Water. I would guess that it’s the most urgent need for almost everyone on this planet. An average person can last just three days without water, which is not long if you ask me. Maybe it’s because of it’s importance, because there are many current problems concerning water. Scarcity, floods and pollution. And even within these categories, there are a number of different problems when it comes to water. Today I want to share with you a documentary that highlights a number of these problems: Tapped.
Tapped
I have to be honest, it is a bit of an old documentary. It has been on my must-see list for a bit too long haha! Tapped is a documentary from 2009. Progress has been made meanwhile, the EU has voted to ban a number of single-use plastic, there are still a number of organizations fighting for clean water everywhere and technology is always improving. So to start off with, we are making progress and this documentary should not give the impression that nothing is changing! However, this not mean we’re there yet. Tapped addresses three problems with water and I think it’s good to be aware of those.
1 | Bottled water is a commodity
Over the past decades water has become a commodity. It is seriously competing with tap water. Unfortunately it has become a billion doller industry. In countries where policies are lacking, companies can just come anywhere, pump up water and resell it for hundreds times the amount of money it takes to pump it. This way it’s a golden business, making money has never been easier. Water should not be a commodity, it should be a common good. No business should own it, we should all own it. I am boycotting bottled water altogether, also in restaurants I ask for tap water. We should not give companies so much power over water. I just don’t trust Pepsi (for example) with this.
2 | Bottled water is not safe
Tapped addresses the fact that bottled water isn’t as strictly regulated as tap water. Tap water in the Netherlands is cleaner than bottled water, keep that in mind (source). We trust companies with our water, companies that have done terrible things before. Also, bottled water often comes in plastic. There are a number of studies which prove that this is not safe and that the plastic leaks into the water. Drinking out of stainless steel or glass bottles doesn’t have these risks. I have had a glass bottle for a long time, but when it broke I switched to a reusable plastic one. I am currently looking for a secondhand stainless steel bottle, because buying new is not sustainable.
3 | Bottled water pollutes
The absurd proces of bottled water, I’ve written about if before. A single-use product is (unless it’s medical) always stupid. We just don’t need it. After someone has used it, it is disposed of. This is a flawed proces, because our oceans are full of plastics. The plastic soup is a massive problem. And also, we forget that these plastic bottled need to be made somewhere. There is a perfect example of this overlooked problem in Tapped. The people who live next to the plastic factories are sick. Avoiding bottled water is also something we should do for our fellow humans.
This was a summary of the issues that Tapped addresses. It’s far from everything and there’s more to be said, so I would recommend watching the documentary yourself. I thought it was great! Tapped is available on Youtube. Normally I would suggest buying the film on the official website to support the cause, but this official site refers you to Amazon. And I would never suggest you buy anything off Amazon. I’ll write more about that some other time (for now: Jeff Bezos is a criminal and the company is a disgrace).
Have you seen the documentary: Tapped?
Yours sincerely,
Romee
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