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Bottled water

Here is an article from "Le Journal de Montréal", September 20th 2009 edition, originating from the United Nations concerning bottled water.

When the students came back to the University of Winnipeg this month, they noticed something had really disappeared; bottled water.  Indeed, September marks the beginning of the interdiction to sell and distribute bottled water.  Instead, the University invests in the upgrade of  their water supply infrastructures on campus, and adds water fountains in three new installations. 

"Our campus needs to lead the way in sustainable initiatives" says David Jacks, president of the Canadian Federation for Students.  "It is our hope that other institutions across Canada will take similar action, and establish the right to drink public water by refusing to consider it as a merchandise". 

If the banning from the University of Winnipeg is the first of its kind in Canada, 21 Universities and Colleges across the country have established over 50 zones without bottled water.

Canadian municipalities also take action on bottled water either by banning or restricting its sale.  In last March, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) adopted a resolution urging its members to "phase out the purchase and sale of bottled water" in their own facilities where it seems appropriate and where drinking water is available.  

To this day, over 30 municipalities and 7 provinces have either banned or restricted the sale of bottled water.  According to the Polaris Institute, at least 45 more municipalities are considering doing the same.

A GOOD WAY TO RIP PEOPLE OFF.

Bottled water is the most unquestionably commercial success of the century. The bottled water companies have successfully created an industry of over 100 billion$ a year just by selling a product available from the water tap.  As per the Earth Policy Institute, bottled water can cost up to 10 000 times more than the tap water from your municipality.  And even though we rage when the price of gaz goes up higher than 1$/liter, most of us usually pay twice that price for half the quantity of drinking water.  

While the wealthy people get richer selling bottled water to consumers who obviously have more money than reason, a report from the UNO(United Nations Organization) shows that over 1.1 billion people don't have access to drinking water which causes over 1.6 million deaths annually.

To fulfill the Millenium objective, for the development aiming to diminish by half  the number of people lacking sustainable access to safe drinking water by 2015, we would need to spend 15 billion$ or about 1/7 of the money usually spent on bottled water every year.

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES 

The most commonly used plastic for making water bottles is polyethylene terephtalate (PET), which is derived from crude oil.  As per Emily Arnold, researcher at the Earth Policy Institute, the comsumption of bottled water in the United States requires the equivalent of more than 1,5 million barrels of crude oil annually, enough to run 100,000 cars for one year.  Worlwide, some 2.7 million tons of plastic are used for bottled water each year and only a few of them are being recycled in the recycling programs.  Those thrown away bottles just pile up in our garbage dumps and take up to 1000 years to decompose.

High cost of bottled water

ENVIRONMENTAL COSTS

• Tap water is supplied in an efficient way without packaging.
• Shipment of water bottles uses great quantities of fossil energy.
• 2.7 million tons of plastic are used annually for bottled water.
• It requires 3 liters of water to fabricate 1 liter of bottled water.
• The production of bottled water requires 2000 times more energy than tap water.
• The great majority of the bottles used for bottled water is not recycled.
• A water bottle might take up to 1000 years to decompose.

HEALTH COSTS

• In Canada, the local water reserves are inspected every day.
• The bottled water plants are inspected every three years.
• The Canadian Food Inspection Agency put out 29 recall notices on bottled water between 2000 and 2008.
• The actual labeling rules on bottled water do not take enough in consideration the enormous health risks associated to the contents, the stocking and the expiry dates.
• It has been demonstrated that the antimony, a chemical product used in the fabrication of PET bottles, penetrates into the bottled water.
• The death of 1.6 million people could be prevented if they had access to drinking water and sanitary installations.

WHAT THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION SAYS ABOUT IT

• Bottled water is not sterile.
• There are no scientific researches on the benefits or the dangers of consuming natural mineral water.
• There are no international standards on bottled water.
• Due to the fact that bottled water is stored, for longer periods and at higher temperatures than tap water, some micro-organisms that would be otherwise harmless could multiply in it.