Water & Air – Filter Systems News

The drinking water fountain has been around for centuries, but two different men invented the modern drinking fountain in the early 1900’s: Halsey Willard Taylor, and Luther Haws. Each man founded a company that produced drinking fountains. Taylor founded the Halsey Taylor Company, and Haws the Haws Sanitary Drinking Faucet Co. The way that water is served in public places was changed by Taylor and Haws.

Halsey Taylor developed his drinking fountain in part because his father had died from typhoid fever caused by water that was contaminated. Luther Haws worked both as a part-time plumber and as a sanitary inspector in Berkeley, Calif. One day at a public school he was inspecting he saw children drinking water from a tin cup tied to a faucet. Both men shared fears about the health risks associated with public drinking water. Water fountains developed by both men are still widely in use around the world.

In a couple of earlier blogs we mentioned two ongoing efforts to map U.S. water fountains, both smartphone apps: Thermos‘ Oasis Places, and WeTap, started by The Pacific Institute and Google. WeTap’s current map shows that this effort has spread across the U.S. from its origins in Berkeley, Calif. and the Bay Area. Dr. Peter Gleick, President of The Pacific Institute, maintains that the declining availability of drinking fountains has led to the rise of bottled water sales: “one of the reasons for the explosive growth in the sales of bottled water in the past two decades (the average American now drinks nearly 30 gallons of commercial bottled water per year, up from 1 gallon in 1980), is the disappearance of public drinking water fountains.”

Today, many feel that the drinking water fountain may be going the way of the telephone booth. Concerns about the sanitation and safety of drinking water fountains may be fueling their loss, in addition to boosting bottled water’s popularity. But bottled water has been shown to be dangerous to the environment and user, as well as being prohibitively expensive. An attractive alternative are hydration stations, machines that deliver filtered water, which are being installed in many schools and offices. In addition to the water offered by hydration stations often being purer and safer than drinking water fountains and bottled water, they help eliminate single use plastic bottles. Hydration stations are especially popular on college campuses, where activist students have been making others aware of the disadvantages of bottled water, and raising awareness about the safety of schools’ drinking water fountains. Maybe hydration stations will eventually supplant water fountains and even bottled water as the source of choice for drinking water.

The amount of water charities around the world seem to grow exponentially every year.  Many of these organizations are both headquartered and focused on serving foreign countries, making seeing the effect of your donation difficult. However, Wisconsin based CannedWater4Kids is changing all that. They have created an attractive, visible product by manufacturing colorful aluminum cans filled with purified drinking water. They hope that these cans will not only provide fresh water to children in need, but will soon serve as the symbol of clean water awareness. With $0.95 cents of every dollar donated guaranteed to go directly to those children who need fresh water, you can be ensured that your hard earned dollars are going towards doing the most good.

So why aluminum cans? There are many reasons, but it is primarily due to the fact that more and more people understand the importance of recycling to ensure global sustainability. Therefore, the aluminum can serves as a recognizable, economical, and safe way to bring clean, purified water to kids in need around the world.  Also, aluminum cans have a small environmental footprint, maintain a long shelf life, and can go from the recycling bin to the store shelf in 60 short days.

CannedWater4Kids has already made a difference in many places around the world. Shortly after the earthquake in Japan, CannedWater4Kids shipped 52,800 cans of purified water to people living in schools, orphanages, and evacuation centers in the Minami-Sanriku area that completely relied on water from outside sources. The charity also works in conjunction with various other organizations including Engineers Without Borders at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee.  This group of Engineers is working to build purification plants in the Highlands of Guatemala and they did not forget to bring CannedWater4Kids with them to pass out to the local community.

How can you get involved? As with many other water based charities, monetary donations are always welcome. You can do this over CannedWater4Kids secure website or via snail mail. Another innovative way to get involved is to purchase a colorful 12 or 24 pack case of the purified CannedWater4Kids water. Not only will this serve as an interesting conversation piece at your next family gathering, but the water tastes great and your donation will be going to a more than worthy cause. At just a dollar a can, you can make a donation while getting water that is both purified and eco-friendly. Small business and retail store owners also have the option to stock the water in their store by contacting info@cannedwater4kids.org.

So this week, our charity is CannedWater4Kids. They have created an imaginative, fun product that can be seen as a symbol of water charity consciousness. Priding themselves on doing the most good with your donation dollars, getting involved with CannedWater4Kids is a great way to begin working with water charities.