbotte by Contigo (BPA free).
Water conservation is not significant to me, there is a fairly predictable cycle of water “consumption” whereby it’s not really used up.
Pollution of water, now there’s a problem. And solutions for water in arid nations, and desertification.
@Bill, I have a couple of refillable water bottles that are also BPA free. But guess where the water comes from? Store bought water.
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