The environmental disaster known as Fiji Spring Water.

The environmental disaster known as Fiji Spring Water.

Ahhh water, the liquid of life. Most people take it for granted and never give it much thought. But the water you may be drinking could very well be an environmental disaster.

Bottled spring water barely existed 30 years ago but today it is a 16 Billion dollar industry in the US alone. But when one looks closer the purity of the business fades to an ugly black. While one out of six people in the world today have no dependable, safe drinking water, you may be drinking water that leads to even more pollution. Take Fiji spring water, perhaps one of the worst examples. It is billed as pristine water from the source in the Islands of Fiji. First they have to ship cargo loads of plastic bottles to the island. Then with the help of three large diesel generators, as the island does not have constant electrical generation, they pump the bottles full around the clock, in a haze of diesel exhaust. Then they ship those bottles across the pacific, to the West coast of the US. By the time it reaches the swanky hot spots of NYC they have burned enough fuel to light up the city. Each year we pitch into landfills 38 billion bottles, or an excess of $1 billion worth of nice and toxic plastic. Meanwhile back on the island of Fiji you average home does not have safe dependable drinking water. Kurth Reynolds, who was in Fiji not long ago for a wedding was told not to drink the tap water. As he suggests:

Try searching for (rakiraki youth forum fiji water problem), and you'll get a UNESCO report by highschool students from Fiji complaining about their water. You could shorten the search by including the word "feces"

But it is not just Fiji bottled water that is to blame. No matter which product you buy, the damage is being done. Pumping, bottling and distributing water is a major waste of resources and leads to considerable pollution.

In transportation terms, perhaps the waters with the least environmental impact are Pepsi's Aquafina and Coke's Dasani. Both start with municipal water. Sadly, in most municipalities, the water from your tap is just as pure if not better.

In San Francisco, the municipal water comes from inside Yosemite National Park. It's so good the EPA doesn't require San Francisco to filter it. If you bought and drank a bottle of Evian, you could refill that bottle once a day for 10 years, 5 months, and 21 days with San Francisco tap water before that water would cost $1.35. Put another way, if the water we use at home cost what even cheap bottled water costs, our monthly water bills would run $9,000.

A simple filter on your tap will often provide better water quality than you will find in a bottle of 'spring water.'

Where the drinking water is safe, bottled water is simply a superfluous luxury that we should do without

Next time you reach for a bottle of 'spring water' stop and think for a moment and then simply carry around a bottle of filtered tap water. Every choice you make in life is an important one.

Message in a Bottle

The nerve! And that Fiji water is very expensive!!!

Thanks for the tip off, i thought i was getting the top of the line with Fiji.

We use the Brita water filters, but I do buy bottled water on occasion. Thanks for reporting on this, Terrapin. I've taken to reusing my bottled water bottles (I also recycle them.) I can refill them from the Brita filter and I think the water tastes just as good.

In some areas of West Texas, we do have trouble with the water having a high salt content (Big Spring/Midland/Odessa area)... and sometimes here in Dallas the "lake turnover" effect makes the water taste skanky. I'm becoming fonder of the idea of simply making your own bottled water by filtering the tap water you drink.

(and I do think that's a healthy idea, by the way.)

Yep, Filtering regular tap water is the way to go. Generally a simple filter, such as a Brita will remove the residual chlorine, mineral tastes, and most minor impurities. Municipal water in the EU and US is generally far better than what most people around the world drink on a daily basis.

I have lived in areas where water is treated like the precious resource that it is, and find that far too many people in the developed world simply ignore how important water is. I never leave the tap running while I brush my teeth, and drink cold green tea made from filtered tap water, as my general daily refresher. Brita filters work quite well for all general use. Out in the bush, when necessary I use a Katadyn filter. 2 liters a day keeps your body well lubricated.

It all comes down to lazyness, people are just too damn lazy so they buy water in the name of convenience. Just imagine how much bottled water will be sold at the LIVEEARTH concert tomorrow, and this event is supposed to bring global awareness. HA!