WATER OF INDIA:
During our school days we have watched one item called “water of India” where the famous magician P.C.Sarkar, would pour out water to a bucket from an empty brass pot .We wish such pots are available in India for our village folks.
Do you know? Plastic Bottles requires costly Oil
Making the plastic for the bottles requires 47 million gallons of oil annually. And that doesn’t include the jet fuel and gasoline required to transport the bottles- sometimes halfway around the world.
The anti-bottling protests
The anti-bottling protests in India against Pepsi and Coca-Cola echo increased concern in Europe and the United States over the proliferation of bottled water, including the creation of billions of soon unwanted plastic containers. In India, protests against the bottling plant in drought-prone Kala Dera near Jaipur focus on the source of the packaged water and how bottling companies are grabbing underground water.
The truth is, many water companies get their water from sources in developing countries, such as India and Fiji. In those places, the companies take water that once belonged to an entire village and buy it for themselves, forcing the villagers to pay for water that they used to be able to use as a community, free of charge.
Economists at the California-based Pacific Institute that estimated the $100 billion value of the global industry, ask why consumers are readily paying for bottled water typically costing a thousand times more per liter than high-quality municipal tap water.
"Are consumers willing to pay this price because they believe that bottled water is safer than tap water?" Pacific Institute experts ask. "Do they have a real taste preference for bottled water? Or is the convenience of the portable plastic bottle the major factor? Are they taken in by the images portrayed in commercials and on the bottles?"
The study, conducted by the US-based Earth Policy Institute, says the global consumption of bottled water has grown by 57 per cent over the past five years, despite the fact that the product is often no healthier than tap water and costs up to 10,000 times more. Emily Arnold, the author of report, says that the $100 billion spent each year on bottled water is nearly 7 times the sum invested in providing safe drinking water in developing countries.
Bottled Water law in India
The term "mineral water" is misleading because our laws do not stipulate the minimum mineral content level required for water to be labeled as such. Ahmadabad-based Consumer Education and Research Society
(CERS), an independent non-profit institution with a sophisticated product-testing laboratory, recently carried out a detailed study on 13 major brands of bottled water available in the country. As many as 10 of the 13 brands had foreign floating objects in clear violation of norms found in the survey. The CERS study indicates that there is an urgent need to revise standards for bottled water.
Traditional Indian methods of cooling and purifying water
Now people of India turning their backs on the country's ancient methods of cooling and purifying water. Stored in earthen pots, for instance, it is not only refreshingly cool and tasty but is said to become bacteria-free. Yet the common summer sight of water matkas (earthen pots) in public offices and spaces is giving way to upturned plastic drums dispensing packaged water.
Rainwater is safe, doesn’t bring about adverse effects.
For centuries people have thought rainwater as unsafe, but contrary to their beliefs, as per an Australian study, drinking of untreated rainwater is safe for human health. The study was conducted under the auspices of eminent researchers from Melbourne’s Monash University. The entire team took a look at 300 homes that used rainwater collected in water tanks as their primary drinking source. This endeavor has been described as a world first study that comes in the midst of growing criticism of bottled water. Plastic Bottles Pollution
Tap water is a local product that needs no packaging. Globally, bottled water accounts for as many as 1.5 million tons of plastic waste annually, according to the Sierra Club. In addition, billions of bottles end up in the ground every year. Sadly, only 20% ever get recycled, according to the Container Recycling Institute. The other 80%? Besides landfills, many bottles end up in oceans, posing a risk to marine life. By purchasing bottled water, you’re indirectly raising the price of gasoline and contributing to Global Warming and climate change.
My appeal to my viewers to use only filtered water kept in earthen pot. Avoid iced and freeze water to save your throat and you save thousands of rupees for your family on cough syrups, antibiotics and doctors bills. While going out take your water bottle with you and stop purchasing these mineral water bottles which contains more bacteria than what you presume. A bottle of water (one liter) costs you Rs15-!8 where as a bottle of milk costs you Rs20.Lets raise our voice and tell to those money suckers to reduce price of these bottles to Rs:2 only or we stop using these show business of using these bottles in train or in air. As a doctor I do not find any drop in incidence of water borne diseases such as Diarrhea, Typhoid fever, Gastro enteritis, hepatitis etc in big cities in spite of people using million liters of bottled water supplied in those apartments, as most of these are transmitted through food.
We have been using tube well water for more than ten years with out any problems. We do not drink water in hotels, restaurants or in flights. We blame cars, trucks, industries as pollutants but these water bottling plants too are responsible for the depletion of ozone layer, please think over it and purchase your next bottle.
The discarded water bottles unintentionally left in trains by the passengers are leading to serious health hazard in India as these bottles are being collected, re-filled with contaminated water and re-sold to passengers at cheaper rates.
The Railway’s own menial staff and police has been found involved in this business who hire street children for collection and selling of these bottles at the prices, minimum Rs. 10 which is bit cheaper than a new bottle of water.
According to a survey made across the railway stations in the country the staff dealing in used bottles make an average income of Rs. 5000 per big station from this ‘business’ which often leads to cholera, dysentery and gastric related problems among the passengers.
Remember these ladies at the beginning of the article and see their hardship. Let’s provide them safe drinking water.
