For nearly a decade, Ms Erny Kartolo’s mother bought bottled water in bulk for her family, so that they would be hydrated when they ventured out of their home. Every month, she would stock up on a box holding 40 bottles of water from suppliers such as Dasani.
“Her reason is that if she doesn’t purchase these, my family wouldn’t bring out water,” said Ms Kartolo, 22, a final-year communication studies undergraduate at the Nanyang Technological University’s (NTU) Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information.
That routine has since changed and her mother has jettisoned the practice, thanks to the Drink Wise, Drink Tap campaign, a NTU final year project in which Ms Kartolo and her three friends were all part of.
The campaign aims to nudge Singaporeans to drink tap water instead of bottled water, so as to reduce plastic waste in the long haul.
The idea bloomed in August 2018, when the team discovered a large gap in efforts to cut the use of plastic bottles here. This was despite the growing trend of buying metal straws in favour of using plastic ones, and retailers and schools eliminating the use of plastic bags, they said.
Fired up about the cause, the four women set about their campaign to encourage people to drink from the tap. Singapore is one of only several Asian countries with safe-to-drink tap water, with a comprehensive regime to ensure quality from source to tap comprising more than 400,000 tests yearly.
The team had a booth at the ECo Day Out @ South West event at Hong Kah North Community Club in January 2019. They put up boards laying out the truths about tap water, such as the fact that it is safe to drink without boiling or extra filtration, and that it is of consistent quality regardless of location.
Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State (Environment and Water Resources), met the team at the event and praised their campaign to build a “refill culture by encouraging people to bring their own reusable water bottles”.
A SOCIAL NORM TO DRINK TAP WATER
As the group gears up its campaign to entrench drinking tap water as a “social norm”, Ms Tan said the team hoped to tie up with cafes and other eateries to offer free tap-water refills even to non-patrons.
Right now, Common Man Coffee Roasters is the only establishment on board, although the team has reached out to about 30 eateries.
The team has tied up with PUB, Singapore’s national water agency, on the campaign and has secured a series of grants, including the National Environment Agency’s (NEA) Climate Action SG grant and the National Youth Council’s Young ChangeMakers grant.
The campaign ends in the middle of March.
Watch their video story below, where they debunk myths about tap water.
Read more here.
Source: TODAY, 10 February 2019