Bottled Water Conundrum

To drink bottled water, or not to drink bottled water...that is the question. Having just spent some time in the global South, bottled water was the only option (unless you like amoebas and salmonella lurking around in your intestines). In the States, bottled water is just about ready to pass soda pop as the most consumed (and purchased) beverage in the country. But is that a good thing?

I came across this article, Bottled Water Quandry, by Fr. John Rausch. I've met John several times in my work with Pax Christi. He's nothing short of awesome...the type of prophetic religious leader who gets the intimate connection between the earth and the supernatural, between religion and ecology. He's also a great guy to hang around with if you're ever in Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, or Western North Carolina (I participated on a delegation he helped organize several years ago, which took us throughout Appalachia).

His article is worth reading because of the lines he draws when pointing out that (1) most tap water is just as pure as bottled water in the First World, (2) the ecological damage from bottling water is having huge costs on global warming and other environmental issues, (3) worldwide, one billion people (one-sixth of the world) lack clean water, while the top one-sixth of the world consume en mass such a scarce resource. As a note, if you drink Fiji Water, it may hit too close to home. As Rausch points out:

Fiji Water comes from the islands of Fiji, which lie roughly 8,000 miles from New York. The bottles for the Fiji Water nearly double the trip because first they are brought to Fiji, filled, then shipped to their final destination. Transportation represents fully half the wholesale cost of Fiji Water. In addition, the Fiji Water plant further impacts the environment because it operates 24 hours a day requiring uninterrupted electricity that the factory supplies with three large generators run by diesel fuel.

Interesting stuff. Also, as a follow-up, it's worth checking out Corporate Accountability International's recent success at pressuring Pepsi to change the label for Aquafina water. Previously, Aquafina had a pristine image of a mountain spring on their bottles, suggesting that the water came from some luxurious mountain well. On the contrary, Aquafina comes from tap water from across the world; it's just put through a "purification" process first.