There has been an ongoing global debate about the quality of drinking water. While many people swear by filtered or packaged water, others vouch for tap water. There are various health and economic reasons attached to both and people have been stuck between figuring out which to pick. Years ago, The Story of Stuff shared a mind-boggling instance from the city of Cleveland that settled the debate for many. The Fiji brand created an ad campaign proposing that they’re better than tap water any day. However, the campaign didn’t have much effect as the city of Cleveland defended tap water with concrete evidence.
Tests conducted to compare tap water and branded water shockingly revealed that Fiji’s water quality and taste were poorer than tap water, while the costs were bafflingly high. Elaborating more, it was revealed that the tests were done by reviewing with various people all over the globe. In terms of quality, packaged water could be better sometimes but not always. The only reason people believe otherwise is that bottled water companies are not required to reveal as much information as municipal water utilities for tap water, per The New York Times. And when it comes to taste, many people pointed out that they prefer tap water over bottled water any day.
The chairperson of the Investigations Subcommittee, Bart Stupak, said, “Neither the public nor federal regulators know nearly enough about where bottled water comes from and what safeguards are in place to ensure its safety.” How is it safer than tap water? The entire chaotic discussion also brought to light that bottled water companies are charging way more for a possibly lower-quality product. The cost of bottled water was a whopping 2000 times higher and is simply being sold to feed the profit needs of various companies.
Apart from health-related and financial reasons, tap water is also better than bottled water due to environmental reasons. Bottled water does more harm to the environment than to people. The massive demand has companies manufacturing bottles on a humongous scale, which are dumped within seconds. This adds to the landfills, increases toxic pollution and more. The list of why tap water is comparatively better goes on. Billions of people don’t have access to any clean water, let alone the choice between tap and packaged water. So instead of spending millions on packaging, the money could be used to improve the water system for better distribution, indirectly serving a good cause.
Even after so many disadvantages, why do people continue to swear by packaged water? Several ad campaigns have indirectly manipulated the idea that tap water is bad and not designed for drinking. Despite the tests, people’s mindset is fixed on the idea that water used for washing dishes and clothing couldn’t possibly be the same as what they consume. However, the study concluded that there isn’t much difference between tap and packaged water. Moreover, the whopping costs, harm to the environment and manipulation of the human mindset is an unwanted scenario altogether. So to play it safe for all, tap water for the win is the new recommended mindset!
This article originally appeared 3 months ago.
