World Water Day – Tapped the movie screening

We were very fortunate that EcoMatters Environmental Trust, Oxfam and TAPAC all came on board at late notice to ensure were were able to screen Tapped on World Water Day. As an introduction to the movie, Katherine Mason from Oxfam gave a moving presentation about Rosita and her family in East Timor whose lives have been transformed through the introduction of a clean, regular water supply made possible from donations to Oxfam’s Water for survival programme.

Grey Lynn 2030 and EcoMatters  have been able to make a modest donation to Oxfam from the ticket sale proceeds.  However, our supporters may wish to do more especially if you missed World Water Day on 22 March. Please consider making a donation  online to the Oxfam Water Appeal or by calling 0800 400 666.

Tapped the movie was exceedingly thought provoking, resulting in many of the movie goers wondering what we can follow up with locally to get the message across that bottled water is damaging to the environment (from production through to disposal) and individual health, and except in an emergency completely unnecessary. A few facts from the movie that may be of interest:

• 40% of bottled water is filtered tap water
• bottled water companies receive approx 1600% profit on the cost of producing a bottle of water
• independent tests rank the purity of bottled water third behind tap water and filted tap water (the industry is self -regulated so not subject to a transparent testing regime)
• only 20% of bottles are recycled
• in parts of the ocean there are more plastic particles than plankton (to find out more about the sea of plastic discovered by Capt Charles Moore click here )
• we are potentially exposing ourselves to harmful levels of Bisphenol-A (BPA) by drinking from plastic bottles

Tapped can be rented from EcoMatters. Check out the preview here. Find Tapped on Facebook with regular updates from the movie’s director Stephanie Soechtig.

The Story of Bottled Water is also worth sharing around to get the message out that the best thing we can do immediately is to stop buying bottled water.

Grey Lynn 2030 is considering how we are going to act locally to achieve a dream of a bottle water-free NZ starting with our community. For example what about we work to install public water fountains (the village pump!) so that we can refill bottles bought locally? If you are interested in getting involved with the Grey Lynn 2030 water group please email greylynn2030@gmail.com.