Water-Is what we drink as clean as we think
Today was a little shocking for me.
I am here in France visiting family when a friend arrived with a special machine for testing the quality of water
I happened to have two bottles of water which I had not drunk in my bag for her to test.
The first bottle contained water taken from a water tap at Dubai airport when I passed through just over a week ago on my way to France. I had an empty plastic bottle in my backpack which I filled in case I got thirsty while waiting to board the plane to France.
The second bottle was purchased from the local supermarket in Prades called SuperU. The water also contained peach flavouring and is a local brand.
The method for testing is indeed simple. You put the water you wish to test in a glass that has enough space for the two prongs on the small machine to be inserted. You turn on the machine and see what happens. I was shocked at the result.
Very quickly the water from the water fountain in Dubai airport started to change colour. My friend told me that its normal for all water to change but that the local tap water was normally yellow indicating acids, fluoride and other organic material. This water is seen to be OK to drink and is the least worst of all "bad" waters.
Unfortunately the water from Dubai airport went black. This is one of the worst waters containing dirt heavy metal. Looking at this water, which according to the fountain from which it was drawn was UV filtered and supposedly clean, there is no way that I would want to drink this water if I was able to see its true nature. Would you?
The local bottled water was not much better although a very different colour, green, indicating that it contained arsenic, mercury, lead, copper, sodium.
Putting the two separate glasses of water together I can not say that seeing the true colour of each would tempt me at all to drink either one of them. In fact I was freaked out that both were promoted to people as safe to drink. Although the water from Dubai was "free" to take unsuspecting customers were paying to buy the green water sold at the supermarket containing arsenic, mercury, lead, copper, sodium.
Worldwide consumers have water in bottles promoted to us as safe to drink and healthy for our bodies. Plastic filled water bottles adorn the shelves of local garages, small shops and supermarkets. I see people walking around with these water bottles. I see people in supermarkets placing them in their trolleys and I myself have purchased them from the garage when travelling from place to place. arsenic, mercury, lead, copper, sodium. This bottled water is not necessarily cheap to buy either particularly when purchased from a garage, or specialty shop.
However, after this water testing exercise today I have learned that I can not trust that the water I am consuming is clean. According to my friend many brands of bottled water are not "clean" to consume without doing a test. It was interesting and comforting to hear from her that the local tap water where I am staying and the spring water that the family normally collects in bottles once and week and uses for normal drinking has been tested by her and is clean. Can you say the same about the water you drink every day? We certainly don't intentionally consume poison but paying for poison when we think we are buying something healthy and good for us seems criminal to me. It makes me think much more carefully about what I blindly consume daily and assume is safe wherever I am in the world.
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