Two decades ago, my hometown waterway of Boston Harbor was known as the dirtiest harbor in America. Raw sewage and industrial pollution made fishing and swimming risky at best, and impossible at worst. But today, thanks to cleanup efforts spurred by the Clean Water Act, it’s one of the most visited places in New England, and one of the best spots for recreation.
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Clean Water Drives Economic Growth
Sparkling Water Is The New Soda
The hottest drink in America is water with bubbles.
Long a kitchen table staple in European households, sparkling water is making inroads in the U.S. thanks largely to Americans’ waning interest in soda. Between 2009 and 2014, the volume of carbonated bottled water sold in the U.S. has increased by 56.4 percent, according to data from Euromonitor International, a market research firm. Soda drinking declined sharply during the same period.
Still, sparkling water sales are a fraction of soda sales. The U.S. soda market is worth about $39 billion, according to Euromonitor. The market for unflavored sparkling water, flavored sparkling water and “functional” water — a category that includes flavored still water and enhanced still water like Smartwater — is just $4 billion. Read more
Who Owns Your Water?
Remunicipalization is big word for a simple concept: it’s the process of bringing a formerly privatized service or asset back under public control. For residents and taxpayers, remunicipalization is often the logical conclusion after private water corporations fail to deliver on their promises. For corporations like Veoila and Suez that earn profits from taking over municipal water systems, remunicipalization is a major threat to their business model. And that threat is growing every year.
“Over the last 15 years, 235 cases of water remunicipalization have been recorded in 37 countries, impacting on more than 100 million people. Moreover the pace of remunicipalization is accelerating dramatically, doubling in the 2010-2015 period compared with 2000-2010.”
City leaders and residents across the globe are reclaiming their water systems from private profiteers and ensuring that access to clean water remains a human right for every citizen. Last year activists in Detroit took their case to the United Nations. Since 2003, 33 water systems in the United States alone have been brought back under public control in places as diverse as Indianapolis, IN, Stockton, CA and Cameron, TX. Additionally 10 more local governments in the US are working to remunicipalize water services. Read more
Levi’s Tapers Its Water Usage By 1 Billion Liters
Levi’s has announced it’s saved 1 billion liters of water in its manufacturing process. That’s enough to fill 400 Olympic-size pools. That’s enough to make a huge water-footprint dent. That’s enough to provide H20 for days for all of its high-waisted-wearing hipster clientele in New York.
During the panel, which was moderated by HuffPost Impact, Dillinger also called on consumers to wash their jeans less frequently. Read more
California Drought: State’s Flawed Water System Can’t Track Usage
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Call them the fortunate ones: Nearly 4,000 California companies, farms and others are allowed to use free water with little oversight when the state is so bone dry that deliveries to nearly everyone else have been severely slashed.