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Hello there! After a few months of silence World Wide Water Awareness is back on track! After our successes at the WC in Sapporo we have taken some time off to re-think our priorities and to bring new people into the WWW-team. A new, fresh WWW-team is now ready to start! The previous team worked very hard to make Jaycees aware of the scarcity of fresh water and the need to do something about it.
The focus of the new team will be to bring Jaycees into action. As a first step you are now holding a special EC 2001 Tampere edition of WATERMARK. In this WATERMARK we will not only inform you about our activities during the 2001 Area D Conference, but we will also give you information about two important factors in the world of water scarcity: price and conflict.
We try to give you this information in such a way that it will stimulate you to help reduce the water problems of our society.
As a next step we will update our website. It will contain lots of useful tips and information on how to start your own local water project. We will develop the site into a platform for the exchange of information about new and successful projects. We can't help feeling that an organization like JCI has the strength and the capability to contribute to helping reduce the scarcity of fresh water. All it takes is a little entrepreneurial spirit. That shouldn't be to difficult, after all, we're entrepreneurs in action! Please give us your opinion!
World Congress 2001: Introduction of the WaterPin
During the 2001 World Congress in Barcelona we plan to launch a new initiative as JCI Endorsed Project: the WaterPin. The WaterPin will be a global symbol of solidarity. People who wear the WaterPin show that they are aware of the water problems and that they support water organizations in finding a solution. The WaterPin is a co-production of World Wide Water Awareness and Dutch NGO's. All participating organizations will try to sell as many Pins as possible.
We plan to bring the WaterPin under the attention of the WC-delegates by handing out a large quantity of free Pins. We will keep you informed!
Can I support World Wide Water Awareness?
Yes you can! First of all, you can support Wide Water Awareness by buying a copy of our book The Voice of Water. Second, we stimulate LOM's (or NOM's) to start their own local water project. Examples of these projects are: raising money to help building water wells, education of children, helpings companies to rum their business in an environmentally sustainable way, etc.
Please attend our presentation at the General Assemply, contact us at the EC 2001 or contact us at info@water-awareness.nl.
Presentation at the General Assembly
As usual we will present the results and the status of our project at the General Assembly/ Open Forum. On Thursday June 14, Chantal Merkx, President of World Wide Water Awareness will present the results and future plans.
Unfortunately, we do not yet know when this presentation will take place, so, be sure to check the agenda for details.
The real cost of bottled water
In most western countries people are used to drinking bottled water. The reason why bottled water is used is not that there is no tap water available, but because it is believed that bottled water is healthier than tap water. Bottled drinking water is expensive: the price per liter may easily be several hundred times higher than tap water.
Last month the World Wild Life Fund published a report on this interesting topic. Below you will find the press release that accompanied that report.
Gland, Switzerland - In light of a new independent study WWF, the conservation organization, is urging people to drink tap water, which is often as good as bottled water, for the benefit of the environment and their wallets.
According to the study, Bottled Water: Understanding a social phenomenon, commissioned by WWF, bottled water may be no safer, or healthier than tap water in many countries while selling for up to 1000 times the price. Yet, it is the fastest growing drinks industry in the world and is estimated to be worth US$22 billion annually.
The study reveals that the bottled water market is partly fuelled by concerns over the safety of municipal water and by the marketing of many brands which portray them as being drawn from pristine sources and as being healthier than tap water. However, some bottled waters only differ from tap water in the fact that they are distributed in bottles rather than through pipes. In fact there are more standards regulating tap water in Europe and the US than those applied to the bottled water industry.
"Our attitudes towards tap water are being shaped by the pollution which is choking the rivers and streams which should be veins of life," argues Richard Holland, Director of WWF's Living Waters Campaign. "We must clean up and properly protect these waters at source, and not just at the treatment works, so that we can all rest easy in drinking from the tap."
The study acknowledges that while bottled water has the advantage of being generally safer in areas where tap water may be contaminated, boiling or filtering local water renders it safe at a much lower cost for people on a low income. However, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in terms of nutritional value, bottled water is no better than tap water. It may contain small amounts of minerals but so does tap water from many public municipal water supplies.
Some consumers prefer bottled water to tap water for taste reasons. WWF argues that water companies have an important responsibility to ensure that they consistently produce water that is not only safe but also pleasant to drink.
The study also finds that every year 1.5 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water. Toxic chemicals can be released into the environment during the manufacture and disposal of the bottles. Furthermore, a quarter of the 89 billion litres of water bottled worldwide annually are consumed outside their country of origin. Emissions of the green house gas carbon dioxide, caused by transporting bottled water within and between countries, contribute to the global problem of climate change.
"Bottled water isn't a long term sustainable solution to securing access to healthy water," said Richard Holland. "Clean water is a basic right. Protecting our rivers, streams and wetlands will help ensure that tap water remains a service which delivers good quality drinking water for everyone at a fair price."
For further information: Lisa Hadeed, Communications Manager for WWF Living Waters Campaign, Tel.: +41 22 364 9030, e-mail: lhadeed@wwfint.org. Internet: http://www.panda.org/livingwaters.
Another interesting aspect of water scarcity, world safety, is discussed in the CIA report Global Trends 2015. This reports discusses border over fresh water. For more information visit: the report online.
