Franciscan Toasts Benefits of Tap Water

By Marie Elena Giossi

Going green and adopting an environmentally friendly lifestyle is a growing trend around the globe and right here in Brooklyn, where Franciscan Brother Joseph Moloney O.S.F. wants to teach others one simple way to help the environment and save money – by choosing tap over bottled water.

“This is my attempt to get Franciscans and others across the country to stop using bottled water. It’s based on the fact that God’s water is free, not a commodity. You shouldn’t have to pay for it,” Brother Joe told The Tablet.

Brother Joe is the immediate past president of the Franciscan Federation, a national alliance of congregations of priests, religious brothers and sisters of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis of Assisi. He resides in the Franciscan Brothers’ Residence at St. Francis College, Brooklyn Heights, where he also teaches public speaking.

Brother Joseph Moloney, OSF

“This is not a Catholic issue, it’s not a Franciscan issue, it is a people issue. Water is a human right.

Unfortunately that right doesn’t exist worldwide. We take it for granted,” he said.

Water quality and scarcity are at the forefront of global concerns. Water for Life is the theme of the United Nations’ International Decade for Life, 2005-2015, during which international commitments on water and water-related issues are expected to be fulfilled worldwide.

Currently, about 700 million lives in 43 countries are affected by water scarcity, noted U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the opening of an exhibit on water at the American Museum of Natural History, Manhattan, on Oct. 23. By 2025, he said, water scarcity could affect over three billion earth dwellers.

In an effort to be good stewards of creation and in conjunction with the International Decade for Action, the Franciscan Federation has committed itself to protecting and respecting the gift of water and taking action on water issues. As part of their call to action, this year and last, members have resolved to:

• recognize water as a human right,

• conserve more and consume less,

• pray in thanksgiving for water,

• promote safe/clean water locally and abroad,

• call for an end to nuclear weapon research and waste disposal which taints the water supply, and

• stop buying bottled water.

Each of the Federation’s six regions and hundreds of individual members are living their commitments in various ways. Region Three members in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois and Indiana are installing eco-friendly toilets; equipping roofs to collect rainwater for watering lawns; and contributing to water system construction projects in developing countries.

Sister Sharon Dillon, president, Franciscan Mission Service in Washington, D.C., and the Federation’s immediate past executive director, has become a vocal advocate on water issues. She spoke against water services privatization at an Environmental Protection Agency session in December, 2006.

“As Franciscans, this is a natural part of who we are. We address water as our Sister. We view it as a natural resource,” said Sister Sharon. “I am appalled that our government is not addressing the infrastructure of water. It’s a grave sin allowing the infrastructure to get that bad and it’s the poorest segments of society that suffer.”

To raise awareness about personal consumption, Sister Sharon challenges people to “try living on two gallons of water for a day.” Most Americans, she said, find it nearly impossible to meet their daily hygiene, lavatorial, laundry, cooking, and drinking needs with eight quarts of water. Yet, that’s more than hundreds of millions of people around the world have each day.

People don’t realize, Brother Joe added, how many of their own countrymen are deprived of drinkable water. Brother Joe’s friend, another Franciscan Brother, works on a Native American reservation in Appalachia where two trucks bring water every day because the people can’t afford to set up a standard water system. Brother Joe wonders if they’d have the funds if enough people decided to stop drinking bottled water and donate the buck or two they would’ve spent to the reservation instead.

As part of their commitment to stop using bottled water, Brother Joe, Sister Sharon and other Federation members have signed the Think Outside the Bottle Pledge, vowing to use tap water and support public water systems over bottled water.

Think Outside the Bottle is a campaign of Corporate Accountability International (CAI), a corporate watchdog group challenging the way water bottling corporations: treat water as a commodity, undermine confidence in municipal water system safety, misrepresent water sources, run roughshod in communities where they extract water, burn fossil fuels to transport products and contribute to already overflowing landfills.

Brother Joe became a proponent of tap water after reading the 2005 book, “Inside the Bottle: An Exposé of the Bottled Water Industry,” by Tony Clarke, executive director of the Polaris Institute, which works to challenge corporate powers shaping public policy. The book takes on four giants in the North American bottled water industry – Nestle, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola and Group Danone, offering research and statistics on price gouging, water sources and treatment, school contracts, water privatizing and effects on health and the environment.

In reading the book, Brother Joe was shocked to discover that much of the bottled water sold on store shelves comes from municipal water sources. And while labels tout how “pure” and “healthy” bottled water is, that bottled water, he learned, is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, and is held to the same quality standards as tap water, regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Joseph Doss, president of the Virginia-based International Bottled Water Association, the trade association representing bottlers, distributors and suppliers, does not deny these facts.

“We use municipal water systems,” Doss told The Tablet. He admitted that among the retail segment of the industry, about 45% of bottled water originates from municipal sources but then goes through several treatments before hitting store shelves. Those treatments, under the FDA’s Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, he said, are as protective of public health as the EPA’s directives on tap water.

But Brother Joe takes issue not just with the water itself, but the cost and packaging too. People pay more for a gallon of water in the supermarket than they do for a gallon of gas. But they’re not paying for the water, they’re paying for the bottling, packaging, shipping, marketing and retailing process.

As for the packaging, recyclable plastic bottles are crowding landfills because the convenience-driven society that craves water on-the-run isn’t taking time to recycle. The Container Recycling Institute estimates that as many as 52 billion plastic bottles and jugs were not recycled in 2005 alone.

And consumers who are reusing bottles to reduce waste should think twice. Plastic water bottles intended for a single use could, if used over and over again, break down and low levels of chemicals could seep into the product.

According to Doss, the IBWA is working to improve recycling rates, and use lighter weight containers and more fuel-efficient transportation methods.

Doss praised the Franciscan Federation’s commitment to environmental stewardship, but says the ban on bottled water is “misguided.” He feels efforts to discourage bottled water “might cause consumers to choose less healthy beverages” containing sugar, calories and caffeine.

“We live in a 24/7 society,” Doss noted. “Bottled water is a convenience. We make a safe, healthy, convenient product. People aren’t going to go around carrying canteens.”

Canteens may not be feasible for most people but Brother Joe would like to see more individuals take responsibility for their water usage at home and on-the-go by toting tap water in reusable containers, opting for tap water in restaurants and using public water fountains. For areas where there’s concern about tap water taste or quality, he suggests in-home water filtration devices.

He’d also like to see city, state and federal governments do more to ensure an adequate water supply for all citizens, promote the safety of tap water, regulate groundwater withdrawal for bottling, and reduce the amount of waste bottled water packaging produces.

Ideally, Brother Joe would like to see water bottles phased out of everyday use and be reserved only for emergency situations when clean, drinkable water is not readily available.