Buy water, drink bacteria

john.sw

I don't understand this obsession with sterility! No wonder people get ill.

The air we breathe is "contaminated" with all sorts of bacteria and life forms. Don't like it? Then don't breathe!

Our water supply at home in the UK comes from an underground spring. It is not treated in any way before we drink it. Howard Hughes obsessives would probably die at the thought of drinking it, but it tastes good and people have been drinking from that spring for hundreds of years without a problem.

No doubt, if it were tested by Nanny Blair he would condemn it as unfit for human consumption and force me to drink State Controlled Water that has been processed and contaminated with fluoride, chlorine and other poisons.

It is over two hundred years ago that Edward Jenner discovered that a small dose of a germ can give a person immunity from a big dose of the same germ.

If you really think that the likes of Coca Cola, Nestlé and Pepsi are going to sell dangerous bottled water in India, maybe you should follow Howard Hughes' example:

In order to remove his hearing-aid cord from the bathroom cabinet, servants were told:

1] Use six to eight tissues to turn the knob on the bathroom door

2] Then use six to eight new tissues to open the bathroom cabinet and remove an unused bar of soap

3] Clean your hands with the soap

4] Use at least fifteen tissues to open the door to the cabinet containing the hearing aid

5] Remove the sealed envelope containing the hearing aid with two hands using another fifteen tissues in both hands...

__________________
www.nilgiris.asia your guide to the Nilgiris, Ooty, Coonoor, Kotagiri and Gudalur

gaya

John, I can see the point you are making....

but I think I will remain somewhere in between the 2 arguments.

There is no doubt that drinking crap can make you sick....but the level of crap can make all the difference and we are eating and breathing all sorts of stuff without realising it and not getting sick.

So I personally would advise people to take the precaution of drinking water purified themselves, or bottled water with the cap on. After that I repeat - Don't worry!!

There is no point in worrying further about it - and if you can't help worrying about it then you may find you have a really hard time in India because you will encounter plenty of other dirty things.

gaya

PS John at this point I am trying to refrain from getting started on the ridiculous extremes that I have seen first time parents go to, to keep everything sterile....I had better switch to the parenting forum....

__________________

ndhillon

SO from what I have read, boiled water is the best alternative to the bottled.

Himalya brand is the best of the bottled water variety.

I am also taking DUKORAL which is an oral vaccine to prevent traveller's diarhea. It basically protects you against E.Coli as well as Cholera.

We will see what happens.......

edwardseco

Best post lately, John's. Most sensible, Yogagal cleans up..

ndhillon

OK...now we are back from India after one month and we drank almost every brand of bottled water. Bisleri, Kinley, McDowell's , Aquafina, and had NO problem whatsoever with any stomach related illness. We spent most of our time in Delhi and Punjab. Anytime that we could not find bottled water, we boiled the water.

All went well.....just remember to wipe clean the bottled water bottles before you open them as there is lot's of dust and dirt that gets accumulated on the bottles.

Sunray

Nice to see some common sense. I would question the findings. Aquafina and Mckinley as they are owned by the multinationals who do have the investment required to produce clean water. Its not so hard to do.

I've lived there for 5 months drinking what ever is available. Not really got sick once. I shall continue to do the same when I go back.

jivan

they produce the clean water but then what happens to the muck thats left behind. That gets absorbed by earth again & gets in other people's water. Also how the water is purified. I've not read the preceding 5 pages but can assure u that all is not well with bottled water. Case in point search in www.cseindia.org & u'll find more than a handful of articles where research has been done.

Well had to read the preceding 5 pages, can't be half-hearted about arguments or discussions so went through the drill. I don't know why people didn't venture into the ceramic filter thing a bit. As some of u know that I've been into quite a few of rainbow gatherings held here in india. 99% are Europeans with me & sometimes couple of babas in this. Most of the times one or 2 people have ceramic filters to filter water & nobody gets sick. There 've been cases of few people getting sick but more often than not, it turns out they don't know how to shit carefully in nature & how not to contaminate water sources. I've been in quite a few heated arguments with people in this when people don't understand cleanliness & somethings so basic gets into ego stuff.

turbo

article
graph

jivan

thanx turbo, by any chance are u also a DTE subscriber, like me? Btw look for more stories in the bottom analysis section & be suprised.

turbo

No, I'm not, just found this thread today, quite disturbed by it, and did some searching. I could be accused of being super efficient with the searching (on this occasion).

There's been no discussion about drinking freshly squeezed fruit juices in India, any thoughts?

jivan

there shouldn't be any issues, but then its question of cleanliness & with mosquitoes all around one doesn't know. I for one have drunk lots but then I'm a native so perhaps doesn't effect so much.
Another thing atleast on NDTV India (Hindi) on mumbai metro or something at 10:30 p.m. there's a story where they found some worms or bacteria again in one of the coke bottles & they're thinking of banning it in schools. from my side atleast

jivan

[OT] On another note, the downtoearth mag. is a good one if people are interested they can subscribe to it. If one subscribes for 3 yrs, then gets a cool t-shirt also.

Nick-H

Fresh-squeezed juice is one of India's joys!

But treat like assessing any eating place for cleanliness, etc.

And understand that unless it is listed as pure juice then it probably contains water!

And then there's the ice!!

__________________
.


Just one member of the IndiaMike Mod Team

jivan

nicely put Nick.

lotus blossom

here is a very good article on "bottled" water. i wish that more places had purified filtered water in india where one could simply refill a bottle, like they do in mcleod ganj.

Bottled Water: Pouring Resources Down the Drain
by Emily Arnold, Earth Policy Institute

The global consumption of bottled water reached 154 billion liters (41 billion gallons) in 2004, up 57 percent from the 98 billion liters consumed five years earlier. Even in areas where tap water is safe to drink, demand for bottled water is increasing—producing unnecessary garbage and consuming vast quantities of energy. Although in the industrial world bottled water is often no healthier than tap water, it can cost up to 10,000 times more. At as much as $2.50 per liter ($10 per gallon), bottled water costs more than gasoline.

The United Nations Millennium Development Goal for environmental sustainability calls for halving the proportion of people lacking sustainable access to safe drinking water by 2015. Meeting this goal would require doubling the $15 billion a year that the world currently spends on water supply and sanitation. While this amount may seem large, it pales in comparison to the estimated $100 billion spent each year on bottled water.

http://baltimorechronicle.com/2006/020906EPI.shtml

__________________
Not all who wander are lost