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Archive for the ‘Global Water’ Category

Single-use plastic containers big culprit in toxic marine contamination

Most of us are aware that plastic finding its way in oceans and waterways is a growing ecological problem. Plastics have been found throughout the marine food-chain, in the tissue and digestive tracts of all manner of creatures from whales to tiny aquatic worms.Julia Reisser from the University of WA is studying pollution in Australian waters and has found each square kilometre of seawater carries an average of 4000 pieces of plastic. And it’s not only the plastics themselves that cause problems, but that they attract and concentrate oil-based pollutants in the sea, adding to the toxic load on the unfortunate sea creatures that digest them.

Reisser pin-points single-use plastic containers as being a major source of marine pollution, and encourages efforts to reduce their usage. Yet another reason to ditch the bottled water and soft-drinks, and go tap!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-28/plastic-polluting-wa-waters/5123062?section=wa

Same message, different format

Bottled water is not a good thing. (We may have mentioned this before!)

There are literally hundreds, probably thousands, of websites that can tell you why.

Having read a fair few of them, we enjoy sharing with you some of the lesser known facts about the evils bottled water (read our other blogs on the topic here). And we also have lots of links on our links and resources if you’re looking for even more information.

We thought this video was worth sharing too.

It’s another great summary of many of the reasons why bottled water should be well and truly avoided, and it’s very watchable.

It goes for about 8 minutes, so strike a comfy pose, prepare to be entertained, and listen up!

MYTHBUSTING: Is bottled water safer than tap water?

The short answer to this question is NO.

One of the many myths that the bottled water industry has spent lots of money perpetrating is that bottled water is safer that tap water.

Perfectly clean drinking water.

We checked out what some actual experts had to say on the matter:

Food and water watch says, “Despite the marketing, bottled water is not safer than tap water. Tap water is subject to more stringent regulation that bottled water. Tap water is regulated by the EPA, while bottled water is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. Perpetually under-funded and short-staffed, FDA has a poor record of protecting consumer health and safety. FDA sends inspectors to bottling plants once every two to three years.

Independent testing of bottled water conducted by the Environmental Working Group in 2008 found that 10 popular brands of bottled water… contained 38 chemical pollutants, with an average of 8 contaminants in each brand.”

National Geographic says, “Bottled water isn’t always as safe as tap water. The NRDC conducted a four-year study of the bottled water industry and concluded that while most bottled water is safe to drink, there are areas of concern. Roughly 22% of the water tested contained contaminant levels that exceeded strict state health limits. One study found that hormone-disrupting phthalates had leached into bottled water that had been stored for 10 weeks.”

The Worldwatch Institution says, “In industrial countries with highly regulated water supplies, tap water has been proven to be just as safe, or safer, than its commercial counterpart. In the U.S, regulations concerning bottled water are generally the same as for tap water, but are weaker for some microbial contaminants. The U.S. FDA, which regulates bottled water at the federal level, permits the product to contain certain levels of fecal matter, whereas the Environmental Protection Agency does not allow any human waste in city tap water. Bottled water violations are not always reported to the public, and in most cases the products may be recalled up to 15 months after the problematic water was produced, distributed, and sold.

Want to hear the truth about the other myths the bottled water industry would like you to believe? Watch this video or read this Cleanpdf.

Well well well! Here’s an inspired way to celebrate sustainability week!

At the end of each year Epping Views Primary school hosts a Sustainability Celebration afternoon to celebrate their impressive range of sustainability activities (they recently won Resource Smart School of the Year.)

They usually gather together to compete in a fun-filled competition to test their knowledge about sustainability. But this year they decided to celebrate by sharing how fortunate they are to have clean water and sanitation by raising money for an extremely worthy cause. They undertook a week of activities and events to raise $1425 to help an African community get improved access to clean water.

The program, run by World Vision, uses the money to combine water infrastructure (i.e., sinking new wells, repairing damaged hand pumps and building toilets) with hygiene education to help stop the spread of deadly waterborne diseases and ensure better health for children in impoverished communities.

Epping Views Primary school also made student education part of their fundraising process. They kicked off the week with an assembly of around 600 people watching a World Vision video clip called A Day in the Life of Lucy. Students, staff and parents were all very moved, and this led to fantastic involvement in scheduled classroom and lunchtime activities, a ‘sustainability dress up’ day, selling badges and drink bottles, and an all-in, hands on activity making the word WATER from coin donations, which alone raised $334.

“We’ve been learning how important it is to drink water to stay healthy”, commented one student, “so we are very happy to help other kids who need water too but can’t just go to a tap like we can”.

Jan Hare, the school’s Wellbeing and Sustainability Teacher, added: “Sustainability is about helping to build better communities everywhere. That includes building an active community spirit here at the school regarding global issues like access to clean water, to building stronger, healthier villages in places like Africa”.

Read up on water World Vision’s work towards water sanitation and hygiene here. Or get their series of 6 lesson plans on water and other teaching material here.

The University of Melbourne’s Go Tap! shortlisted at Green Gown Awards

Having been directly involved with the University of Melbourne’s GoTap! campaign last year, aquaBUBBLER was thrilled to see it recently shortlisted at the 2012 Australasian Green Gown Awards. The awards recognise excellence in sustainability and there were many worthy winners. (You can read all about them at the Green Gown Awards website).

Anti-Plastic-Bottle

In 2011, Go Tap! saw the University of Melbourne’s Southbank and Burnley campuses go completely disposable bottled water free, and their Parkville campus is preparing to follow suit. The University is working with companies such as aquaBUBBLER to implement sustainable measures and increase community awareness about plastic water bottle concerns.

aquaBUBBLER’s Brendan Lynch wasn’t surprised that GoTap! was shortlisted; the University of Melbourne is using its considerable influence to help reshape ideas about water consumption, and this campaign has proactively engaged their 58,000 students and staff to make more sustainable choices.

“Go Tap! was superbly executed”, said Brendan. “It covered all bases every step of the way: comprehensive research, new infrastructure installed, and education and engagement across the board. Student groups helped generate awareness, and strategies were developed to encourage tenants, onsite retailers and vending machine operators to discontinue bottled water sales.”

“It’s set an inspiring standard that other tertiary institutions are following: Monash and Victoria Universities are preparing to launch similar campaigns.”

To allay concerns about not having access to portable water, free reusable water bottles were distributed to all new students during Orientation Week and a free iPhone app, Water Water Everywhere, shows where water bottle refill stations are located.

And in response to suggestions by the Australasian Bottled Water Institute that water bottle bans achieve little if other bottled drinks remain, Sustainability Manager Harry Troedel said, “We’d love to see all plastic use reduced, but free soft drink or juice fountains just aren’t available yet! Meanwhile, there is simply no arguing that going water-bottle free is the environmentally and socially responsible choice when refilling our water bottles is such a simple option”.

Producing, transporting and refrigerating bottled water is energy and resource intensive, and plastic water bottles make up a large proportion of landfill. Melbourne has access to some of the world’s purest tap water and GoTap! makes it easy to access this bounty and minimise environmental impacts..

GoTap! is part of a growing global movement to reduce plastic water bottle use.

2013 – United Nations International Year of Water Cooperation

New Year is always an exciting time, but we’re particularly excited about 2013: it’s been declared United Nations International Year of Water Cooperation.

UN-Water has called on UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) to lead the year’s activities. UNESCO certainly understands the importance of the year’s work; earlier this year they predicted that by 2020 water shortage will be a serious problem for many parts of the planet.

If forecast fresh water shortfall occurs, and population growth estimates are correct, we’ll need to feed nine billion people (two billion more than today) by 2050 with much less fresh water than we have availabletoday.

With an estimated 1 billion people already without reliable access to basic water supplies, 2 billion without appropriate sanitation, and 80% of diseases in the developing world due to water contamination, it’s no wonder management of shrinking freshwater supplies in the face of massive population growth is one of the greatest issues facing us in the 21st century.

Throughout 2013, UNESCO plan to highlight the history of successful water cooperation initiatives, as well as identifying burning issues on water. It also will provide opportunities to capitalise on the momentum created at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), and formulate new objectives towards developing water resources that are truly sustainable.

We look forward to bringing you more news from the campaign through 2013. To kick it off, take a look at Ceres’ online Sustainability Hub which lists ways for schools to get involved in International Year of Water Cooperation, and bookmark the UN’s official siteor subscribe to their newsletter.