Water Privatization : Advantages And Disadvantage Of Bottled Water

Do you ever think bottled water is safer than tap water? You would be wrong. According to "Bottled Water: The Wrong Choice paragraph 4", it states that the city tap water companies must follow safe strict rules to make sure nothing in the water harms us. The bottles water

Seventy percent of the human body is comprised of water. This makes drinking water quality vital. The EPA estimates the average adult consumes 1.2 liters daily or 115 gallons of community (tap) water daily while the average consumption of bottled water per capita in the U.S. is in excess of 30.8 gallons per year and is expected to continue to increase according to the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) and the Beverage Marketing Association’s 2013 report. Bottled water costs anywhere from 240 to 10,000 times more per gallon than the average cost of tap, but people’s perception that bottled water is purer, safer or healthier is driven, in part, by strong bottled water marketing campaigns that focus on news reports about crises that involve municipal water supplies. (NRDC, “Bottled Water Pure Drink or Pure Hype”) The sources for both tap and bottled waters as well as additives to either enrich or neutralize contents of water determine the mineral and chemical composition of drinking water. Is bottled water really any purer or healthier than local tap water?

Billions of gallons of bottled water are consumed in the United States every year. Many Americans choose bottled water for its convenience and say that the taste is much better than tap water. They say tap water is flat and tasteless. Some argue that the cost of bottled water far exceeds the cost of tap water. One study showed that one bottled water per day would cost the consumer $365 per year while the same amount of tap water would cost ten cents. While bottled water is more expensive, it provides over 130,000 jobs resulting in over six billion dollars in salaries for american workers “Bottled Water Matters.” In the article, “ Bad To The Last Drop,” Tom Standage says that bottled water is too expensive and encourages people to stop buying bottled water and give the money to charity. In the article “ In Defense of Bottled Water,” Thomas J. Lauria says that eliminating bottled water would have the unintended consequence of driving people to choose more unhealthy beverages which have thicker plastic bottles and would be worse on the environment. He also says that bottled water is an important choice in situations where there is a lack of tap water or concern about water

Water is essential to life, scientific fact, not debatable (Tracy). More than half of all Americans drink bottled water; about a third of the public consumes it regularly (Olsen). Many drink or buy bottled water simply because they believe it is of better quality, cleaner, and better tasting. On the contrary, several individuals do not know the cons of drinking bottled water. Today, there are many misconceptions and myths about bottled water. Many people are uneducated about what goes into our bottles and how it not only affects us but also our environment. In the article “The New Oil” by Jeneen Interlandi and Ryan Tracy they discuss the issues that have to do with water and the privatization of it. They believe there is a crisis and something has to be done. Due to the cost, pollution, shortage, and health issues, bottled water should be outlawed. Water should not be controlled by water bottle companies and should not be allowed to be sold in plastic bottles.

In a qualitative study performed in the United Kingdom, “the majority of participants associated bottled water with having fewer impurities than tap water, and were more likely to trust the quality of bottled water than tap water” (Ward). Individuals with well water should also be attentive to the purity of their water supply, as it is not even held to regulation standard. Looking at the facts though, bottled water is regulated by Food and Drug Administration in equivalence to the Environmental Protection Agency who holds the public officials accountable for the standards of tap water (Hogan & Larsen). This is not to say, though, that there is not human error on both sides that can cause room for contamination of a drinking supply and jeopardize the safety of the

According to a four-year, detailed investigation to evaluate the quality and safety of bottled water conducted by an environmental advocacy group, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), traces of various chemicals (THMs such as chloroform and BDCM, both probable human carcinogens) and arsenic were discovered in high levels. Another chemical found in PET plastic bottles is antimony that is harmless in small doses but in larger doses can cause nausea, vomiting, and death. (Ban the Bottle, 2014) A senior scientist at the NRDC, Dr. Gina Solomon told The New York Times that “there is no reason to believe that bottled water is safer than tap water.” (Ban the Bottle, 2014) Public water in the U.S. is heavily regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) because they require numerous tests for bacteria daily which are available to the public. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates bottled water and only require tests on a weekly basis and does not share their discoveries with neither the public nor EPA. (Ban the Bottle,

When working for a company or any business for that matter, It’s important that you allow yourself to take in constructive criticism from consumers, in order to make your business more successful. Yes, everyone has Consumer’s right, meaning that you have the right to be heard, the right to environmental health, the right to service, the right to be informed and the right to choose what you buy. Consumers Association of Penang. (n.d.). Retrieved September 20, 2017, If I was to work at the public relations department at one of the water bottle companies, I’ll respond by telling the consumers that drinking bottled water has its perks. Say you were traveling aboard, drinking tap water is not the safest

The world revolves around water. Without it, organisms would cease to exist. With that being said, humans depend on it on a daily basis. In the documentary “Thirst”, it covers the controversy of water privatization in Bolivia, India, and Stockton. All of these regions are opposed to water privatization by the powerful corporations that operate in the area. The people living in these places believe that water privatization negatively affects their control of their water, because it a human right. On the other hand, the multinational corporations believe that water is an economic resource that should be bought and sold, for profit. I believe that water should not have the ability to be privatized.

From helping the daily jogger stay hydrated during a run to that mom and family trying to stay hydrated at the amusement park, bottled water has had a lot of good to it. However do those goods outweigh the bad? In “Bottled Water: Friend or Foe?” by Christopher Castillo, Diana Goettsch, Angela Reid, and Catherine Sterling argue bottled water are our worst enemy, reasons being the bottle itself has harming chemicals within it which we are drinking, bottled water damages our environment, and lastly we are spending more on bottled water when we have the same water coming from our sinks.

Gleick supports this argument and cites specific grounds that disprove bottled water companies’ false claims. For example oxygenated water is said to “strengthen your immune system…and even brain function” despite scientific testing done proving that a single breath of air contains more oxygen than the product itself (Gleick 118). Next, the author recalls someone who drank nothing but super-hydrating Penta Water, which cost over sixty dollars a case. This costly expense was proven to be futile, because scientific evidence proved that Penta did not have any health benefits superior to those of ordinary water (Gleick 129). Barnett incorporates a qualifier which states that it is difficult to conclude whether bottled or tap water is healthier. However, this does not take away from the fact that the EPA, which regulates municipal water, is more strict than the FDA is with regulation over bottled water. Bottled water companies claim they intensely purify their products despite this evidence. These seemingly astonishing claims mislead consumers who do not possess the knowledge nor the equipment necessary to test the water themselves. Consumers spend money to purchase products that turn out to have no outstanding health benefits. They may additionally put their health at risk by consuming bottled water which may contain pollutants detrimental to the human body.

According to The Water Project, “Bottles used to package water take over 1,000 years to bio-degrade and if incinerated, they produce toxic fumes. It is estimated that over 80% of all single-use water bottles used in the U.S. simply become ‘litter’” (“Bottled Water is Wasteful”). This fact is not the only reason I believe that bottled water does not outweigh its costs. Although statistics show that bottled water is efficient, there are many reasons to believe otherwise.

The use of bottled water dates as far back as the year sixteen-hundred and twenty two in a town called Malvern in England. They would bottle and sell water from a site called the Holy Well because it was believed to having healing properties.() Nearly four hundred years later we still bottle water, but our reasons have changed from the superstitions of the seventeenth century. Yet despite the reason why being different, the idea is still rooted in superstition. In the modern day, instead of believing that bottled water has healing potential it has become the idea that only bottled water is safe to drink and that water from the tap is unclean and dangerous. These ideas were bred by companies looking to make money off a fear. The reality is that

When it comes to the topic of safety of Tap water or Bottled water, most of us or the Food and Drug Administration or the Environmental Protection Agency enthusiast will readily agree that “without a doubt, we have a drinking water system that’s the envy of the world,” that “it’s an urban myth that Bottled water is safer than Tap Water.” Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of whether Bottled Water or Tap Water is safe for consumption. But the truth remains that “some

Have you ever had any concerns about bottled water? Do you think that bottled water consumption should be banned? Bottled water is water packed in plastic containers and sold for human consumption (Health Canada, 2013). Currently, the amount of bottled water consumed has increased considerably since many people feel it is safer drinking bottled water than tap water (Parent and Wrong, 2014). According to The Statistics Portal, the global sale of bottled water took a leap from 161, 589 to 181, 608 liters from 2009 to 2011. Only in the United States, each American citizen consumed around 32 gallons of bottled water in 2013, thus meaning an equivalent growth of 15, 94% over 2009 (The Statistics Portal, 2014). In fact, due to good portability, bottled water has been helpful in both simple and complex situations such as daily exercises and natural disasters. Even though having those few considerable advantages, bottled water still have been less beneficial; especially due to the negative impacts in the socio-economic, health and environmental fields.

Water is a human right, not a commodity. It is the essence of life, sustaining every living being on the planet. Without it we would have no plants, no animals, no people. However, while water consumption doubles every twenty years our water sources are being depleted, polluted and exploited by multinational corporations. Water privatization has been promoted by corporations and international lending institutions as the solution to the global water crises but the only one’s who benefit from water privatization are investors and international banks. The essential dilemma of privatization is that the profit interests of private water utilities ultimately jeopardizes the safeguarding of the human right to water. Access to clean, sufficient