4 ms·

Of course water is not a "human right" - else whom can I sue for being thirsty?

by fche 10y ago

newjersey 10y ago
This is the worst offense. The iPodization of water is real. I try to avoid buying water whenever I can. If people like us who have a voice will just quietly switch to bottled water or very expensive home filtration, then we will have failed our civic duty.
- maxaf 10y ago
  Almost everywhere I travel outside of NYC the question pops up: is tap water safe to drink? New York is notoriously proud of and vocal about this local amenity. Achieving a universal standard in this area would go a long way towards putting a significant dent in the bottled water scam.
  - kidmenot 10y ago
    > is tap water safe to drink? As someone who lives across the pond, it never ceases to amaze me that this question needs to be asked at all. Is tap water safe to drink? I wouldn't take "no" as an answer unless I'm in some remote third-world country that has known issues with the availability of drinking water. And yet... Not saying tap water here tastes great everywhere (far from that), but you can be pretty sure it won't cause you any physical harm.
    - mseebach 10y ago
      Good for you, but this is what the International Association for Medical Assistance to Travellers has to say about Italy: > Drinking water is chlorinated and has no ill effect on the local population. However, some strains of e. coli (naturally occurring bacteria found in your gastro-intestinal system) may be present in very small concentrations in the local water supply. Some local strains are different than those that you may be used to, and may cause diarrhea in travellers since immunity is not developed as a result of short-term exposure. Using bottled water for the first few weeks will help you adjust and decrease the chance of traveller's diarrhea. https://www.iamat.org/country/italy/risk/food-water-safety-overview https://www.iamat.org/country/italy/risk/food-water-safety-o... Poking around, the same warning is in place for Spain and Portugal. I always get bottled water when travelling, although I tend to get the cheap local or store brand water. A few euros is really cheap anti-diarrhea insurance, and it tastes a lot better than chlorinated water, too.
      - lmm 10y ago
        Sure, that's the same pretty much anywhere - the water is safe when you're used to it, when moving you're better off giving yourself a couple of weeks to adjust.
      - kidmenot 10y ago
        This is not a case of "good for you", it's just that I find it sad that locals of a developed country have to choose to drink bottled water over tap water because the latter could harm their health. That being said, for travelers it sure might take a while to adjust to local conditions. I never had such problems when traveling to Spain, Austria, France, Hungary and Slovenia, but I do understand that each body copes differently with things it's not used to.
  - elthran 10y ago
    By outside of NYC do you mean just elsewhere in the USA? I didn't realize the situation was that bad in the USA, outside of places such as Flint. I'm from the UK, and this question never comes up anywhere in the country (I'm aware of the scale differences we're talking about)- if you travel anywhere, you can drink the tap water.
    - newjersey 10y ago
      Yes. I'm ashamed to admit that we don't fluoridate our water across the Hudson river. While I'll never admit this in person in front of a New Yorker, water does taste better in the city. This is not to take away from the fact that water here is mostly safe to drink. There was an incident earlier this year with a broken mains flooding Hoboken which left a little bit to be desired in terms of communication. However, overall I'm fairly satisfied with the water here. I imagine it is the same idiot antivaxxers who don't want fluoride in water but I haven't looked into it.
      - goldbrick 10y ago
        I wouldn't be so quick to call others idiots. Fluoridation has absolutely nothing to do with taste. The reason NYC's water tastes better than NJ's is simply that it comes from a different source.
    - nommm-nommm 10y ago
      The water is the USA is highly regulated and safe to drink. Flint was a dramatic outlier which resulted in criminal charges for those involved. Municipal water supply has stricter standards than bottled water. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe_Drinking_Water_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe_Drinking_Water_Act
    - stuaxo 10y ago
      @newjersey In the UK we only fouridate a few areas, mostly it's only good old chlorine that we add. Maps: http://bfsweb.org/onemillion/09%20One%20in%20a%20Million%20-%20The%20Extent%20of%20Fluoridation.pdf http://bfsweb.org/onemillion/09%20One%20in%20a%20Million%20-...

Of course water is not a "human right" - else whom can I sue for being thirsty?

by fche 10y ago

Of course water is not a "human right" - else whom can I sue for being thirsty?

This is the worst offense. The iPodization of water is real. I try to avoid buying water whenever I can. If people like us who have a voice will just quietly switch to bottled water or very expensive home filtration, then we will have failed our civic duty.

maxaf 10y ago
Almost everywhere I travel outside of NYC the question pops up: is tap water safe to drink? New York is notoriously proud of and vocal about this local amenity. Achieving a universal standard in this area would go a long way towards putting a significant dent in the bottled water scam.
- kidmenot 10y ago
  > is tap water safe to drink? As someone who lives across the pond, it never ceases to amaze me that this question needs to be asked at all. Is tap water safe to drink? I wouldn't take "no" as an answer unless I'm in some remote third-world country that has known issues with the availability of drinking water. And yet... Not saying tap water here tastes great everywhere (far from that), but you can be pretty sure it won't cause you any physical harm.
  - mseebach 10y ago
    Good for you, but this is what the International Association for Medical Assistance to Travellers has to say about Italy: > Drinking water is chlorinated and has no ill effect on the local population. However, some strains of e. coli (naturally occurring bacteria found in your gastro-intestinal system) may be present in very small concentrations in the local water supply. Some local strains are different than those that you may be used to, and may cause diarrhea in travellers since immunity is not developed as a result of short-term exposure. Using bottled water for the first few weeks will help you adjust and decrease the chance of traveller's diarrhea. https://www.iamat.org/country/italy/risk/food-water-safety-overview https://www.iamat.org/country/italy/risk/food-water-safety-o... Poking around, the same warning is in place for Spain and Portugal. I always get bottled water when travelling, although I tend to get the cheap local or store brand water. A few euros is really cheap anti-diarrhea insurance, and it tastes a lot better than chlorinated water, too.
    - lmm 10y ago
      Sure, that's the same pretty much anywhere - the water is safe when you're used to it, when moving you're better off giving yourself a couple of weeks to adjust.
    - kidmenot 10y ago
      This is not a case of "good for you", it's just that I find it sad that locals of a developed country have to choose to drink bottled water over tap water because the latter could harm their health. That being said, for travelers it sure might take a while to adjust to local conditions. I never had such problems when traveling to Spain, Austria, France, Hungary and Slovenia, but I do understand that each body copes differently with things it's not used to.
- elthran 10y ago
  By outside of NYC do you mean just elsewhere in the USA? I didn't realize the situation was that bad in the USA, outside of places such as Flint. I'm from the UK, and this question never comes up anywhere in the country (I'm aware of the scale differences we're talking about)- if you travel anywhere, you can drink the tap water.
  - newjersey 10y ago
    Yes. I'm ashamed to admit that we don't fluoridate our water across the Hudson river. While I'll never admit this in person in front of a New Yorker, water does taste better in the city. This is not to take away from the fact that water here is mostly safe to drink. There was an incident earlier this year with a broken mains flooding Hoboken which left a little bit to be desired in terms of communication. However, overall I'm fairly satisfied with the water here. I imagine it is the same idiot antivaxxers who don't want fluoride in water but I haven't looked into it.
    - goldbrick 10y ago
      I wouldn't be so quick to call others idiots. Fluoridation has absolutely nothing to do with taste. The reason NYC's water tastes better than NJ's is simply that it comes from a different source.
  - nommm-nommm 10y ago
    The water is the USA is highly regulated and safe to drink. Flint was a dramatic outlier which resulted in criminal charges for those involved. Municipal water supply has stricter standards than bottled water. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe_Drinking_Water_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe_Drinking_Water_Act
  - stuaxo 10y ago
    @newjersey In the UK we only fouridate a few areas, mostly it's only good old chlorine that we add. Maps: http://bfsweb.org/onemillion/09%20One%20in%20a%20Million%20-%20The%20Extent%20of%20Fluoridation.pdf http://bfsweb.org/onemillion/09%20One%20in%20a%20Million%20-...