Monday, April 25, 2011

Welcome to Fiji

Fiji Water is the No. 1 imported bottled water in the United States, besting Perrier and Evian.  President Obama and his family were photographed drinking Fiji Water on election night.  Fiji Water is the leading export of Fiji.

Consider the following report from the United Nations - -

"In the Global Water Supply and Sanitation Assessment in 2000, the coverage of the population in Fiji with access to an improved water supply was recorded as 43% for the rural areas (80% of the population) and 51% for the urban areas (20% of the population) indicating that water coverage throughout Fiji remains low.  This is particularly evident in the rural areas where the Fiji Public Works Department (PWD) considered 51% as an over-optimistic estimate."

The world is flat, but hardly fair.  A country that cannot supply its own citizens adequate water, yet water from an aquifer on the isolated north coast of Fiji's main island - -
  • Gets bottled in a state-of-the art factory,
  • gets packed up @ 1,000,000 bottles per day,
  • gets shipped via the Panama Canal,
  • gets consumed in hip clubs in Miami (7,480 miles from Fiji).
Save, pure, and refreshing - - except in Fiji.  We love our bottled water.  From Fiji to the Swiss Alps - - roughly $4.00 per gallon.  Nothing speaks more to the issue of "Energy or Water" than bottled water and shipping.  We're moving one billion bottles of water around a week in ships, trains, and trucks in the United State alone.  Roughly 37,000 18-wheelers moving water around just in the U.S. (and because of the tremendous weight, you cannot pack the trucks full).  And don't forget we recycle only 27% of the plastic bottles in the U.S. - - roughly 36 billion end up in landfills (115 water bottles per person).

Fiji Water is a miniature miracle of the modern global economy and a sign of how unsustainable it has become.

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