Italy: Lets jug it! Best practices in water consumption start at home

In Italy the price of ?blue gold? continues to rise. In a country where there are 189 officially recognised freshwater springs and 304 brands of bottled water and where more than 12 billion litres of water are bottled up and sold on the market it should come as no surprise that Italians are the largest consumers of bottled mineral water. While the French drink on average 138 litres of bottled water a year and the Spanish and Germans 100, your average Italian will drink and astounding 172.

So what?s wrong with Italian tap water? Perhaps the 379 million euros spent on advertising the benefits of drinking bottled water may have something to do with it. But a campaign being launched by father Gianni Fazzini, who directs the office for pastoral lifestyles within the Patriarch of Venice, aims to kick this habit. His campaign, ?imbrocchiamola? (which literally means ?lets jug it?) calls on people to give up bottled water for lent.

Natural tap water, according to father Fazzini, is a common good, not a private one. Moreover the water industry generates huge amounts of plastic bottles that pollute our mother earth. With the money you save by drinking tap water you can make it possible for those with no access to water to drink. These three simple guidelines form the basis of the ?lets jug it? campaign to which the Mayor of Venice, Massimo Cacciari, has already adhered to.

Cacciari has further demonstrated his commitment to the cause by abolishing bottled water at all local government meetings and what is more, Venetians will receive a free voucher for a water jug along with their water bill.

Father Fazzini?s is more than a campaign. It's a crusade: ?It is about saving our joy, which is made up of simple things and yet is always under attack from an aggressive market that makes us want more and more things?.

More info:
www.veneziastilidivita.it/