Water is an indispensable drink for our life, it plays an essential role in our body. Ithas been proven that drinking water reduces hunger, helps digestion, relieves headaches, reduces the risk of sickness and has many other benefits. Considering the importance of water, many companies have done business selling bottled water ensuring that it is healthier than tap water.There is a belief that bottled water is better than tap water. This is due mainly because of the bad taste of some city waters, and also to the fact that they are contaminated by being in urban environments.
The tap water can be perfectly potable and have more residual waste or certain minerals than bottled water. This is because the tap water is not exclusively designed to drink and therefore controls through which it must pass are not so specific. However, despite the indications of the authorities, there is nothing wrong with consuming tap water.In my opinion the tap water is totally healthy.
Most of my life I lived in Mexico, there bottle water is expensive, due to that almost everyone in my community drink tap water. Since I can remember I have been drinking tap water, the one that arrives to my house does not have a bad taste or smell. Whenever I go back on vacation, I keep drinking water from the tap, and I have never gottensick from drinking that type of water. In fact,where I live once a month health authoritygo house by house and do an inspection of the water to Caracheo2determine if it is contaminated or has something else and it has always come out that the water is perfectly potable.Since I have never had any bad experience with tap water neither my family, I totally recommend tap water. There is no reason for me not to drink tap water, is fresh, healthy, and free.Generally,tap water is distributed through the pipes without the need for energy consumption in its bottling, packaging and transportation. In addition to not generating unnecessary containers or other waste. The tap water undergoes much less due to storage and distribution conditions, such as high temperatures, and there is no expiration date either. Having no need to bottlethe water decreases damage to the environment.In various studies, it has been shown that producing one liter of bottled water form a famous brand, can produce up to600 times more carbon dioxide than a litter of tap water.Bottled water comes from three sources: purified water, distilled water, and spring water(Microbiology of drinking water). Even when distilled and purified water sound like a good quality of wateritis not true. All three types of waters go through many processes. In the process of purified waters many of the minerals are removed in the process. In distillated water all nutrients are lost in the process. And according to the Natural Resources Defense Council spring water has the most deformities of the three different types of water.The majority of people in America still drinks tap water.Tap water is served at most restaurants and is also dispensed in public drinking fountains, and otherwise readily available in a whole host of public places. This is a huge market that companies cannot ignore,and they will do anything in order to bring consumers into drinkingbottledwater (Gleick).In order forcompanies to bring consumers into buying bottled water is playing with their fearsand with the image that bottled water is cleaner. Fear is an effective way to get consumers Caracheo3attention, especially when they talk about sickness and invisible contamination.When consumers heard this in the mediaadvertisements,they tend to believe that bottled water is healthier because it has been to more process than tap water. Another way to bring consumers is selling style and convenience (What’s wrong with the tap?). Bottled water and the environment go hand to hand. Brands such as Nestle Waters have reduced the amount of carbon footprint in its bottles in response to critics over the impact of bottled water in the environment. Thesechanges have become more eco-friendly as they came up with a lighter bottle and smaller cap reducing the damage to the environment (Cirillo). The industries have tried to make consumers believe that plastic bottles are biodegradable and friendly to the ecosystem. However, the bottles are made with materials that take hundreds of years to decompose even though they have tried to reduce the damage, contamination produced from bottled water are still happening around the world.In spite of the effort of the recycling of these plastic bottles, the increase in production makes the battle to reduce the amount of waste more expensive. This is another reason why we should not continue to consume bottled water.In America, approximately 60 million plastic bottles are disposed every day. National Resources Defense Council estimates that only 13percentof plastic bottles are ever recycled (Deziel). Bottles that are not recycled end up inrivers,lakes, land fields,andoceans creating a long-termthreat to marine life. Bottled water releases chemicals into the atmosphere contributing to global warming. The taste and smell are some of the main factorsby which consumers buy bottled water.Convenience, cleanliness,and availability are otherfactors for people to choose bottled water. That is, the consumer is stopping drinking tap water due to the strong smell Caracheo4and the bad taste that it can have. This is because, as I mentioned before, the tap water does not go through many control processesand there is nothing added to it to give it amore pleasant taste.A study conducted in Quebec concluded that taste, rather than safety, was the most motivating factor for people buying bottled water. A research conducted in France also demonstrated that people were more concerned about the taste instead of being concerned with the health problems that this might cause (Health beliefs about bottled water). Both of this researches show that people go more for the look or the advertising of thing than what it is actually important such as the health benefits or problems that bottled water can cause.Water went from being a natural and free resource to be one of the best-selling products in the world by companies that promotes benefits different than those from tap water(Bottled and Sold).Data from theU.S Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service shows that our consumptionof bottled water has increased by 25 gallons per person per year, and our purchase from other beverages such as milk, beer, tee, have dropped by six gallons per year. Botted water companies are winning over tap water as long as they keep claiming that there are more benefits and that they offer more safety water than the tap water (Gleick 13).Comparing the price of tap water and bottled water is like comparing vinegar and wine. The average price for a gallon of bottled water in the US is $1.22, which is about 300 times the price of tap water(Bottled water).Despite the fact that there are no health benefits to bottled water and that is more expensive than tap water, sales go up every year. In 2016 sales from bottled water reached $12 billion in the US. Bottled water has outsold carbonated drinks for the first time (Bottled Water-Why is it so Expensive?).Caracheo5Bottled water companies are going to continue increasing the pricebecause we are willing to pay for it. As long as the demand continues, there is no reason for companies to lower the price for consumers.However, using a home water filter and a safe, reusable water bottled are just as convenient, and certainly far less expensivethan buying bottled water. The important thing of all, is to drink water for the correct function of the organism since our body needs it. It is important to understand that it is part of our responsibility to generate change and that the excessive consumption of bottled water makes us involved in the phenomenon that gradually destroys our environment and affects our quality of life.