Twenty-five million people die each year because of diseases they have contracted through contaminated water. * Imagine the entire populations of London, Chicago, and Paris dying each year; all 25 million men, women and children who inhabit these cities.
All of this because people do not have access to clean drinking water--the very basis of our survival as human beings. Our sources for drinkable water (groundwater and surface water) are very limited, representing only about 1% of the amount of water on Earth.** This water is often contaminated through poor care and improper protection of the supply.
Bottled water has also been called into question as the disclosure of contents is kept at a minimum by companies such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Perhaps stakes in the $6 billion industry of bottling water has something to do with it? "People tout bottled water as this pure substance that's trickling from clear mountain springs when, in fact, that may not be the case," said Assemblywoman Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro. Why do citizens of the wealthiest country in the world have to pay for seemingly safe and healthy water through supplies provided by private corporations? If we cannot develop a nation-wide system that keeps our drinking supply safe and removes contaminates, how can we expect those in third-world nations to do so? The debate over tap versus bottle is fueled by the fact that unlike municipalities, bottling companies do not have to provide a yearly report on the amount of contaminants in their water supply. ***
So what might be a solution? Advances in technology. Reverse-osmosis systems are highly successful in removing contaminants, but in the process, they also remove essential minerals such as calcium and magnesium. Cities can add these minerals into the water after purification. Reverse-osmosis has a downside. Every gallon of filtered, purified water needs to come from 3 or 4 gallons of processed water. Measures need to be taken in the agriculture sector to create alternative solutions to harmful pesticides and factories need to find ways to prevent waste from seeping into the water supply. The most important concern to our survival is not global warming or terrorism, but the poor sanitation and increased contaminants in the drinking water on our planet.


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