Reading Response

Ashley Davis
Comp 106:
Professor A. Yerks
Oct. 30, 2009

Our Thirst for Bottled Water

Within the persuasive essay “Our Thirst for Bottled Water,” Tom Standage explores the various assumed notions that are held by Americans in association with bottled water in regards to health and seeks to educate the reader of the harmful waterborne diseases that ail third world countries that lack sanitary drinking water.

Standage provides the reader with knowledge of the harmful affects that the American obsession with bottle water is having on poorer regions of the world. In America bottled water is being exploited and taken in vain to be perceived as a necessity when people in countries beyond our borders are dying daily due to preventable diseases.

He provides the reader with the undeniable fact that over one billion people in the world lack sanitary water. Standage points out the fact that Americans have little concern about water issues due to the abundance of it and that we take for granted the fact that we’re afforded with the seemingly trivial opportunity of having sanitary tap water available to us when and wherever. However, poorer countries are not provided with the same privilege. There are five million deaths related to preventable waterborne diseases annually.

Standage aims to educate the reader on proven facts that bottled water, contrary to belief, is not healthier than tap water, but that they are both equivalent in their sectors associated with health and hydration. He challenges the reader to overcome the naivety that one may have about waterborne diseases and take a stand to make a difference by not abusing bottled water and making use of tap water. He argues that by lessening the intake of bottle water that one might consume daily could conserve water, thus making it a step easier for countries that have issues with water sanitation.