One of my friends, ES, sent me a link to an article on Fiji Water. The article presents a balanced perspective (certainly more balanced than my previous blog post) on Fiji Water discussing the importance it plays for economic development. Some quotes:
"Even though it's shipped from the opposite end of the globe, even though it retails for nearly three times as much as your basic supermarket water, Fiji is now America's leading imported water, beating out Evian."
"Rakiraki has experienced the full range of Fiji's water problems—crumbling pipes, a lack of adequate wells, dysfunctional or flooded water treatment plants, and droughts that are expected to get worse with climate change. Half the country has at times relied on emergency water supplies, with rations as low as four gallons a week per family; dirty water has led to outbreaks of typhoid and parasitic infections."
"When such practices are criticized, Fiji Water's response is simple: "They don't have a ton of options for economic development," Mooney told U.S. News & World Report, "but bottled water is one of them. When someone buys a bottle of Fiji, they're buying prosperity for the country." Without Fiji Water, he said, "Fiji is kind of screwed."
Read more here: http://motherjones.com/politics/2009/09/fiji-spin-bottle?page=1
Also, check out the website of the Fiji Embassy in the US. At the top of the page, you can see an image of a Fiji Water bottle: http://www.fijiembassydc.com/
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