World Water Day 2018 - for world travelers and you

This week we recognize the state of the “World’s Water” with World Water Day (March 22^nd). I hope this year, as in years past, we see many blogs, articles and stories about the challenge millions of people (mostly women and girls) face daily in finding, obtaining, or ensuring water (much less potable water) for themselves and their families. But, for those who know me, it comes as no surprise that today I want to talk about BOTTLED WATER.

For those of us who travel internationally, go to “the field” for work, or head to Cancún for vacation, we find ourselves in places where the water is unsafe to drink, or is not of reliable quality. (In our own cities water may or may not be safe or could be better, but this is not about “at home” bottled water consumption, not yet, anyway). Instead of relying on a mountain of plastic bottled water to keep us safe and hydrated on our travels, why don’t we use water filters?

The same way people automatically bring allergy pills, sleeping aids or bug spray when they travel, why don’t more people bring water filters? What about reusable water bottles instead of using and trashing X number of plastic cups during our flights? Collapsible water bottles fit in the seat pockets on airplanes, and are great for travel.

Why do we applaud hikers and campers who look for ways to purify water on the trail at home, but accept to drink bottled water overseas? Why is it the norm for NGOs, researchers (and vacationers!) to purchase and consume bottled water and dispose of bottles in places that already have disposal challenges and likely have no recycling option? (Note: even if something is presumably recycled, its creation, packaging and shipment still has a large environmental cost and footprint). Why do we Water-sector folks promote water filters, chlorine tablets or other “safe water” technologies for use in the communities where we work, but meanwhile we keep on buying bottled water during each trip?

Why do we have conferences where we talk about environmental sustainability and climate change resilience, and yet during a 1-week conference use at least 15 bottles of water per person? This means a meeting of 25 people equals 375-400 plastic water bottles at the end of the week. How does this make sense?

And of course, I get the irony of rallying against plastic water bottles while engaging in CO₂-producing overseas travel. But, I do think we can all do better. We have to start thinking about how our daily choices make a difference. Just like it is our responsibility to remember to bring our own bags to the store, to reduce our use of disposables, to inform ourselves about our city’s recycling policies, to know the principles and values behind the brands and products we purchase – it is our responsibility to figure out how to create less waste when we travel.

Oh and, although this post is about travel, I know that many many people purchase and drink bottled water regularly for consumption at home or in their car. I will not get into the negative effects of that here, except to reference an article from HuffPo:

·  It takes three times the volume of water to manufacture one bottle of water than it does to fill it.

·  We use 17 million barrels of oil each year to produce all of those water bottles—that’s enough oil to keep a million cars fueled for a whole year.

So what can you do if you don’t trust the quality or dislike the taste of your tap water? Get a filter. Pitcher, Fridge, Tap filter. Most home filters remove lead, mercury, chlorine, parasites, bacteria, etc. They improve quality and taste. And they likely cost about half as much as the amount you spend on bottled water each year.

Initially I had this countertop water filter and loved it. I convinced many others to get one too! The filter only needs changing once a year, and I installed and changed the filter myself. Now, because of a “different” kitchen faucet, we had to get an under the sink water filter, which I also installed myself (with some online video-watching assistance), and the filter only needs changing every three years. I love the taste and quality of water at my house. 

When I travel, in addition to always having two reusable water bottles (at least one of them collapsible), here are the filters I like: Sawyer mini, Survivor filter, Filtration bottle, Woder bottle. Others like this pricey, but easy to use and effective Steripen when traveling overseas.

Happy World Water Day.