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NYT Letter of the Month [This one really is good.]

To the Editor:

In “A Battle Between the Bottle and the Faucet” (Week in Review, July 15), you tapped into the growing skepticism over the bottled water industry. But while the article rightly addressed the environmental and consumer implications of Big Water, it did not ask: Should corporations be bottling and selling our drinking water in the first place?

The more the public accepts bottled water, the more it accepts that corporations, not local governments, should provide people with a shared common resource like water.

Bottled water has already turned tap water into a commodity, and corporations are stepping up their efforts to privatize public water systems. Water is precious and sustains all life on earth. It should be a fundamental human right, not a money machine for corporations that are unaccountable to the public.

Consumers should take control back from corporations. Turn down bottled water, and turn on the tap.

Gigi Kellett
Boston, July 17, 2007

 

 

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 21st, 2007 at 7:02 PM and filed under Articles, Economics, Environment, Human Interest. Follow comments here with the RSS 2.0 feed. Skip to the end and leave a response. Trackbacks are closed.

2 Responses to “NYT Letter of the Month [This one really is good.]”

  1. Mike Blaxill said:

    Here Here!! FYI the standards for tap water are HIGHER than those for bottled water .. so your tap water is probably cleaner anyway – i recommend buying a stainless steel canteen and using that for your portable water container instead of plastic bottles that leach chemicals

    Posted on 22-Jul-07 at 9:11 am | Permalink
  2. Ian Alterman said:

    A canteen is a great idea, but they may not be practical for everyone. What I did was buy a single bottle of Poland Spring which I simply refill with filtered tap water from my kitchen sink each morning, and rinse out with hot water at night. That way, I buy only one plastic bottle every half year or so.

    Peace.

    Posted on 22-Jul-07 at 1:52 pm | Permalink

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