Posted by D on August 28, 2007, 9:12 pm, in reply to "Bottled water"
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More water notes Searching Wikipedia with - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottled_water - I found some interesting stuff. 1) Usually in developed countries, the municipal tap water's quality exceeds bottled water. 2) Water bottlers are not required to test for the presence of E. coli, cryptosporidium, giardia, asbestos, or certain organic compounds such as benzenes. 3) Overall, the average energy cost to make the plastic, fill the bottle, transport it to market and then deal with the waste would be "like filling up a quarter of every bottle with oil." 4) If a container holds 1 liter it requires 3 to 5 liters of water in its manufacturing process 5) Globally, 68% of water is used in irrigation, 15% by industry and 15% for municipal water supply 6) 90% of bottles are not recycled. 7) Bottled water use is especially high in countries such as Mexico and Brazil (see above). While the poorest often can't afford bottled water and the richest face little economic constraints in buying bottled water, the cost of bottled water is a significant burden for middle-class households in many developing countries. For example, sales of bottled water in Mexico are estimated at 32 billion Pesos (US$ 3bn) in 2005,[11] or about US$ 135 per household, which is about twice the level of the average tap water bill. If these funds were available to water utilities they would have the financial means to improve significantly the quality of tap water. 8) The United Nations estimates that in 2005, 1.1 billion people lacked access to safe, affordable, drinking water, and two to five million people die every year from preventable water-related diseases. 9) Even where advanced water filters are not available, and fuel for boiling is scarce, effective water filters can be made in a few hours from clay by hand without advanced technology or skills 10) where the water is of a somewhat lower quality, the use of home filtration systems such as Brita, Culligan, Kinetico or PUR filters provides potable water at considerably lower cost than pure or bottled water. ------------------------- A back lash against bottled water has begun due to the huge plastics dumps in land fills, the energy it takes to get the water to the store and that it takes as much water as the container contains to make the container! This is especially daunting when the water provided by the city is considered very drinkable.
Even here in Mexico there is a lot of energy used to make and deliver bottled water but it is much more local in the production and transportation for us in La Manzanilla. When I see people talking about water conservation in La Manzanilla few of them realize how much water goes into agriculture. Due to the low lying nature of the lands around the Lagoon (which is most of La Manzanilla) the ground is very fertile. If you go out to these farms you will see lots of water going places other than on the plants with no conservation methods implemented. It's not like these farms have been here for ages, some locals, both Mexican and Gringo have purchased virgin jungle land and cleared it so they can rent it out to farmers. Some are from La Manzanilla and others are not. Most of the crops are for export. The amount of water used for agriculture is most likely much more than Tamarindo ever thought of using and there is no legislation that I know of to curtail or control it's expansion or to monitor the amount of water used. Some links to ways of saving water http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/815/Using Sink water to Flush the Toilet Doric Column for Rainwater Kicks Butt
iStraw Smacks Down All Kinds of Flora and Fauna in the Water - http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/funk-filter/istraw-smacks-down-all-kinds-of-flora-and-fauna-in-the-water-289318.php WaterconeŽ News - www.watercone.com/index.html Pocket Well - Clean Water Anywhere - http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/pocket-well-+-clean-water-anywhere-with-style-261935 www.godfrey-diy.co.uk/water-saving-in-the-garden/article9.html - Water Saving in the garden this Summer
http://cre.ations.net/creation/water-photography Water Photography Water figures 2007 Photo Gallery
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