Politicians tap into water campaign

Jun 10 2008 by Ben Schofield, Liverpool Daily Post

MERSEYSIDE’S politicians threw their weight behind our Tap Into Water campaign last night.

The Liverpool Daily Post is asking readers to drop bottled water in favour of more environmentally friendly tap water.

One councillor joined the campaign saying “there’s nothing wrong with eau de Mersey”.

Millions of tonnes of plastic bottles are pouring into Britain’s landfill sites as the £2bn bottled water industry grows.

We drink an estimated 3bn bottles of water each year, but transporting them from overseas and around the country creates a carbon footprint of 33,000 tonnes.

And each of the plastic bottles take 1,000 years to biodegrade, whereas a litre of the region’s water generates just 1.66g of carbon emissions.

Cllr Gill Gardiner, who is Wirral Council’s cabinet member for the environment, and who also sits on the region’s waste disposal authority said: “I’m supporting this campaign because of the fact that we are producing so many plastic bottles that are so difficult to dispose of and take hundreds of years to biodegrade. They take up enormous space in our landfills.”

Cllr Gardiner said she had cut down the amount of bottled water she drinks by always asking for tap at restaurants.

As part of the campaign, the Daily Post will be asking Merseyside restaurateurs to offer tap water alongside bottled water.

Thousands of the region’s school children will also receive a bottle they can fill up at home and drink from during the day.

Cllr Berni Turner, Liverpool City Council’s executive member for the environment said there was nothing wrong with “eau de Mersey” or “corpy pop”, as it is also known.

She said: “It’s a great campaign and I’m right behind it and we’ll do everything we can to help.

“I have been filling up on tap water for a couple of years now. I wouldn’t drink anything else.”

Liverpool City Council outlawed bottled water from its meetings in January last year. It was spending £48,000 a year on supplying water for its staff.

MPs behind the campaign include Southport Liberal Democrat MP John Pugh and Labour’s Liverpool Riverside MP Louise Ellman.

Mr Pugh said: “Bottled water is a fad, a trend, but there’s no reason to think that stuff with a fancy name on the bottle is better than what comes out of the tap.

“All in all it makes good sense for the environment and the economy to use good, honest ordinary tap water.”

Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently banished bottled water from all Downing Street departments.

Mrs Ellman added: “You can put my name down for this. I think you should encourage people to drink tap water unless there’s a specific reason why not.”

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