Spring Break
Reinharz plans to ban bottled water
by Jillian Wagner
News Editor
News | 5/20/08
Posted online at 6:58 AM EST on 5/20/08
/ Last updated at 5:54 AM EST on 5/20/08
The documentary made its Boston premiere at Brandeis on May 1.
"I really enjoyed the film," said Matthew Schmidt '11, the president of SEA. "I found it very engaging, and it opened my eyes to an issue-the privatization of water throughout the world-that I had known little about."
The privatization of water, one of the main focuses of the film, involves companies pumping water from one area and selling it to people in another.
The event, sponsored by the Film Studies Program and the Edie and Lew Wasserman Fund, was followed by a Q-and-A session with Irena Salina, the film's director, and Shri Rajendra Singh, one of the water experts featured in the documentary.
Salina informed the audience of a petition on the film's Web site to add an article to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proposing the right to clean drinking water.
The new article, Article 31, reads, "Everyone has the right to clean and accessible water, adequate for the health and well-being of the individual and family, and no one shall be deprived of such access or quality of water due to individual economic circumstance."
"Before you start thinking about the third world, you need to start thinking about yourself," Singh said through a translator.
"The rivers and the lakes in the United States have been encroached upon; they are being polluted. Even your local water bodies that everybody thinks are safe from the various things that are happening in the third world are not," she said.
"It's a commendable endeavor to think about helping other people, but … all global problems have local solutions," he added.
In efforts to address such local solutions, SEA has been involved with the Think Outside the Bottle Campaign, which, according to its Web site, is a national campaign "working to promote, protect and ensure public funding for our public water systems."
Levy said SEA plan to raise awareness on campus about the detrimental effects of bottled water.
"We will continue to sell stainless steel water bottles on campus to try to give students an alternative to buying Dasani water bottles every time they need to drink water on the go," she said.
Schmidt said that the group will also "continue to work to eliminate bottled water use through awareness campaigns to educate students about the alternatives to bottled water."
"I really enjoyed the film," said Matthew Schmidt '11, the president of SEA. "I found it very engaging, and it opened my eyes to an issue-the privatization of water throughout the world-that I had known little about."
The privatization of water, one of the main focuses of the film, involves companies pumping water from one area and selling it to people in another.
The event, sponsored by the Film Studies Program and the Edie and Lew Wasserman Fund, was followed by a Q-and-A session with Irena Salina, the film's director, and Shri Rajendra Singh, one of the water experts featured in the documentary.
Salina informed the audience of a petition on the film's Web site to add an article to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proposing the right to clean drinking water.
The new article, Article 31, reads, "Everyone has the right to clean and accessible water, adequate for the health and well-being of the individual and family, and no one shall be deprived of such access or quality of water due to individual economic circumstance."
"Before you start thinking about the third world, you need to start thinking about yourself," Singh said through a translator.
"The rivers and the lakes in the United States have been encroached upon; they are being polluted. Even your local water bodies that everybody thinks are safe from the various things that are happening in the third world are not," she said.
"It's a commendable endeavor to think about helping other people, but … all global problems have local solutions," he added.
In efforts to address such local solutions, SEA has been involved with the Think Outside the Bottle Campaign, which, according to its Web site, is a national campaign "working to promote, protect and ensure public funding for our public water systems."
Levy said SEA plan to raise awareness on campus about the detrimental effects of bottled water.
"We will continue to sell stainless steel water bottles on campus to try to give students an alternative to buying Dasani water bottles every time they need to drink water on the go," she said.
Schmidt said that the group will also "continue to work to eliminate bottled water use through awareness campaigns to educate students about the alternatives to bottled water."
Viewing Comments 1 - 10 of 26
Mary
posted 5/21/08 @ 2:45 PM EST
Just wanted to note that it is not the water in containers that is polluting the environment, it is the people who don't recycle the containers that are responsible for polluting the environment. (Continued…)
Dani B
posted 5/21/08 @ 7:16 PM EST
It's also a matter of wasted energy and resources transporting bottled water all around the country when you have pure drinking water just by turning on your sink. (Continued…)
Bekah
posted 5/24/08 @ 12:24 AM EST
This is a good start, but a more effective response to unnecessary consumption would be to redesign the meal plan options. A student who has been forced to buy a $2,200+ meal plan may have little financial incentive to drink tap water. (Continued…)
Dan
posted 5/24/08 @ 7:43 PM EST
This would not be so bad if the water on campus was not so terrible. The water from the water fountains tastes (at best) like chlorine. If the school wants people to buy less bottled water than they should make the alternative more appealing. (Continued…)
Gideon Klionsky
posted 5/25/08 @ 3:36 AM EST
Dan, the water tastes fine. The alternative is unappealing--a reduced-quality product sold in an unreasonable container for an absurd price--which is why this ban makes a lot of sense. (Continued…)
Emily
posted 6/23/08 @ 9:05 PM EST
I'm all for being environmentally-friendly but in dorms that lack kitchens and have gross bathrooms, I don't always have the inclination (or time, for that matter) to keep washing and refilling my water bottle. (Continued…)
Alina
posted 6/29/08 @ 6:19 AM EST
I am ALL for recycling bottles or not using plastic bottles at all. But as an alum, I definitely remember how BAD the tap water on campus tasted. I wouldn't drink it even if I was offered cash. (Continued…)
Diana
posted 7/13/08 @ 9:11 AM EST
You are so wrong about bottled water it is much cleaner and safer or you should just drink from your toilet it is the same water that comes from the municiple supply. (Continued…)
Alumnus
posted 8/03/08 @ 9:54 PM EST
Whatever the merits of this plastic water bottle issue, don't you students have anything better to do with your $1,200.00 a week time at Brandeis? And I think you could let President Reinharz use his time for something more important. (Continued…)
John
posted 8/26/08 @ 10:10 AM EST
Yeah, I mean, no offense, but you're not exactly saving the world by not having bottled water on campus. Seems like just another thing where the people behind this are doing it to be supposed "activists". (Continued…)
Post a Comment