The global water crises is one of the environmental issues that worries me the most. Approximately 70% of plastic drink bottles in Australia end up in landfill and can take up to 1000 years to biodegrade.
So it was great to hear about the Tap™ campaign, initiated by Sydney Water (Australia) with creative by Host Creative Agency Sydney, that encourages people to drink tap water instead of bottled water. This is a brilliant campaign that has trademarked Sydney’s tap water as a sustainable, cheap and healthy drinking water. Check out the Tap™ story in video here.
Australia is one of the lucky countries that have access to clean and affordable drinking water and it is encouraging to see a government department taking the lead to promote tap over bottled water. However, the water crisis is not one that is limited to landfill, in fact Water.org state that:
Today’s water crisis is not an issue of scarcity, but of access. More people in the world own cell phones than have access to a toilet. And as cities and slums grow at increasing rates, the situation worsens. Every day, lack of access to clean water and sanitation kills thousands, leaving others with reduced quality of life.
Here are a few more facts (from Water.org) that hopefully will make those of us lucky enough to have access to clean drinking water, drink it:
- The UN estimates that by 2025, forty-eight nations, with combined population of 2.8 billion, will face freshwater “stress” or “scarcity”.
- Every 20 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease.
- Agriculture is the largest consumer of freshwater by far: about 70% of all freshwater withdrawals go to irrigated agriculture.
- Less than 1% of the world’s fresh water (or about 0.007% of all water on earth) is readily accessible for direct human use.
Here’s hoping the Tap™ campaign can bring the water crisis back into the conscious of us all. I encourage everyone in Australia to relearn the vital skill of drinking from a bubbler this summer and while you dribble water down your front remember how lucky you are to actually be able to drink clean water.
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One Response to Work in progress – Tap™
Alexandra Grey @Alex_Grey_ November 30, 2011
Emily, I saw a widespread reuse of those omnipresent water bottles in Peru: rather than tossing them into landfill, the communities in the floating villages on Lake Titicaca collect bottles from all the passing tourists and traders to fill their woven-reed boats and other floating infrastructure. It makes for long-lasting buoyancy and reduces the use of the reed root blocks as floatation devices. Obviously in Sydney, a campaign to reduce water bottle consumption is well-targeted, but in other areas where it is harder to affect behaviour or where clean tap water isn’t available, such practical and community-initiated alternatives are inspiring!
(To illustrate, I’ve attached a photo from Google Images, as I don’t have my travel shots to hand.)