It's always good to have choices such as buying clean and bottled water. On the other hand, it is quite sad that we have to buy bottled water so that we can safely drink it. In my childhood, about let's say 20 years ago, paying for water was a fundamentally retarded idea, because the tap water was clean as hell and local as well as central governments cared about keeping it that way. You could simply get yourself a glass of water from any tap in sight and you wouldn't have to worry about it one bit.
Nowadays, what used to be perceived as a basic human right (having access to potable water) has become something to sell and I can't for the life of me acknowledge this horrible truth. Terrible management of water has caused groundwater to go deeper and unreachable, while we are hearing news stories about the capital of my country getting tap water as dirty as sewage. Even in my relatively untouched and remote hometown, water shortages keep occurring frequently and the water isn't clean anymore. Also in the same place, you can see water bottling firms placing "Not potable, contains bacteria" signposts at natural spring water sources, because the buggers want people to keep away from them so that they can use them for their own good when necessary (I got lab results, the water is totally clean at said points).
Even in a water-rich country like Turkey, this has happened. Hundreds of small streams were leased to private firms (multinational and local) for as long periods as 50 years. I am waiting for the times they will sell us our own water when things get a lot uglier.
Yeah, I know this has turned into a wall of text, but I am deeply troubled with this water issue. Water should never be a commodity. It should be managed properly and delivered to beneficiaries in clean and potable form. It was possible in the past. Why can't it be now?
