Editor:
Picture this: A giant truck pulls up to your outdoor tap and pumps out a truckload of water giving you $10 in return. The corporation that owns this and millions of other trucks just like it take your water to market selling it for $50,000. This is one of the many sad truths behind the bottled water industry. Another is that they have convinced you that you are better off to go to your local big-box store or vending machine to buy this water rather than turn on your tap and fill up your glass.
World Water Day is today and it is an opportune time to shine some light on the realities about the bottled water industry. Consumers need to know the truth behind this massive industry and the myths they have successfully marketed to the general public.
Consider this information included on websites such as the Council of Canadians' website:
• It takes three litres of water to produce one plastic bottle (when you consider the water consumed in transportation, manufacturing, production);
• Four out of five bottles end up in landfill, leeching toxins into our groundwater';
• Bottled water is often tap water put in bottles and sold for enormous profit;
• Although bottled water companies would have you believe otherwise, tap water is as safe, perhaps safer, than bottled water;
• Bottled water companies are depleting water resources worldwide, including the global south, where people can't afford to dig their own wells and can ill-afford to buy bottled water. This results in much sickness and death in the most vulnerable populations, while corporations laugh all the way to the bank.
We all deserve clean, healthy water; in fact, as much as the air we breathe, it is a basic human right. When we spend our hard-earned money on bottled water, we are supporting these large corporations in their total disregard for the environment and the human race. Could Prince Edward Island become a bottled water free province? It should, because, really, there ought to be a law.
For more information on going bottled water free go to: http://www.canadians.org/water/issues/Unbottle_It/factsheet.html
Joan Diamond,
Fairview
