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Campaign will let restaurant patrons donate to drinking-water project

Posted at 3:49 PM on 13 Feb 2008

Mark your calendars for the week of March 16, when diners at participating restaurants can choose to drink local tap water instead of bottled water and donate $1 to the Tap Project. Proceeds from the project benefit Unicef's efforts to provide clean drinking water to children in developing countries. The Tap Project was started pro bono last year by New York boutique exec David Droga; it raised $100,000 in New York last year, will go forth in more than a dozen additional cities next month, and may go global in 2009.

sources: The New York Times, Richmond Times-Dispatch

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Comments: (5 comments)

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Kind of a "Duh" moment

Tap water in pretty much all the US is perfectly drinkable. When did we all suffer the mass delusion that bottled water was "better" for us? It might taste better, but if you keep your pipes clean and maintain them, it's not a big deal at all.

Congrats on another bout of common sense breaking out!

If you continue to do what you've always done you'll continue to get what you've always got. - Yogi Berra

by Matt at 5:06 AM on 14 Feb 2008

Welcome to Kent

Tap water in pretty much all the US is perfectly drinkable

Uh...you might want check the stats on that. The water in my municipality gives me rashes, stomach cramps and other ailments.

I tried playing Eric Brockovitch once and called the water department her on but was given the bum's rush with "most people like the water here". I pointed out that it seems to me that every supermarket around her is filled with bottled water, plus racks of water jugs and "ionized" water dispensers and I happen to see a lot of Culligan customers in and around the neighborhood.

by jabailo at 12:06 PM on 14 Feb 2008

Tap Water

The problem with tap water, assuming that it doesn't contain any significant levels of pollutants, is that the government adds chlorine or chloramine and in most places fluoride to it. On the other hand, if you drink bottled water, you absorb chemicals from the plastic bottles and contribute to the massive plastic pollution that plagues the planet. The best solution, if you can't get unadulterated water, is to filter your tap water and drink that. You can buy reusable metal water bottles for taking it with you. Homeowners should put filters on the intakes to their homes, because you absorb more chlorine (and maybe chloramine, no studies have been done yet) from breathing it in the shower than from drinking it.

by Wolverine at 3:02 PM on 14 Feb 2008

Natural filter...

...in my apartment, I have both an artificial and natural filtration.

The tap water in my area is considered by most to be "not safe for consumption", so I use a Brita filter. But in addition to that, I converted one side of my sink into a mini-eco-filtration system, where the Brita water gets aerated for several days and then passed through a system of aquatic plants, through several gravel and sand filters, past a population of aquatic snails, and then back again until it's finally safe to drink.

by Tasermons Partner at 4:51 PM on 14 Feb 2008

remember the cause

Hi all, remember the cause is making clean water & adequate sanitation more accessible in places that to a large extent lack them. Over 2,000 restaurants are registered nationwide, including restaurants in the Washington, D.C. area; customers can donate $1 or more whether they drink tap or bottled at the table. Keep hydrated out there, Ivan

by Ivan at 6:40 AM on 15 Mar 2008

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