I watched this movie this morning.. I’m kind of speechless about it. Not sure if I’m angry, helpless, empowered or sad. I think a good helping of all of the above would be accurate.

Having lived in the Midwest my whole life and being surrounded by large bodies of fresh water I never really had to think too much about not having clean water to drink. I never experienced any restriction on water usage, have never gotten a serious illness from drinking contaminated water or really given much thought to where it comes from or goes to. I turn on the tap, wash my dishes, take a shower, fill my glass whatever, it’s always there.

I’ve started thinking a little more about my water usage lately along with every thing else I consume and noticed that there’s a lot of room for improvement in this department. I’m a water waster. I leave the water running while I brush my teeth. I love long hot showers. I wash my dishes before I put them in the dishwasher. This is one of my worst things for sure. I’m working on it but old habits die hard.

One thing I don’t do though is buy bottled water.

Flow explores, among other water issues, the huge impact bottled water has on the environment and communities. The plastic bottles are bad but so are the practices of the companies who are harvesting the water. One of the most surprising things they mentioned was that most bottled water is from municipal water supplies. So basically they are selling you what you are already paying for from your tap. I though the big issues was the packaging not what was inside.

Please check this movie out if you come across it. If you can’t catch it at least check out the website. The have a bunch of links on there about how to educate yourself on water issues and get involved if you’re so inclined.