Finding a safe and abundant supply of water is one of the keys to maintaining a healthy body and lifestyle. In Mexico, botled water is common alternative to unsafe tap water. The privatization of water is an issue. I use the Berkey Brand filter to make sure my water is safe to drink. What do you do?

Date:   5/30/2010 10:17:05 PM ( 14 y ago)

Bottled Water Bamboozaled in Mexico
I am a “gringo” from (North of the Border) living in Mexico and the issues regarding finding a safe source of drinking and cooking water are keys to surviving here with all your intenstines intact. Unless there is simply no other alternative, even Mexicans don’t drink the water here. The primary substitutes are either sodas which are consumed in incredible quantities or bottled water. Most families will but “garafons” (20 litre bottles) as needed from delivery trucks roaming around town. Depending on the location the price will run about 6 pesos to 22 pesos. For poorer families it can place a real burden on their financial resources.
Many municipalities have largely given up or never have taken up the fight to provide clean, clear, safe drinking water to the communities they serve.
The statistics regarding water quality in the US are also alarming. It is not just a third world phenomenon. The result is a subtle shift in dependency from public utilities for water resources to private companies.
The marketing of bottled water reflects the public’s doubts about their water.
The idea of private water utilities is not new, private companies have been providing water in some countries for decade. The danger now is that the industry is highly unregulated by public agencies. The regulations that apply to the quality of bottled water are the same as those for tap water. The result is that companies can simply bottle tap water and sell it as long as the tap water meets the regulation guidelines.
The question that arises in this context is whether or not individuals have a “right” to this essential resource.
In an interview recently, the president of Nestle, the worlds largest food product company and one of the worlds largest purveyors of bottles water, indicated that people had no more right to water than they would have to any other natural resource, such as timber or coal. Not a particulary surprising view but unfortunately short-sighted. Why? because people can survive without timber or coal but without safe drinking water they will not last more than about three days.

Death from contaminated drinking water accounts for huge numbers of deaths every day (about 6,000) mostly children.

Again, I am not totally against the idea of bottling water or the companies that bottle and sell it. They are responding to and to some extent creating a demand that exists in the marketplace. To the extent that they reasonably serve that demand, I commend them, to the extent that they exploit that demand by over-extraction of water resources or inflated prices, I condemn them.

I get around the whole issue by using a Berkey brand filter. For info on this product go to http://www.berkeywaterifltersystem.com
. I highly recommend them. I've used one as my exclusive source of drinking water here in Mexico for six years.

I am interested in knowing what the sources are for the water you drink and what precautions are taken by the supplier and by you personally to assure that the water is safe to drink.

Thanks for your response.

 

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