Does Your Bottled Water Come From A Drought Zone?

California is currently in a drought. Did you know the majority of bottled water comes from drought-ridden places? Matt Lieberman from SourceFed joins DNews to discuss this growing problem.

Read More:
Bottled Water Comes From The Most Drought-Ridden Places in the Country
“Bottled-water drinkers, we have a problem: There's a good chance that your water comes from California, a state experiencing the third-driest year on record.”

Beverage Companies Using Bay Area Tap Water, While Residential Customers Face Mandatory Restrictions
“California is facing one of its severest droughts on record and residential water customers have been asked to conserve wherever they can.”

Bottled Water Report
“Our geologists discovered remote, protected locations with water of remarkable quality and purity… but that is only the first step.”

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[YamagishiD]

My mom doesn't like drinking tap water. So I bought a water filter and attached it to the kitchen sink. Costs way less to replace the filter a month than what she was paying in bottled water in a week.

[teddybruscie]

Well we have PUR and Brita. Not to mention the millions of refrigerator filtered water of which is no different from the ice that people get from them, so there's that. I've been boycotting bottled water for years now and have found it's easier than people think. There are all kinds of personal bottles you can use. Just don't buy the cheap kinds or the one's with small holes, you need to get the one's that you can actually fit your hand (or at least most of your hand) through. Those skinny hole bottles are easily disposable because they get dirty quick and are hard to clean, so people throw them away faster because they can't clean it as well as the large hole bottles.

[CallousJester]

Something that I feel should also have been mentioned about bottle water is that it doesn't only affect the US.

Nestle has been setting up industries that wreck the local water supply like in Pakistan where they have tapped into one of the only sources of drinking water for cities and villages all around. They have been draining that water supply and lowering the quality of the water there to the point where the locals are getting sick from drinking it, and are having to resort to buying their own water, in bottled form, from Nestle.

In the Amazon, in Pakistan, or anywhere else that a bottled water industry decides to set up, the environment and the community more often then not get trashed. Here are a couple of the interesting articles or videos I found in just under 60 seconds of searching the web.


Heck, there have even been documentaries about this issue (i.e. "BOTTLED LIFE").

Look it up and you'll find that unless you live in an area where tap water is unsafe, it's best for you, then environment, and communities around the world if you just fill up a reusable water bottle with your tap water. (PS: it most likely tastes better too!)

[melaniexu]

Get a bottle and a brita filter. It's great for college of home. It filters in a few seconds. All you have to do is put the tap water in the top and it runs through the filter to the bottom. Then you put it in a reusable bottle. Total cost: around $40. Then again, in the long run, you save a lot since you'll be drinking water for the rest of your life. 

[guardianeb]

I would say bottled water should be regulated by the government for use in disaster situations and emergencies, but then I think about bottles of water people might need to keep in shelters for earthquakes and tornadoes, and cities with compromised tap water as a resulted of old and rusty pipes.

[sweetie]

We definitely need legislation in California, of all states!! It's insane that state in such dire need for water would overlook it!! 😱

[thundermoon]

The FDA does not regulate bottled water companies the bottled water companies regulate bottled water however the FDA does regulate tap water so your tape water could possibly be more clean than your bottled water. Either way I prefer my water from tap run through a Brita cause the tap water can still pick crap up when being transfered through pipes.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that this is in the U.S. I don't know how it is in other countries.

[Leftistchino]

First sourcefed then test tube now dnews great job Matt

[rrcczz]

This guy needs to stay, he's engaging and doesn't make the viewer seem stupid

[ileoart]

The hardest thing where I live it's forbiden to collect water, because the company that sells water by the faucet is private, and it could affect it's profit, so I can't have the water that comes from the sky. We have a lot of piped river right beneath and the standard operation is to gather and then when it's full, release to the manhole.

[dpearce]

Good guest appearance, Matt!! Now get back to SF!

[booksfullofworlds]

I know it's bad that I drink bottled water (although not all the time), but the tap water where I'm from in Ireland almost tastes like a swimming pool there's so much chlorine in it. And that definitely can't be healthy!

[Primalxbeast]

12 billion gallons and they only made 10 million dollars when they charge a dollar for a small bottle?
That has to be a mistake.

[furonwarrior]

I use Pur to filter my tap water. It tastes great and it saves on waste and resources unlike bottled water.

[StephanieLorenG]

Zephryhills is from Zephryhills, FL. We do NOT have a shortage here.

[KlTKATIE]

I live in a place currently in a stage 5 drought. They are recycling sewage into drinking water here. disgusting stuff... but supposedly safe, and hopefully it will help us through the drought.

[montycantsin]

Drink tap water.  It's almost always cleaner.  Get a stainless to-go bottle, which prevents drinking the decaying plastic effluents you get from re-using plastic bottles for too long.
Also, stop watering your lawn.  It's the most water consuming U.S. "crop".  Let it go brown.  It'll come back.

[TacoTurtleTen]

I live in Canada and Canadians mostly drink a bottled water called Canadian Spring and according to the information on the bottle it's main source is somewhere in Ontario

[Smilesss]

For anyone who is concerned about the part of our water we're dedicating to food production, may I just point out that most of that water is wasted on raising, feeding, watering animals and then cleaning their dead bodies and that a plant-based diet requires much less water? So for anyone who already doesn't drink bottled water and is wondering what they can do individually to use less - the biggest environmental step you can do is stop eating animals and animal products. Do your research if you're interested.

It takes much less water to grow crops that we consume directly than to grow crops, feed them to animals, give water to those animals, clean the waste of those animals with water, contaminate water with the untreated waste of those animals, clean the animals' corpses with water, then eat that animal's corpse with more vegetables on the side which also required water to be produced.

[dnxbt]

You also have to take into account the amount of water wasted in the manufacturing of plastic bottles. No matter how you see it bottled water is a waste of resources and money.