Durban’s Finest `Blue Drops` For Cop 17
 A recent article on the Association`s website dealt with the Blue and Green Drop ratings annually conducted by the Department of Water Affairs, the most recent being for 2010 when the eThekwini Municipality was awarded a Blue Drop status which means it is safe to drink water from the tap --- and that is official.
Dynamic Chief Executive Officer of Durban`s Chief Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre (ICC), Julie-May Ellingson is proud of the city`s water quality and made that clear at a recent media briefing to announce the ICC`s ISO 1401 certification and its relevance to hosting COP 17.
It was announced that more than 20 000 dignitaries and delegates who will be descending on the City towards the end of November and early December, when at the convention centre, will not be provided with the usual copious amounts of free bottled water which is a hallmark of some major conferences. Julie-May said, "Our water is top class and there is no problems drinking it. Bottled water will be kept to a minimum at COP 17 and will instead be available...in jugs with glasses". She indicated that information on the high quality of Durban`s water was already being circulated with information about the ICC`s state of preparedness to host COP 17.
The move would also partly eliminate the large amount of plastic waste in the form of discarded bottles. It should be acknowledged that some products are incompatible with a world endangered by climate change and the depletion of resources. The production of bottled water is an example of an irrational product in the context of environmental degradation which in South Africa is a major threat to our already scarce and diminishing clean water resources.
It is worth considering some of the direct and indirect costs of bottled water. According to Jeff Rudin, a Board member of the Alternative Information and Development Centre these are:
- It uses three to eight times as much water to make plastic bottle as it does to fill it;
- Some 1.5 million tons of plastic are used worldwide to make the bottles;
- It takes 17 -billion barrels of oil to produce the plastic bottles ---- the same amount of petrol needed to cover 2 533 855 313 km at 8 litres per 100 km;
- One litre of bottled water generates 600 times more carbon dioxide than a litre of tap water;
- Bottling water in the United States generated 2.5 -million tons of carbon dioxide during 2006;
- Millions of litres of fuel are used to transport bottled water around the world and within South Africa, frequently from place to place where blue drop rated water already is available. South Africa imports 3-million litres of bottled water annually;
- South Africa has an overall rate of recycling of only 13% compared with the 20% rate achieved in major USA cities. The remaining 60-million bottles a day are added to US landfills with 1.4 -billion kilograms of plastic, or at still greater energy costs, gets shipped to India for dumping.
Pieter Rautenbach |
