Bottled water corporations exploit surface water and aquifers, buy water at a very low cost and sell it for 150 to 1,000 times more than the same unit of municipal tap water.
(Shutterstock)
The bottled water industry can undermine progress of projects aimed at creating safe-water systems for all, by redirecting attention to a less reliable, less affordable option.
A water-vendor collects water in jerrycans to sell.
TONY KARUMBA/AFP via Getty Images
The prices households pay for drinking water and wastewater services have been rising faster than the rate of inflation.
The largest desalination plant in Australia, Victoria’s A$3.5 billion ‘water factory’ can supply nearly a third of Melbourne’s needs.
Nils Versemann/Shutterstock
Sydney and Melbourne are bringing desalination plants back on stream and Adelaide plans to increase its plant’s output. Perth depends on desalination. But is it the best way to achieve water security?
A residential rain garden in Portland’s Tabor to the River project.
City of Portland Government
While it is true that the poorest residents of the city are not connected to the piped water network, neither are the richest. Then what causes water inequalities?
Unlike the U.S., some European countries have stopped using chlorine to disinfect drinking water to avoid changing the taste and potential health problems. Which approach is better?
Disinfecting municipal water systems is complex, but Flint made critical errors that led to the lead poisoning crisis.
thilli0207/flickr
Treating municipal water, particularly from rivers, is difficult technically and cash-strapped municipalities like Flint don’t always know the latest science.
The University of Michigan-Flint puts experts from academia in the same room as Flint community members, an innovative model for educating the community and forming the public health response.
Up until the 1940s, as much as half of U.S. water piping from main lines was made of lead.
Thomashawk/flickr
Chris Sellers, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)
A wake-up call from Flint: the U.S. has made great gains in reducing lead exposure, but the country is still saddled with millions of miles of water-carrying lead pipes.
Professor of History and Director of the Center for the Study of Inequalities, Social Justice, and Policy, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)