Fiji Water

The evils of bottled water are oft mentioned. The environmental costs associated with the packaging and transportation of water to places that already have plenty of it have received an increasing amount of attention in recent years. To those costs some now add supporting, at least implicitly, a military junta.

A recent article over at Mother Jones takes Fiji Water to task for, among other things, its failure to oppose the military junta which controls Fiji. The company has replied, and Mother Jones has replied to the reply (you can find them both here).

I recommend reading not only the pieces by Mother Jones, but the rebuttal by Fiji Water.

Tokyo Strikes Back!

There are many articles, blogs, tweets etc. on the evils of bottled water. Bottled water is far more energy intensive that tap water. It’s far more expensive. And, often enough, its just bottled tap water anyway (and for a really absurd example of that, see here).

Well, for all those who decry bottled water you should take a tip from the city of Tokyo which has actually decided to do something about it. Tokyo has begun an “ambitious campaign” to advertise the benefits of its own tap water. The campaign includes posters and videos for Tokyo’s train and subway stations as well as child oriented web content.

Good for them.

That it is even necessary for a local municipality to advertise the (legally mandated) quality of its water highlights the fact that people apparently don't trust their local tap water anymore. This constitutes a public relations failure on the part of local government which has had an enormous impact on our drinking habits. It is all the more inexplicable given that from a legal perspective tap water is far more heavily regulated than bottled water. The National Resources Defense Council issued a report addressing this very issue. Hopefully other municipalities around the world will take note of Tokyo's efforts.