More and more of us are now buying bottled water for drinking. While we do continue to use tap water for cleaning and cooking, we no longer trust the city system to deliver us with safe drinking water.
This fear is generally alimented by the isolated incidents in which some people got sick after drinking tap water. This is however all there is to it – isolated incidents, after which the problems were solved and where water is once again drinkable. Yet, this does not convince us and we continue to buy bottled water. We may still do more harm than good. Water comes in plastic bottles, in a context in which plastic is the largest pollutant, kills animals, decays slowly and less than 30% of the plastic disposals are recycled. If you care for the environment, but are also worried about your personal health, you should consider the following options to getting more environment friendly clean water.
Gather information
The first and foremost important thing you can do is that of being informed. Each state and each individual city reveals diverse levels of tap water safety. Before taking any radical measure or engaging in discussions, you should known with exact certainty just how contaminated and unsafe your tap water is. If you have the possibility, you could test it yourself, but as most of us are not chemists, we should rely on the scientific findings of others. A relevant source is constituted by the country’s Environmental Protection Agency’s Safe Drinking Water Information System. It can be found at http://www.epa.gov/enviro/html/sdwis/sdwis_query.html and it lets you read reports on the safety of the waters in your area.
Involve the authorities
If you identify any problems in your water system, you should contact the local authorities and ask them to test the safety of the water. You should also remain alert as to any modifications and you should ensure that the results of the tests are communicated to you. If they are worried, you should pressure the authorities to take action and improve the water system. You should also conduct personal research and identify any breaches of the Clean Water Supply Act. Additionally, you could point out to the local authorities that they can request federal funds to improve the local water system. Whatever you do, make sure that you are well informed, involved and able to motivate the others to become involved.
Boil the tap water
As rudimentary as it sounds, this proposition is an efficient quick fix, which can easily be adapted to reduce bottled water consumption. Generally, boil the water and leave it for recantation for 24 hours, and you should end up with safe water.
Get a household water filter
Somewhere between resolving the problem at its core and taking care of yourself by boiling the water is the option of purchasing a water filter. This can generally be placed on the internal water system in the household and it will retain most impurities in the water. It will as such reduce the risks of contracting diseases from the tap water.
The overview which can be found at this internet location http://www.waterfiltercomparisons.com reveals a comparative presentation of the available certified water filters.
