Clear as water
Published on
On Mark Notaras’ article for UNU’s OurWorld 2.0 webzine we can find several facts about water and its harmful bottled version. Facts presented are as shocking as “developed countries alone consume over one billion bottles weekly” and “unrecycled bottles represent 80% of those consumed”.
The situation worsens when Mark shows how water resources are being transferred away from vulnerable communities towards consumers who already have access to clean water at a fraction of the cost. The issue doesn’t get any better when “from 1999 to 2004, India tripled and China doubled their consumption“.
Mark does present some facts and work being done to tackle the tendency and shows some interesting campaigns taking place. NYT shows how the problem has reached the inventive minds of two students who designed water bottles that could be filled with sand and reused as a brick to build housing and reduce waste in developing countries.
However, on the same article we can read that “bottled water sales are increasing exponentially as water companies make record profits“. Where from should the solution take departure? From the thirsty consumers, from the record-beating firms, or from the governments’ regulation?