What to look for when
buying bottled water
Theoriginofthewaterisnotthe
only problem—so is the packaging:
Toproduceayear’sworthofplastic
bottles that end up on store shelves
in the U.S. alone, 2.7 billion liters of
crudeoilarerequired.Theplastic
packaging can also discharge toxic
substances like bisphenol A (BPA)
into the water, and this can lead to
reproductive disorders in humans.
Howeveranevenbiggerproblem
is the impact on the environment.
Even though recycling takes place
intheU.S.,fouroutoffiveplastic
bottles end up in the regular trash.
They will either be buried or burned.
Butmanyofthesebottlesalsoend
up in rivers and are thus pushed out
to sea. Five huge garbage patches
have already formed in the oceans
andtheyconsistprimarilyofplastic,
including countless water bottles.
Mechanical friction makes plastic
crumble into ever-smaller pieces,
but it does not actually biodegrade.
In samples taken from the middle
of the sea, the number of
tiny finely ground pieces
ofplasticinthewater
exceeded the number
of plankton—in 1999 it
was six times as many,
andin2008therewere
46timesmorepiecessupply due to the global population
growth. After 30 years have passed,
morethan40%ofthecountriesin
Asia and southern Africa will suffer
from a serious shortage of drinking
water.Expertssuchastheformer
UN Senior Advisor on Water Maude
Barlow are convinced: This shortage
will lead to the biggest refugee crisis
in history. “Most politicians respond
to the water crisis with unbelievable
ignorance,” says Barlow. “They are
making decisions as if the resource
is available in unlimited quantities,
and—meanwhile—the increasingly
powerful international corporations
are accelerating the destruction of
the last sources of fresh water.”
And since water is also important
for processing and manufacturing
industries, other companies are now
pushing their way into the market. In
August 2012, for example, Australia
sold the largest irrigation property
in the southern hemisphere, Cubbie
Station, to Chinese and Japanese
investors for $232 million—the water
from the inundated agricultural land
nowflowsintotheChinesetextile
industry. “I see whole fleets of water
tankers that will surpass all that is
available for oil and gas today,” says
economist Willem Buiter.
AndasforEurope,wherewateris
stillapublicgood—isthescenario
described at the beginning of the
article possible there, as well? In
fact the European Union is currently
negotiating with the U.S. over the
free trade treaty known as TTIP.
This is intended to give companies
moreroomtomaneuver,forexample
totheeffectthatwatercorporations
will be capable of acquiring regional
water concessions. In the past local
municipalities have simply awarded
the concessions to their own water-
worksbutinthefuture,asaresultof
TTIP, corporations could sue about
this—in secret arbitration courts, no
less. So the politicians do not sound
very convincing when they say that
theydonotexpectthistohappen...Anthony Turton
political scientist and water
resource management expert“The wars over
water are not
foughtbyarmies
on battlefields,
butbyspeculators
on the trading floor.”
PHOTOS: Getty Images (3); Bloomberg/Getty Images (2); Verleih; PR (5); Kedsanee.ILLUSTRATION: PR.of plastic than plankton. This micro-
plastic gets consumed by tiny fish,
which are in turn eaten by the bigger
predatory fish—and these, in turn,
ultimately end up on our plates.
The value that water has today is
apparent in the stock exchanges.
Those who invested their money in
waterequityfundsatthestartofthe
21stcenturywereabletoincrease
their assets by 75% in three years.
Andafter15yearshavepassedthe
demand is expected to exceed theTherearehundredsofbottledwatersavailableintheworld,
includingspringandmineralwaters.Cleandrinkingwateris
vitaltohealth,butifyouwanttoprotecttheenvironmentas
wellasthepeoplewholiveatthesourcewherethe
waterisbeingbottledwhenyoubuy,payattention
tothefollowingpoints:1.Thewatershouldcome
fromaregionalsource;thelongerthetransport
route,thehigherthecarbondioxideemissions.
FijiWater,forexample,istransportedacross
thousandsofmiles—anddriesoutthesprings
inthecountryofitsorigin.2.Reusablebottles
arebetterthandisposablebottles;glassis
better than plastic, say packaging experts. 3.
Drinkfilteredtapwateraswell.Mar 2017 34 ideasanddiscoveries.com