A Battle Against the Bottles: Building, Claiming, and Regaining Tap-Water Trustworthiness

Parag, Yael, Timmons J. Roberts. “ A Battle Against the Bottles: Building, Claiming, and Regaining Tap-Water Trustworthiness,” Society and Natural Resources 22, no. 7 (2009): 625-636. http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.mnsu.edu. (Accessed February 10th, 2011).

This article’s primary focus was on the environmental effect that bottled water has on the environment, and the fact that residents of the United States have grown distrustful of tap water in part because of the bottled water industry’s advertising campaigns. This article mainly explores how the government can regain the public’s trust in tap water. The article argues that “water providers and the state do not confront this message, do not soundly claim their trustworthiness, and do not attempt to publicly and visibly back and support tap water as good and healthy” (Parag 626) . Because of this, the article claims, the message that bottled water is more healthy for a person is allowed to grow rampant, without rebuttals from the government. That the bottled water industry continues to grow despite that most developed countries water is perfectly healthy leads Parag and Roberts to compare this with Andrew Szasz’s concept of “inverted quarantine”, “wherein people attempt to isolate themselves from a [perceived] dangerous environment around them” (Parag 626). Also discussed is that because bottled water does not compete with providers over consumers (i.e. waste, and any water used for something other than consumption) there is not a strong incentive for tap water providers to start pushing the value of tap water for consumption.

Parag and Roberts argue that tap water trust can be restored by creating public awareness, revising the setting of tap water standards and policies and actively enforcing these standards and policies. Also discussed is that water providers should start to be more open about their purifying methods in order to restore public trust. According to this article, most water companies employ perfectly acceptable methods and have perfectly acceptable water for consumption, but the companies lack public relations skills, creating a barrier between citizens and the water companies, and facilitating a lack of trust of the water companies due to lack of information. Parag and Roberts suggest that bottled water contain labels that explain the detrimental effect the plastic bottles have on the environment compared to tap water. In addition to this they suggest that every bottle of water sold should contribute a small amount to treating bottled water waste, as opposed to making those who do not drink bottled water pay for the process through taxes. I feel that Parag and Roberts present some excellent points here, and I fully intend on using this source as a reference for my research project, especially their ideas on how to employ methods to restore trustworthiness between the public water distributor and the consumer.