Jordan: Dirty Water and Bottled Water

In the past few years, Jordanians have increasingly resorted to bottled water for their drinking needs. After several scandals involving dirty drinking water causing numerous cases of posisoning/hospitalization, who can blame them? Also, and perhaps on a more elevated level, we have the renowned Jordanian love for conspicuous consumption which, trust me, makes many people carry bottles of water just to show off. I don’t get it either.

On this subject, I was just reading an article detailing the side-effects for the increasing dependability on bottled water. These range from environmental hazards, to consumerism, to ethics. Here they are in a nutshell:

1- First, the manufacturing of plastic bottles, which are often made from nonrecycled virgin material, requires vast quantities of petroleum, and only 12 percent of this material is recovered for recycling.

2- Next, the distribution of bottled water, often by container ship from the other side of the planet (Fiji, Evian, San Pellegrino), is fuel intensive and results in greenhouse gas and sulfur dioxide emissions.

3- When you add the cost of packaging and marketing to transportation, not to mention the water makers’ huge profits, you are paying two to five times more for a bottle of water than you do for the equivalent amount of gasoline.

4- Americans collectively spend five times more on bottled water each year than it would cost to eradicate the 1.8 million deaths of children due to waterborne illness each year.

If you want to read thess reasons in detail, click here to go to Pablo Päster’s article in Salon about bottled water.

Now I want to know what you think about this. Do you think people should depend on tap water and abandon bottled water completely to save the environment and poor thirsty people in Africa? What say you?