Water Infrastructure - Tapped: World Water Week

Sculpt the Future Foundation is a registered charity founded by David de Rothschild to promote positive environmental change towards global sustainability by supporting creative, innovative and sustainable action. ...more »

THURSDAY – MARCH 25, 2010

A Ticking Time Bomb

Today’s theme is infrastructure. Before we made Tapped, I didn’t give much thought to our infrastructure. I turn on my tap and the water comes out – what’s there to think about? But our infrastructure is the most amazing intricate web that takes our waste water out of our homes and brings clean water into our homes – but where does the waste water go? Where does our water come from? I live in California so my water comes from Colorado – but I didn’t know that until I made Tapped. Do you know where your water comes from?

I’m posting three clips today because I believe our infrastructure is one of the most important issues we face. We have 1.5 million miles of water infrastructure in America most of which is so old and dilapidated that it’s been called a “ticking time bomb.”

In a 2010 PowerPoint presentation, the CEO of Nestle Waters stated that America’s failing infrastructure would boost bottled water sales. Yet, with 40% of bottled water being drawn from municipal supplies there is no guarantee that bottled water is any safer for us.

Today, we have a clip that takes you to Colorado to demonstrate how plasticizers in our water and sewer stream are creating devastating effects to the local ecosystem.

Another component that comes into play today is our Recycling Infrastructure, which is discussed thoroughly in Tapped (brace yourself for some alarming facts). Today, however, in our guest column, I’ll let my friend David de Rothschild tell you a little bit about the role bottled water plays in the recycling stream.

We cut the three clips you’ll find posted here today because our test groups felt confused by the message and didn’t trust their tap water. Here’s what I hope you’ll walk away with today:

40% of bottled water comes from the municipal supply: So if your tap water has problems, so does the bottled water that comes from that region.
When you buy bottled water you are telling our legislators that tap water isn’t important to us and that bottled water is an acceptable alternative. THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE TO TAP WATER – We need to move the maintenance and repair of our infrastructure to the top of our legislative agenda. Visit “What Can I Do” to sign legislation that supports our water infrastructure.

Check out the What Can I Do section for more things you can do.

Sustainably Yours,

Stephanie

Carry a refillable water container (we like Klean Kanteens) rather thanbuying bottled water. Production, transportation, and disposal of bottledwater consume large quantities of water (and energy). Buy It »
You can actually conserve water by switching from the bottle to the tap.You can find out how the water quality in your area is here: EPA.gov »
Reduce your bottled water use! Take the pledge to only use bottled water when absolutely necessary. Take the pledge »

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by David de Rothschild

Our voracious appetite for one-time-use plastics that is now hurtling back toward us as an ever-growing and devastating set of plastic fingerprints on our natural world. It’s not well-known that since Leo Hendricks unveiled the first fully synthetic moldable hard plastic called Bakelite to the American Chemical Society in 1909, except for a very small percentage that has been incinerated, every single molecule of plastic ever manufactured still exists somewhere in our environment.
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