Water Bodies

This entry is a continuation of my October 12th entry “Water Bottles Are No Good”. The information below can be found in full in:

Bottled Water: How drinking tap water can help save you and the planet by Lucie Wanctin for Sustain: The Alliance for Better Food and Farming. 

How much water should we drink?

The advice given is to drink a minimum of 8 glasses of water per day. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the drinking quantity needed depends on your age, physical activity, your diet, health, and gender.

The recommended volume of water (which can also be absorbed though foods and other beverages) required for hydration, based on the WHO is:

Female Adult: 2.2 litres/day

Male Adult: 2.9 litres/day

Children: 1.0 litre/day

Manual labour in high temperature:

Female Adult: 4.5 litres/day 

Male Adult: 4.5 litres/day

Children: 4.5 litres/day

Pregnancies/Lactation: 4.8 litres/day; 3.3 litres/day respectively

Where is water from and what is in it?

Our body is made up of 60% of water and while nearly 70 percent of the world is covered by it, only 2.5 percent is fresh, the rest is saline and ocean-based. Even then, just 1 percent of our freshwater is easily accessible, with much of it trapped in glaciers and snowfields. In essence, only 0.007 percent of the planet's water is available to fuel and feed its 6.8 billion people. Scary.

The reason why people buy water bottles is because they think that tap water does not taste good, that it has contaminants when in fact, it is tested repeatedly to make sure it is safe to drink. The water is not taken from polluted sources and the sunlight helps eliminates the pathogens present:

• Chlorine is used to disinfect the water and get rid of the microbes. 
• There is 0.26 percent of lead in water. It has now been removed from the main distribution systems.
• Endocrine disrupters are hormone-like chemicals, they could be harmful if taken in large quantities and alter or make it difficult to have healthy babies such as male infants developing female characteristics (these hormones are present in all plastic, also known as Bisphenol A or BPA! It has been banned in Canada. Watch The Disappearing Male).

Bottled water companies say that you can drink bottled water that has been bottled, up to two years ago. However, the water from the tap is fresher and came more recently from its original source.

Environmental benefits of tap water

By using tap water, there is no plastic bottles used, hence no plastic waste burned, buried or turned into other consumer goods that all require energy. In addition, there wouldn’t be any need for transportation, which means no fuel used and no emissions released into our atmosphere (aka the air we breathe), and less effects of climate change.  Verdict: Tap water wins!

Alternatives

If tap water is still not for you, use filters that attach to your tap, or get BRITTA (just remember to change the cartridge regularly to prevent bacteria build-up).

There are also re-usable bottles: if you get a bottle of water, once emptied, refill it with your filtered tap water instead of buying a new one. It will save you money and the environment (some companies say that their bottles are not meant to be re-used, most likely to get you to buy more, duh. However, there has not been independent studies showing any problems with refilling water bottles).

Some brands of bottles in the United Kingdom are investing in bio-degradable bottles that are made from corn starch, and are said to bio-degrade back into soil within ten weeks.

For more information, you can visit www.sustainweb.org . They have more facts, and tips on what you can do to  reduce water usage.

Juniper