It’s World Water Day, so how about we stop buying bottled water?
I cannot stand buying water in plastic bottles. It completely pisses me
off that it is so easy to create such waste and for what? No, I’ve had enough
and I am definitely committed to working hard to take water whenever we are out
and about. But I can do better. I must do better.
I also get pissed at restaurants/cafes that insist on selling me bottles
of water, versus supplying water freely. Waste, waste, waste, waste! Too much
bloody waste!
But you see, I can make this choice, because I am lucky. I have mostly
lived in countries where it is safe to drink water out of a tap. In case you are
not aware, the majority of the world does not have that luxury. I know, I’ve
been exposed to the water.
I’ve had Pharaoh’s Revenge in Egypt, Delhi Belly (many times) in India, Montezuma’s
Revenge in Mexico, Bali Belly in Indonesia, the Kathmandu Quick Step in Nepal, and
well, you get the flavour. I don’t know what it’s called in China, but I’ve had
it there too and it’s not fun when the cramps hit. At that point, you have no
choice but to unleash in public toilets without walls.
And I mean no walls. Zero. It’s a big room with a drain. You squat over
the drain and you go. The problem is a blonde woman in China in 1995 attracts a
crowd. I can never explain how it feels to have an audience watch you squirting
for your life, and there is nothing you can do about it. Friendly people
though. Very curious. Especially 20 years ago...
Wait, my colleague Howard has directed me to a Wiki page on travellers’ diarrhoea.
In China it’s called ‘pulled stomach.’ BORING!
Anyhoo, back to the point. It’s World Water Day today, March 22nd,
and this day is about a lot of things (please check it out and support them),
but for me, it’s about waste.
Apart from many of the places listed above, the biggest water bottle
waste comes from countries where we have the privilege of drinking clean water
out of a tap. Criminal.
We need to stop buying bottled water and we need to do it now. We need
to put Coke, Pepsi, Nestle and all of those other big
companies on notice and get them to shut down these facilities. It is bloody
bullshit that we – and yes WE – have ever created an industry where we buy bloody
water. We’re all guilty and it has to stop.
Remember when the CEO
of Nestle made a preposterous claim that access to water was not a human
right? Remember how pissed we were about that? And yet we buy bloody water.
What sort of idiots are we? Seriously.
What can we do? Well we can all buy high quality metal water bottles
(not shitty plastic ones please), that come with a little bag, and then make
sure we never leave home without our own water receptacle. We buy them for our
kids, why not ourselves?
Then we need to insist that any business of any description has a water
cooler – you know, the metal ones, not the plastic ones – and the water comes
out cold. Governments should legislate this as a requirement like they do with
fire alarms. You have a business; you must make water accessible to anyone
visiting your establishment. Additionally, you must not supply plastic cups
either, because hey, everyone has a water bottle right? Governments can
legislate this for all businesses – it’s an action they can take.
Naturally, this will take some time, of course, but we can all take
action right now. We can be responsible for carrying our own water with us. If
we are regulars at bars, restaurants, cafes, etc…. we can insist they stop
selling water in plastic bottles and provide jugs the customers can easily
access. We are customers, we can make them change. I’ve started doing this
around town. I’ve had enough.
If we live in a country where it is not going to kill us to drink water
out of a tap, we owe it to ourselves to take responsibility and take action. We
can all make small changes that add up to big changes.
And don’t forget, as the next two billion people move into middle class status
over the next couple of years, the first thing they’re going to do is buy
bloody water in bottles, because they live in countries where the water is shit
and now they can afford to buy bottled water. We’ve got to change this today.
We must. Another two billion people contributing to plastic waste? We will all
choke.
Can we stop the madness one person at a time? What do you reckon? Are
you with me? Shall we make it our pact today, on World Water Day?
Yours, without the bollocks
Andrea
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