Editor,
By 2025, two-thirds of the world's population will be without access to an adequate amount of safe, clean drinking water. Today, more than 1 billion people are already in this dire situation.
As privileged Americans, we are lucky that our public water systems provide us with a seemingly endless supply of clean water, most of which is carelessly wasted. Most of us use public water systems, which are quite good, yet giant bottled water corporations spend $158 million each year trying to convince us otherwise.
Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestle, with their bottled water brands - Dasani, Aquafina and Pure Life - are the leaders of a $55 billion industry that takes our public water supply, bottles it and sells it back to us at an enormous markup. This theft of our water should not be tolerated.
We need to stop consenting to the agenda of these corporations - the transformation of water as a human right into a commodity. An estimated 1.5 million barrels of crude oil are required in the manufacturing of one year's supply of water bottles, directly contributing to global warming. Less than a quarter of these bottles are recycled, and 2 billion pounds of plastic from water bottles end up in our landfills, incinerators, oceans and other natural environments.
Studies have shown chemicals leached from plastic bottles disrupt hormone levels, decreasing testosterone and sperm count and enlarging prostates in males while causing early puberty in females. Learn more about the misleading bottled water industry and see if you can tell the difference between tap water and bottled water by taking the tap water challenge at the Lobo Growers' Market and Sustainability Fair from 10 a.m. to
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
2 p.m. on Friday.
Amy K. Coplen
UNM student
