Welcome to the 2010 Drink Tap Water Campaign’s information page!
Purpose of the Campaign
To promote Cape Town’s excellent tap-water quality and reduce the amount of plastic waste generated during the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ from the unnecessary use of bottled water.
Why drink tap water?
Why drink tap water!? The question should be “Why drink bottled water?”!
There is no logical explanation for the regular use of bottled water in Cape Town. Cape Town tap water is some of the best in the world; it is safe, clean and healthy – fresh from the mountains. Bottled water costs more, it is not better quality or healthier for you than tap water and it pollutes our planet unforgivingly.
Why avoid bottled water?
- Bottled water uses up valuable energy and resources to create packaging for something that runs cheaply and cleanly from the tap in your own home.
- It takes 3-5 litres of water to make just one 1-liter bottle.
- The manufacture of every ton of PET produces around 3 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2).
- Worldwide, 2.7 million tons of plastic are used each year to make water bottles.
- Cape Town is rapidly running out of landfill (waste dump) space. Landfills produce toxic leachate and methane, which pollutes land, air and water. By avoiding bottled water you reduce the amount of plastic waste going to landfill.
- 96% of bottled water PET plastic bottles end up in rubbish bins rather than recycling bins.
- Disposable water bottles take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade.
- Bottled water often contains more bacteria and impurities than tap water; municipal water systems are regulated more stringently than the bottled water industry.
- Plastic water bottles can leach harmful and carcinogenic synthetic chemicals, such as Bisphenol A (BPA), into the water they contain.
- It’s expensive; 500ml of bottled water costs as much as R6.00, whereas 500ml of tap water costs less than a cent!
- Imagine all this money spent on something that is available for free from a tap, while there are 1.1 billion people, or 18 per cent of the world’s population, who lack access to safe drinking water
How to support the campaign during the 2010 FIFA World Cup?
- Use a reusable water bottle and fill it up from the tap
- If you’re in a hotel, restaurant, pub or club, remember to ask specifically for tap water
- If you do buy a bottled water, please throw your empty bottle into the ‘Dry Waste - Recycle bin’
Where to refill your bottle?
- There are free tap water stations installed in the FIFA Fan Fest and along the Fan Walk, as well as in Cape Town’s many public parks and gardens such as Kirstenbosch Botanic Gardens, the Company Gardens, Wynberg Park, Maynardville Park, and the Constantia Greenbelt.
- Hotels, restaurants and restrooms
Things to remember!
- No bottles of any kind are allowed in the Stadium, Fan Fest or Fanjols
- Please do not drink the water in the Adderly Street Fountain, this water is not of a drinkable quality
More information:
Quench your thirst and put the planet first. Drink tap water.