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Kedikat -> RE: Drinking water question (6/1/2006 6:48:07 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: ArtCatDom
quote:
ORIGINAL: Kedikat
Just an interesting tidbit.
In many areas, the requirements for bottled water and specialty water can be lower than the tap water.
Some places have as good or better tap water than the requirements for bottled water. And bottled water suppliers have been known to use scare tactics and questionable data to try and get hold of public water supplies, for privatized profits. Sometimes to terrible, even fatal results.
In a South American country, they privatized the water system. In that country, if you caught and used rainwater, you would have had to pay the water company ( Bechtel I think ). Riots ensued. The water went public again. Enron looked with avarice on public water systems and got a few. They crumbled and were reclaimed at cost, back to the public.
Water is being fought over quite vigorously by big corps. So far the ones they have gotten were disasters, but they are still trying to get water as a privatized cash cow.
Just following up with a couple thoughts.
A lot of bottled water is "purified" or "filtered" water. (Most places force bottlers to distinguish between purified/filtered water and spring/mineral water.) Purified/filtered water is for all intents and purposes tap water in a bottle. It's almost always provided and/or bottled by local water authorites. You're quite right in asserting that sometimes this bottled tap water actually has lower standards that the regular tap. (Though the water quality in the end may vary, as many places have old water systems where despite the fact the water starts off cleaner, by the time it reaches your faucet it's decidedly not.) Also be careful with mineral water as it often is high sediment tap water or tap water with minerals added.
Now, about water as a resource, that's a background issue in these parts. My city is right on the shore of one of the Great Lakes. Mainstream media does a poor job of covering the water resource dispute, but some of the alt press liberal rags around here give it periodic notice (if with a heavily biased presentation). If it weren't for Canada's objections, we'd already have corporations exporting the Great Lakes.
*meow*
Yep.
I now live in Alberta Canada. We are riding high on the oil prices. Bitching we give some cash to the rest of Canadadian provinces who aren't sitting on top of the currently valuable resource, and forgetting how the east financed the creation of the province and more. But nobody here seems too concerned that our Rocky Mountain water resources are fast drying up. I wonder when oil will be cheaper than water for us, and the east, with it's great lakes will reverse the flow through the oil pipelines and sell/give us water through them? I am so pissed off at how hind and for sight is getting ever shorter. I'm allright jack, screw my children and all the rest, give me that wider screen TV on my credit card so I can forget it all. I'm entitled. Though I can't say why.
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