Water, water, everywhere

Last week I was invited to complete an on-line survey on recycled water. The questions mainly related to whether or not I was comfortable with the idea of drinking recycled water.

Well, it doesn’t really worry me, and, having been to London several times, where all drinking water is purportedly recycled – and from the River Thames – and I have survived the ingesting of it, despite its lime

content affecting cups of tea – the idea sits okay with me.

 Reading more on the subject it was interesting to find that a great deal of drinking water in many countries is recycled in one way or another and the source of said water is many and various.

As one wag said, “I think I may have had this cup of tea before!”

 We couldn’t survive without water. Well we could survive for a short while – but three or four days would probably be the limit and we would be quite ill by then and certainly not feeling happy. So if it’s water we need to live, why should we worry about where it’s from?

Of course in some third world countries clean water is hard to come by and that’s a tragedy for those people. Fortunately there are support plans and charities that are trying to enable the supply of clean water to be available to all people in our world. Perhaps not enough to help everyone, but it’s a start.

 The latest trend in our modern first world is to pontificate about the necessity to drink at least eight glasses of water daily. Is this really necessary?

  From a helpful site named “HYDRATION 101” I found this statement.

“There is no evidence to support the recommendation to drink 8 glasses of water a day.”

And …….

“It may surprise you to learn that there has never been any scientific evidence to support the “eight by eight” doctrine when it comes to proper hydration.”

And, still………

“..the eight cups a day recommendation typically does not account for the water content of food…”

 
*     *     *     *

  Attending the ballet the other night – opening night, posh do, everyone dressed in best evening wear and on their best behaviour. A woman sitting near me, wearing an expensive-looking bright pink silk outfit and pearls, clutched a bottle of water in both hands and subconsciously and repetitively twisted and untwisted the screw-top and she talked with her fellow theatre-goers before the show began.

She took a few sips between the constant top-twisting action and continued to hug the bottle like a ‘security’ toy. By the first interval the bottle was empty, but she still clutched it as if it were a life-line.

I saw a few other theatre patrons also carrying bottled water that night, but not many – thank goodness.

(Plus, there was free sparkling wine and chocolates provided, so who needed water?)

I have seen runners jogging along the street awkwardly holding bottles of water and I suppose they might need to hydrate their bodies while exercising, but I have also seen women out shopping with water bottles at the ready peeping from the top of  handbags.

I have even seen people at funerals sipping at water bottles throughout the service.

Whether these bottles of water have been freshly purchased as ‘bottled water’ or whether they have been re-filled from the home tap is neither here nor there.

What puzzles me is the modern day concept that everyone should be re-hydrating from a water bottle as they go about their business – or pleasure.

Just before I retired from full-time teaching, it was becoming the accepted sight for water bottles to be on the top of each desk or table-top for children to sip on whenever they felt a need.

   Are we over-doing this water ‘thing’?

 

 

 

---