THE COUNTRY’S massive expenditure on bottled water could be a complete waste of money, after a series of studies have shown there is no added nutritional benefit from drinking mineral rather than tap water.
A new report published by the World Wide Fund (WWF) has concluded that bottled water is no safer or healthier than tap water in many countries.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) stands by the same conclusion.
Given that the World Health Organisation (WHO) classed Cyprus water supplies in both rural and urban areas as 100 per cent safe in 1999 and 2000, consumers may be left wondering why they spend hundreds of pounds on bottled water every year.
There are areas in which tap water contains significantly more boron, chloride or sodium than WHO-suggested guidelines.
But the WHO is anxious to stress that all three chemicals are difficult to control in certain geographical areas, and that higher measurements do not cause adverse ill affects.
Nevertheless Cypriots buy mineral water as back-up during common water cuts and because the impression is that mineral water is of higher quality than tap water.
But with water cuts a thing of past since the Larnaca desalination plant became fully operational earlier this week, that excuse no longer holds.
With prices as much as five times lower here than in Europe and the United States, the expense is not prohibitive, nor is it such a rip-off for water that may be no better for you.
People may claim they prefer the taste of mineral water, but fears that tap water is poorer quality or unsafe are untrue.
Although the EU has approved Agros and Saint Nicolas — two of the three mineral waters produced in Cyprus — Pedhoulas, at one cent cheaper for a 1.5 litre bottle, has not been given the official OK.
Scientists maintain that only water with a high magnesium content has any real health benefit, in reducing heart attacks by up to 40 per cent, and significantly reducing outbreaks of asthma and migraines.
They claim the best water contains at least 90mg/l magnesium, less than 10mg/l of sodium and a ratio of calcium to magnesium not higher than 2:1.
But the only mineral waters to conform to these statistics are Vichy Novelle from Finland and Adobe Springs from California.
Saint Nicolas has a magnesium content of 28mg/l, Agros of 13.1mg/l, and Pedhoulas of 39.
Nevertheless, some 29 tap water sources in Cyprus scored higher contents of magnesium — water in Armenochori, for example, contains 130mg/l magnesium.
The WWF launched a campaign to wean people off bottled water for environmental reasons and persuade people to filter or boil local water that may not be safe straight from the tap.
“Our attitudes towards tap water are being shaped by the pollution which is choking the rivers and streams which should be veins of life. We must clean up and properly protect these waters at source and not just at the treatment works, so that we can all rest easy in drinking from the tap,” said director of the WWF Living Waters Campaign, Richard Holland.
They are also battling to cut down on plastic consumption – 1.5 million tonnes of which package bottled water every year.
Toxic chemicals are released into the atmosphere in the manufacture and disposal of plastic.
The WWF maintains that exporting 89 billion litres of bottled water round the world also contributes to a build-up in harmful carbon dioxide emissions.
Although Cyprus doesn’t export mineral water, it does import bottled water from Europe.
Saint Nicolas would not say how much plastic the firm consumed every year, or how much water the company sold for “market reasons”.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
