Bottled water,? What is the real cost of bottled water ? There are plenty more sites that give the low down on the environmental impacts this product has, but it really just takes common sense to realize that bottle water is not needed, especially in a remote community that has such a special relationship with the land.

Now out of all the bottled water shipped into Nain I would guess that Nunatsiavut Government would be the largest user of that product. There are numerous meetings and conferences that NG host over the year, bottled water is handed out and available to all and sundry at these meetings.
For normal 9 to 5 operations NG uses tap water and tap water that is filtered, some staff bring bottled water at there own expense.

Same thing at the Community Government, bottled water for some meetings that are outside the council business and filtered water for everyday use.

Still the NG has fare more meetings and would consume much more bottled water than any other entity in Nain would be my guess.
I would hope the bottles are recycled too, but that still does let them off the hook. I think it is irresponsible for this to continue.

My recommendation would be that an in line filtration system be installed at NG and all major offices for that matter. Again there are many other brands and prices to choose from.



After all it is really only the taste of the chlorine in the town water that most people have a problem with. There are a myriad of these systems out in the market place, it would take a minimum amount of thought and a minimum amount of effort to find the appropriate system for any particular need.
It would show leadership and would be in line with the people of Nunatsiavut’s philosophy of a strong spiritual relationship with the land.

For years now Happy Valley Goose Bay has had a serious water taste problem The two major retailers there have installed these larger in line systems and you can take your 18 Liter bottles up to the stores to be filled, the cost is just over $4.00 for the 18 liters.

Contrast that with the cost of a bottle of water here, I priced some this morning, one was Naya 1 liter for $1.49 plus enviro levy of .08 making it $1.57.
At Northern a 1 liter bottle of Aqufina demineralised water cost $3.29 plus the enviro levy.
At BigLand a different brand of demineralised [591 ml bottle] water cost .89 cents plus enviro. Something wrong there for sure but that is another story.

So it does not take a degree in mathematics to figure out the fiscal advantages of doing away with the bottled water, not to mention the afore mentioned impacts on the environment.

Maybe while the Community Government is thinking about banning plastic shopping bags they could throw in a ban on bottled water, or at least stop buying them, and maybe they could encourage NG to stop buying them, after an in line or other system system has been installed of course.

Update on my Previous post on flying all those items into Nain. Seems other stores in the other communities have become addicted to using air to "fly basics' in too. This is a report from CKOK.