Today in America and various other parts of the world, the people are convinced that bottled water is safer and of better quality than conventional tap water. Shedding some light on this topic is of extreme importance to the consumer, being that we spent much of our hard earned money on this product. Also because, if you think about it, what other product can you take from the ground for almost nothing, put it in a fancy bottle, and then sell it for more than the price of gasoline! Thirty years ago most Americans got their water from the old reliable tap source, and the business of bottling water was unheard of. But today, it is a 15 billion dollar economy (fast company), and is only expected to rise in the coming years. Why has the way in which we consume water taken such a drastic change? I propose that the cultural attitude of distain towards tap water has changed, because of the persuasive way in which corporations sell bottled water, displaying their product as superior. Through the use of marketing and advertising corporations have successfully persuaded the majority of people to think that, just because some product is put in a nice bottle, that it has to be of great quality, and after all when it comes to marketing, “it’s all in how you sell it”. One of the fundamental things that seem to be overlooked is that our water is guaranteed cleanly and beneficial by the taxes we pay to the state. That is why we pay taxes, to ensure that we as a society receive services, like cleanly and reliable water. In my opinion, the myth surrounding bottled water, making it appear “godlike” is a sham. Why should someone pay dollars for something that is available, just as good, if not even better, directly  in the comfort of our own homes for pennies.

The benefits of drinking tap water are astronomical. Bottled water is not the harmless indulgence we perceive it to be. One of the main points that seems to be overlooked, that would clear most people’s conscious about their tap water, is that “The united states has one of the safest water supplies in the world”, writes the Environmental Protection Agency. Since water quality varies from place to place, an analysis report is available to any customer upon request, which states waters quality, source, contaminants found, and how consumers can get involved in protecting drinking water. Another point that should be mentioned is that the EPA sets the standards for tap water provided by public water systems. The FDA sets the standards for bottled water based on the EPA’s standards for tap water. According to the Sun-Sentinel in most occasions the regulation of bottled water is weaker than the regulation of tap water. Another benefit of drinking tap water is that, by comparison it costs about 10,000 times less than bottled water (The Sun Sentinel). For what some Americans spend on bottled water in a year, they could buy a refrigerator with a filtered water dispenser (The Sun Sentinel). Tap water is also known to be a source of fluoride, which decreases tooth decay and will ultimately save you expensive dentist bills (The Sun Sentinel), that is if your country doesn’t provide health care for its citizens. Another benefit of drinking tap water is that manufacturing all those bottles uses a lot of crude oil and energy, not to mention the fact of having to dispose of all those bottles. We're moving 1 billion bottles of water around a week in ships, trains, and trucks in the United States alone. That's a weekly convoy equivalent to 37,800 18-wheelers delivering water (fast company). An average of 38 billion water bottles a year is trashed into dumps with an excess of $1 billion dollars worth of plastic (fast company).

On top of all the necessities our bodies ask of us, water is the fundamental element necessary for life to exist. If we didn’t have water to drink, we wouldn’t have lives to live; it’s as simple as that. No other element has played such a crucial role in the development of life on earth. Water is also the fundamental element for a prosperous society to blossom, because of its contributions to agriculture, industry, manufacturing, power generation, and transportation. It seems to be quite evident that where clean water flows, communities’ prosper. My capabilities to reason lead me to believe, that every single human being should have the right to be entitled to clean drinking water, and that anything else is a blasphemy. But my ideals stray far from reality, as one in six people on the planet today don’t have dependable source of clean water (fast company). The global economy denies the right of more than 1 billion citizens of the earth that fundamental right. I find it preposterous that a person living in Beverly Hills’ can have an array of different kinds of bottled water to choose from like “Fiji” which runs upwards of three dollars a bottle, and that half the people living on that very island have no source to clean and reliable water (The Sun Sentinel). Even the industry responds by saying that it is not selling water; it is selling “portable hydration”. This is why I propose to stop buying bottled water and invest in a portable water container which would pay itself off many times over.

SOURCES

1) Kick the bottled water habit. Christian Science Monitor by Tom Standage 2007 edition. 08/23/07. www.Csmonitor.com .
2) Bottled Water: Better than the tap? Anne Christiansen Bullers FDA Consumer magazine. July/Aug 2002. http://www.fda.gov/FDAC/features/2002/402_h2o.html .
3) Message in a bottle. Issue 117 July 2007 Charles Fishman. www.Fastcompany.com .
4) Tap water might fit your bill better than bottled water. Aug22, 2007. Gregory Karp. Allentown morning call September 10, 2006. www.Sun-Sentinel.com .
5) EPA Drinking water and health what you need to know. Ground water and drinking water 08/20/07 http://www.epa.gov/safewater/dwh/index.html .