Ban on Bottled Water

[Toddy]

Sorry Colin, that wasn't a personal dig at anyone , just an observation that for a first world nation our teeth are dreadful.

I know how much my dentist bill costs me and I'm incredibly relieved that my kids have no fillings or missing teeth.

I understand the issues with fluoride but tbh I think that if handled properly it's not really such a bad thing. It's the 'no consumption', or 'blanket coverage', issues that need addressed I think .

cheers,
Toddy

 

[jimford]

Simply not true Jim. Under the 2003 act you can extract up to 20,000 litres per day for domestic use from a borehole without charge.

Ah - I was drawing on knowledge further back than 2003! I stand corrected.

Jim

 

[firecrest]

I live on top of a hill on top of coal mines. can I still have a well?

 

[British Red]

Quite likely firecrest yes. I live on top of the Downs - the well here goes down hundreds of feet through chalk and flint. I've certainly been in mines that were beneath the water table...they had to run pumps to stop them flooding!

 

[smoggy]

The reason we have the water delivery system we have in this country is becuase it's what we need..........it is no where near as costly financialy or in energy consumption as ferrying the stuff about by road.........and treating it at point of use is not an option, it would prove much more difficult to manage and more costly than just treating the lot and using it for everything..........you don't honestly think the water companies would be treating all the water we use if they could treat only some and save 0.0001p a litre do you?

Flouridation? I'm undecided. I do agree that everyone seems to be drinking water all the time, probably because someone or other has told them they need to......so they do and pay through the nose for it....did you know that many brands of "bottled" water are in fact simply filled up from the normal domestic supply? It is in fact the safest, and requires no testing!!!!

Back to the original posting..........As always, I'm against banning anything.........but given that all but one person voted for this ban......then surely there must have been only one customer...so why should everyone elses will be impossed on him/her?
If they don't want it/like it/object to it.............then don't buy it....simple!

Smoggy.

 

[British Red]

Smoggy,

if it so much cheaper to manage centrally - why is it much, much cheaper for me to use private water than pay water rates? In many places it really is - indeed a bore hole can pay back in a year - and then save you the cost of water every year!

Red

 

[locum76]

To paraphrase a fine scottish kids song:

Ye cannae sink a bore hole from a twenty storey flat. A hunner thoosand thirsty weans will testify tae that...

However, in the past I have wondered why there is a need to pump water to my parents house (on top of a hill 4 miles from the nearest village) from 50 miles away. It's in fife and rains all the time.

BR: I think bore holes make sense in the country but not in the inner cities.

On the OP: Banning stuff is rubbish but, in this country at least, I think there's really no need for bottled water. I'm sure It's a fashionable elitist throwback from the Perrier days in the 80's.

Rob

 

[smoggy]

If you have a private supply it may well be, but we are not talking about one individual or household are we, we are talking about millions of people, the majority of which live in towns......many in hi rise, and lets not forget the many industrial usage!

I suspect your supply needs very little in the line of pre use management, but this is not true of all supplies........most of which are not springs or well but highland run off and river water.

I should also imagine that your supply, if tapped locally and used extensively may dry up in a very short period of time, this is common in other parts of the world where they regularly need to drill new bore holes to provide for irrigation........

Smoggy

 

[firecrest]

Banning bottled water, to go back to the original post, I think its just plain dumb. Nanny state in action. why dont they ban cars, that will help more. Its arranging deckchairs on the titanic again.

fluoride in water. Obviously Im against. But there is another reason not to put industrial hazardrous waste in the tap water - Kids dont drink it!! ESPECIALLY not poor kids with the poorest dental hygene. Banning water wont change this either, because they will simply stop drinking water all together.
I think bottled water, its flashy marketing and hype , has done no harm to our kids whatsoever. It isnt cola, its not packed with sugar and caffine. its healthy. Its the one healthy thing kids have taken up lately. Now all we need is designer vegetables served in highly over priced little sachets and celebrities carrying them round.

 

[British Red]

Spot on Lindsey - ban bottled water - they'll all just switch to coke again (or whatever).

I'm all for choice. I'm totally against the nanny state drivel.

When the state says "it doesn't matter what you want we will force you to have it because we know better than you what you should have" we have entered a repressive regime

Its a short step from there to compulsory immunisation, and so on.

Governments need to learn that they exist to serve the electorate. That they are the servants not the masters.

Red

 

[British Red]

BR: I think bore holes make sense in the country but not in the inner cities.

I think you need to consider that all cities are not the same - Norwich for example has a water table so large and so shallow that I cannot imagine why a bore hole per house - or indeed tower block would not work!

The idea that it makes no sense to pump water up 20 stories but it does from a resevoir twenty miles away escapes me.

It needn't be a bore hole either - why could your parent's house not have an underground cistern? Simple way of harvesting rainwater. Such technologies have worked for years - and are smaller than the footprint of the garden shed - much smaller than the house itself under which it can be installed.

Anyhow - if everyone wants to file mains water under "too hard", much as they wish to with microgeneration etc. then they might was well stop picking on the soft and inconsequential targets like bottled water. Its rather like the woodburner vogue - a fad that fails to address the big issues!

Red

 

[rik_uk3]

I've no issue with fluoride in water, does more good than bad but I'm not a fan of bottled water. Its a rip off, some comes straight from the domestic supply and into bottles, but worst of all its the waste, billions of plastic bottles produced world wide every year, what a total waste of resources.

I take tap water to work in a SIGG bottle that I keep in the staff fridge so I can have a cold drink.

So, ban it? I really don't care much as I don't use it.

 

[firecrest]

How is slightly fewer cavaties in sweetie mumching kids better than cancer?

 

[locum76]

BR: I bet the slum dwellers in Glasgow were really unhappy when the Victorian engineers piped in fresh, clean water from Loch Katrine. it must have been a nightmare.

read this:

http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/airgli/airgli0114.htm

 

[jimford]

BR: I bet the slum dwellers in Glasgow were really unhappy when the Victorian engineers piped in fresh, clean water from Loch Katrine. it must have been a nightmare.

Yes, but the pipes in their houses were (are still?) lead and the soft water is 'plumbo solvent' meaning that the water drinkers were dosing on low levels of lead with consequental CNS damage. There's a theory that the unruly reputation of Glaswegiens may be due to this damage.

Jim

 

[British Red]

BR: I bet the slum dwellers in Glasgow were really unhappy when the Victorian engineers piped in fresh, clean water from Loch Katrine. it must have been a nightmare.

read this:

http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/airgli/airgli0114.htm

No-one is discussing pumpimg untreated river water here or cross contaminating sewage with untreated well water

Thats just a silly argument - its about as specious as "we pulled down one lot of windmills and water power - why bring it back?"

I really thought better of you

Red

 

[Toddy]

The Victorians were the ultimate capitalists, yet, like the Romans before them, they firmly believed that a good potable water supply, and a decent sewerage system, were worth spending public money to create and to upkeep.

We have reservoirs because the groundwater is polluted with mine workings, and in other areas because the rocks add a potent combination of minerals that cause problems with taste, health, and clog domestic appliances.

I'd much rather be able to turn on a tap and be assured that I can safely offer someone a cuppa without wondering what else I might be offering them.

The vast majority of the population lives an urbanised lifestyle. They don't want to be bothered with boreholes and contamination issues. Nowadays most wouldn't even understand why it's an issue.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Broch]

Smoggy,

if it so much cheaper to manage centrally - why is it much, much cheaper for me to use private water than pay water rates? In many places it really is - indeed a bore hole can pay back in a year - and then save you the cost of water every year!

Red

Sorry BR, but a typical borehole instalation will cost around £8,000 (probably more now) - I know, I've had two.

If we don't ban bottled water we could at least limit its delivery miles - why on earth should we drink French water in Scotland, Scottish water in Wales, and Welsh water in Malvern???

 

[firecrest]

because you can't get vulcanicity in scotland. Did you see what that stuff did to the caveman on the ad?!

 

[BOD]

Ahem!

Firecrest and Red, The town voted not to have bottled water. It had little to do with the state - nanny or otherwise. There is no legislation banning it.

The "ban" is a voluntary decision by the people and local retailers not to stock bottled water.

Entirely separately, the state government is not buying bottled water for its offices.