Free Parched City by Emma M. Jones Page B

environment is managed, how water is distributed and at what cost. In the case of London, we must remember that the water we drink is a corporate product, mostly served up by Thames Water but also, on the outskirts of Greater London, by the multi-national Veolia, and two smaller concerns (Essex and Suffolk Water, Sutton and East Surrey Water). Reins on these corporations’ freedoms exist in the form of the Environment Agency (abstraction and pollution), OFWAT (economic check) and the Drinking Water Inspectorate(product safety) but it is important to note at the outset of this book that the water industry was privatised in 1989, in England and Wales, as part of a particular economic and political ideology. Few would argue, as we will see, that there were not significant problems with the water, and wastewater, industry prior to privatisation. However, those challenges were outsourced.
    Despite Thames Water’s vast water resources, its move to desalination and its impressive coterie of water scientists (even if they are somewhat anonymous), Londoners seek alternative drinking water products and in extraordinary quantities.
    Plastic bottles are mass produced, daily, in locations far away from London, filled with water siphoned from underground resources on private land, then transported vast distances to bring drinking water into the city. In quantity, annual bottled water sales for the whole of the UK tally with London’s daily water consumption, as measured by Thames Water (the season does, of course, have an impact). These two billion litres of bottled water equate, however, with extraordinary levels of waste, most of which does not enter the recycling stream, fossil fuel consumption and personal financial waste. Why do the inhabitants of this leading developed world city need bottled water today?
    Ethically, the commodification of drinking water for exorbitant profits is at odds with the landmark announcement in 2002 by the United Nations, of the human right to ‘affordable’ water, specifically for ‘consumption, cooking, personal and domestic hygienic requirements’ (more recently, the equal recognition of a right to sanitation has joined this revision of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights). 5 In industrialised nations and cities such as London these basic water rights are largely fulfilled, except notably for the delivery of affordable hydration to public spaces. Of course, consumers have the right to choose whether or not they purchasebottled water but when affordable, or even free, drinking water access is not designed into the city outside our domestic environments, or deliberately designed out, that choice is limited.
    Capital-sized gulps of the United Kingdom’s bottled water habit are proportionately large due to obvious factors such as population, the capital’s heat island effect and tourism, particularly in the summer months. Most of that gulping and sipping takes place outside private homes and outside buildings adequately served with kitchen sinks like places of work where they are obligatory, or drinking fountains in prisons and schools. In the case of the latter, these resources may have been hard fought for as additions to a school building from local council funds or often from charitable donations. Incredibly, drinking fountains are not compulsory in schools.
    Bottled water is a convenience product. It provides easy access to fridge-chilled water and a portable package to transport around the city. When we are truly thirsty, little else will satisfy our craving than plain water. The simple craving for thirst relief, when the tap is out of reach, is one reason for London’s steady demand for bottled water. Increased awareness about healthy eating also makes water a more culturally popular hydration choice than sugary carbonated drinks. Bottled water’s advertising gurus have massaged the healthy hydration choice vigorously in their spin with much success. One