The lesser of two evils: Tap Water

Ah tap water. Free flowing into homes around the U. S. and mostly drinkable. Our tap water in Chicago is chemically treated to be drinkable, with he michaels like chlorine, fluoride and other additives to be considered Drinkable and mostly "safe."

Theres been taste tests on water where people taste 3-4 samples of water, including tap, and they have to tell which tastes better or "find the tap water." Usually tap water can be guessed easily. It has an awkward smell and a taste. When water shouldn't have a taste, right?

So what's so great about tap water. Because it flows from the tap, and while there's an aftertaste, it is drinkable. Or easily filtered to eliminate most of those additives.

Tap water is the lesser of two evils, with the great evil being "oral fecal." Not familiar with that term. Most water around the world IS NOT drinkable from the tap. Most of the worlds water is infected with water illnesses including diarrhea, hepatitis, dysentery, and tyfoid. The author acknowledged that nearly everyone in his family has hepatitis due to the water born problem in their country.

I too, a born and raised American, am relearning All. The. Time. why this is "such a great country." why it's a privilege to live here. Can you even imagine getting cramps, diarrhea, and life threatening disease from water? The water appar ently, as discussed to my horror in the interview, is odorless aind mostly clear, however it has trace levels of feces capable of causing these water born illnesses.

Hamid's wife was diagnosed with hepatitis the day after their wedding. "And it was the second time she had had it," he said. "Virtually everybody in my family has had either hepatitis or typhoid or something of that sort. You know, water-borne illness is everywhere. It affects the poor, and it also affects the affluent in a place like Pakistan... 

And dont think your safe traveling to high end resorts and hotels, water is precious, and scams are one way that you can also get sick,

Jamie shared further "So people are selling water, and both at the luxury level, where you have these high-end mineral waters and also at the level of just poor people needing something to drink. So his scam (the books character, taken from real life scenarios) is to take mineral water bottles that have been consumed at high-end restaurants, buy the empties, take tap water, boil it a little bit, pour it into these mineral water bottles and reseal it so it looks like it's an authentic water bottle and sell it back to the exact same restaurants, who probably suspect that it's a scam product, but because it's so much cheaper than the water they buy normally are happy to take it on."

This fabulous interview came from NPR on Fresh Air.

Mohsin Hamid, the author of How to Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia. The business that Hamid’s main character in the novel finally makes his money in is … water. Bottled water, however, in this case. A sneak peak at what Hamid has to say on the subject of water.

I highly recommend (unsolicited, un-paid endorsement) this podcast, so you can hear about something I'm certain you haven't even fathomed before.

So, the next time I'm in a fancy schmancy restaurant, and the waiter asks "Bottled Water, or regular?" I'll go regular, good 'ol Tap! Because we can.

Water-born illness is everywhere. It affects the poor and it also affects the affluent in a place like affluent in a place like Pakistan. … Basically you get it either from drinking water, brushing your teeth with tap water or perhaps somebody prepared your food and they had washed their hands in that water or touched the water or handed washed their hands at all. The mode of transmission is what’s called oral-fecal and that sort of unsavory term really sums up how you get it.

How to get filthy rich in rising Asiahttp://www.npr.org/2013/03/13/174021020/a-young-man-gets-filthy-rich-boiling-bottling-tap-water


Make mistake. Breathe, reflect. And Laugh.Out.Loud ... Enjoy that glass of water too.