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My tap water (from a well) is highly sulfuric. The quality and taste of tap water varies greatly from location to location, "developed world" or not. There are
by cdr 12y ago
My tap water (from a well) is highly sulfuric. The quality and taste of tap water varies greatly from location to location, "developed world" or not. There are all sorts of good reasons to buy bottled water.
- teddyh 12y agoIf your tap water is unusable, you do not live in a civilized society with modern infrastructure.
- jessaustin 12y agoYikes! Perhaps it's best to leave "civilization" out of this?
- teddyh 12y ago(Thanks for the correction; fixed.) A civilization needs modern infrastructure. One of these is certainly tap water. If the tap water is not usable for one of its primary purpose – drinking – then I would say that the infrastructure is lacking, and, by inference, the civilization. The same with road systems. If I can confidently know that I can drive safely on the roads, I live in a civilization with a modern, maintained, infrastructure. If, on the other hand, I must constantly look out for potholes, missing roads, etc. then I don’t.
- TeMPOraL 12y agoOh well, the place where I live has tap water with better health standards than bottled one, but when driving, one still has to look for potholes. So much for civilization :(.
- SamReidHughes 12y agoWhy can't a civilization have tap water that's suitable for everything except drinking, and let bottled water be delivered on the free market? If that's the most economically optimal way to handle things, that's a more advanced society.
- dublinben 12y agoYou're assuming that "economically optimal" is the best way for a society to do something.
- SamReidHughes 12y agoWhy yes, delivering water more cheaply to people is the best way.
- dublinben 12y agoBottled water isn't cheaper than tap water. Even if that is your only criteria.
- mason240 12y ago>If, on the other hand, I must constantly look out for potholes [then I am not in civilization]. I guess civilization isn't possible in North America above 45°N then. The other poster is right, your comments are better suited for Reddit.
- cdr 12y agoSave the juvenile snark for reddit. About 15% of Americans - almost 50M people just in the US - have private water sources like wells. Heavily mineralized water is not "unusable", the taste is just rather unpleasant.
- teddyh 12y agoIs your argument that Americans are by definition civilized, and that wells (however they taste, as long as they are not poisonous) are therefore somehow acceptable?
- SamReidHughes 12y agoThat infrastructure is called bottled water delivery.
- teddyh 12y agoIf it can be shown that it makes more economic sense for a society as a whole to ship bottled water to its citizens instead of having a water supply network for potable, drinkable water, then sure, why not.
- kjs3 12y agoShoot...try the municipal tap water in Tampa, FL. Nasty, sulfurous stuff. You get used to it after living there for a while, but whenever I go back, it's bottled all the way.
- belorn 12y agoFor all the following discussion here, I find it surprising that no one is asking why the water is tasting of sulfuric or chlorine. Some places has higher chlorine that others. In cities with old water pipes, they sometimes choose to increase the amount of chlorine in the water in order to keep the amount of bacteria down. They sometimes also do this in a temporarily basis, when test shows increase amounts of some harmful bacteria. Water that taste chlorine is not however a fact of nature. Its fixable, given cities are willing to replace old pipes with modern ones.