TomG
May 9, 2004, 9:40 AM
Post #1 of 5
(450 views)
Shortcut
|
In a prior discussion, Gayone asked about informative books and drinking water. The double question was too diverse for a focused discussion of a topic of broad interest. "Don't Drink the Water" is the stuff of book titles, play titles, movie titles and cocktail conversations. Little germs you can't see are the bugaboo. Mexico's hidden weapon = Diarrhea! Mexican’s don’t get it, they have stronger immune systems. One only have to see how fast a cold or flu travels through a barrio to measure this hypothesis. No matter what cutesy name you give it, it is a lot more fun when other people get it – it makes you feel smarter.
Here is a link to a Mexican discussion of drinking water issues of availability and cleanliness focusing on Guadalajara and expanding it range of relevancy outward. Titled “Water crisis spurs Mexican dam conflict” it speaks of serious problems that make “flora and fauna” adjustment problems seem downright attractive:
“the city's drinking water is increasingly fouled because of poor or nonexistent drainage of industrial pollution.”…
….."No one has wanted to invest in water, and now Mexico is paying the price," Martinez said. "From a country whose water was relatively clean and plentiful 40 years ago, we now have a situation in which virtually every city of 100,000 population has a drinking-water problem."
This coincides exactly with what my older friends in Oaxaca were telling me about the Oaxaca of their youth. They said exactly that: the city water from the pipe came daily and you could drink it.
Here is the link:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001923645_mexdam09.html
As one reader wrote:
It’s real easy to let yourself become paranoid about drinking water, but there comes a point where you simply have to take some risks unless you’re destined to spend your days living in a bubble. There are germs and bacteria everywhere – on shopping carts, on door knobs, on eating utensils in restaurants, in swimming pools, and probably even in the rain everyone’s anticipating. I can remember someone asking if his or her dishes should be rinsed in boiling water. One can take these things just too far. Exercise reasonable caution and good judgment, but don’t obsess about it.
On the other hand it might be a wise forward looking health move to install a very expensive whole house water purification system and spend your days living in a clean water techno-bubble. Heavy metal pollution is in a different league from germs on doorknobs.
Water availability issues in the USA southwest stretching from Texas to California are also reaching a high pitch lately. One answer might be to wear your dirty clothes longer and take short showers infrequently. One bathing method I encountered in rural Mexico seemed to save water, it consisted of a water bucket on the ground: you simply soaped up and then dumped little plastic cupfuls of water from the bucket over you to rinse. Being unhandy one tends not to shower too often, and when one does, one uses little water. Then dump the grey water on your garden and the cycle is complete.
|
Forums Index
Search Posts
Who's Online
Log In or Sign Up
House showing slope.jpg