Water

Smug chuckles rumble around the Coca-Cola boardroom. The latest global sales figures for Dasani bottled tapwater have just come in. "I still can't believe our stupid customers actually buy this stuff." "We should get a box of donuts sent down to those geniuses in marketing." "And while we're at it, I think we execs deserve another payrise and performance bonuses all-round."

How irratonal it is that so much effort and investment in [so-called] developed countries has gone into providing a potable domestic water supply, only for 99% of it to be used for flushing toilets, watering the lawn etc. And then people still go out and buy bottled drinking water, most of which is just packaged tapwater anyway. (Ok, maybe the bottled variety doesn't have the chlorine, but it's no big deal to let tapwater stand in the fridge overnight and let the chlorine escape.)

Imagine the feelings of a Zimbabwean family who'd just lost two children to cholera because the only water available to them is contaminated with sewage, if they were to see someone hosing their driveway with pure, clear, drinkable tapwater whilst swigging from a bottle of Dasani that would have cost them half a day's pay.

The way we in Western countires take potable tapwater for granted has really come home to me on my travels through Latin America, where millions of people are not so fortunate. I've met other cylists who drink the tapwater wherever they are, though I have not been quite so cavalier, tending the follow the example of the locals - if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me, although I may get sick occassionally as I don't have their level of resistance to any bugs that may be present. As I can get through 8 litres of water day, this approach has saved a lot of money and plastic waste.

Colombia
Here the tapwater in towns and cities is generally fine, despite what the guidebooks say (they're covering their backs, I suppose). I say fine because I never got sick, although it's quite possible that it contains heavy metals, pesticides and other organic chemicals that may pose a longer-term health risk. Certainly there appeared to be a lot of cultivation and development in cathcment areas, and a lot of untreated industrial and mining waste and sewage is dumped into rivers. I'm not sure how effective the water treatment facilities are in dealing with these contaminants. Water quality monitoring data is not readily available to the public.

In more rural areas, the domestic water supply often comes from a communal tank supplied by a creek or somesuch. The water is not treated, so typically a family will boil up a few litres of agua panela (water with unrefined sugarcane) every morning in a large pot and this will be used throughout the day as a drink on its own and as a base for the ubiquitous tinto (black coffee) or chocolate.

Standalone properties sometimes have their own tank. Otherwise water is collected in buckets from a nearby source. I'm surprised that there are so few rainwater tanks, as there is plenty of rainfall throughout the region.

Ecaudor
The water quality here is not always so good. In many of the mountain towns and cities, including popular tourist destinations such as Quito, Cuenca and Otavalo, the tap water exceeeds international standards (according to the WHO). But then there are places like Ibarra which has good catchment protection and water treatment facilities, but the reticulation and sewerage systems are so antiquated and badly maintained that cross-containation occurs, and local advice is to boil first.

In El Angél, a village high up in the northern highlands, I asked my new friend Balmer if the water was ok, and his answer was that it was 70% ok and that, while everyone in the village drank it straight form the tap, I probably shouldn't. But later he introduced me to his father who was the healthiest 96-year old I have ever met and who had lived in El Angél all his life, so I figured the water couldn't be that bad.

A couple of weeks later I was in Papallacta, a mountain village surrounded by national park and numerous natural springs. I assumed the water would be ok but, to be on the safe side, asked a restarant owner my usual question, "El agua aquí es potable?" (Is the water here potable?). She said that it was, but on further discussion it turned out that it had to be boiled. I guess the word 'potable' has a dfferent meaning to someone who's probably never been able to drink water straight from the tap. From then on, I modified my question to be, "Se puede tomar el agua aquí, sin hervirla?" (Can you drink the water here, without boiling it?).

In the coastal and and jungle regions, the water is best avoided. In Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city, there had been such underinvestment in water infrastructure over the years that disease outbreaks were common. When the Inter–American Development Bank offered to lend thew government money to improve the city’s water service, they accepted (no doubt persuaded by generous 'campaign contributions'). Of course, the loans came with the condition that Guayaquil hand over the control of its water to an international corporation - the infamous Bechtel. It is no surprise to learn that, while Bechtel has been earning about $300 million a year from the deal, there has been little improvement and, under the the private system, households who can't afford to pay for bills have had their supply cut off. (See http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/world/latin-america/water-privatization/ecuador/bechtel-in-guayaquil-ecuador.)

Peru
Here the water is generally not too good. In the few places where I've been told it's ok, it's tasted pretty bad. Then I picked up giardia somewhere along the way, which has disrupted my trip a fair bit. So from now on I'll be boiling or filtering all water, or buying bottles of San Luis (Coca-Cola's local brand of bottled tapwater).