Take Back the Tap (TBTT), an education and advocacy campaign of Food & Water Watch, is designed to build a movement for protecting and conserving water and ensuring that water management remains in the public domain rather than the hands of private corporations. One of the TBTT campaign goals is to decrease consumption and sales of bottled water. Millions of U.S. consumers drink bottled water ever
y year, in part because they think that it is safer or better than tap water. But bottled water is a scam. Bottled water production is less regulated than that of tap water, with fewer than three full-time staff at the Food & Drug Administration, the regulatory agency responsible for the industry, overseeing the entire industry. Recent independent tests of bottled water show it is often contaminated with chemicals or bacteria. There is also evidence that chemicals from the plastic can leach into water, but there has not been testing of the possible effects of this contamination. Besides being a rip-off, bottled water damages the environment. Removal of large amounts of groundwater from a region or community can alter the level and flow of springs, lakes, rivers, and drinking water wells. Companies like Nestle take water from U.S. communities, sell it for billions of dollars in profit and then dump the environmental costs onto society. In 2007, U.S. plastic water bottle production required between 32 and 54 million gallons of oil - and three out of every four of those bottles end up in landfills or are incinerated. Also, transporting bottled water across hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles spews carbon dioxide into the air and contributes to climate change. Bottled water also causes equity issues, since many people cannot afford to buy their water. Ultimately, no one should be forced to buy clean drinking water. One of the hallmarks of a just society is access to clean and affordable water for all citizens. But just kicking the bottle in favor of the tap is not enough; we need to work to make sure that we have the best tap water possible. In many parts of the country, our nation's public water and sewer infrastructure is old and in the coming years will need billions of dollars of investment to maintain and further improved treatment, storage, and distribution. Unfortunately, most states and communities are strapped for cash. Each year we fall more than $20 billion short of what is needed to maintain our public water and sewage systems. For these reasons, we need Congress to establish a clean water trust fund that would give communities the financial help they need to invest in healthy and safe drinking water for every American and for future generations. Sign the petition for a Trust Fund at http://action.foodandwaterwatch.org/t/5915/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=1988 .
