Better product

ONLY the other day, after many decades of serving water consumers in the Metro Cebuarea, the city’s water district came out with the rather “stunning” information: that tap water is best for the body. This was revealed by the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) the other day when it asked the Cebu City Council and barangay officials to promote tap water, which is better than bottled water.

The revelation is important in the sense that it overturns a long-held notion that variedly designed bottled water contains mineral and thus is greatly beneficial to the metropolitan consumers. But such is said to be a misnomer because it contains no mineral at all.

On the other hand, one of the claims is that the tap water has calcium, “which is very much present in ground water.”

During a media forum convened by the MCWD at the Rajah Park Hotel, the water firm also claimed that the minerals in tap water strengthen the human heart and normalize the heartbeat. Acording to the MCWD general manager, some 72 minerals needed by the human body are present in the tap water that is offered daily to MCWD subscribers.

As to the pricing, water is much cheaper at P10.20 per cubic meter only compared with bottled water. The difference is staggering. The latter is said to cost about P10,000 per cubic meter.

Tap water’s virtue was further affirmed by a metabolic specialist, Dr. Jaime Dy-Liacco, who lectured about minerals at Sacred Heart Center. He said tap water has 72 minerals needed by the human body.

Dy-Liacco said that “the tap water has six specific minerals--vanadium, zinc, copper, manganese, chromium, and gynema sylvestre, which prevents diabetes. He said if one drinks bottled water, which has none of the six specific minerals present in the tap water, one may become diabetic. This is an unexpected boost for the simple tap water, which has been delivered to many homes in the city.

Above all, until now, the water that comes out in the kitchen faucet of most the city’s homes has long been looked down upon by our people. In fact, when one goes out of his house and needs water, it is a status symbol to seek well-designed bottled water in a restaurant’s ref. One has to keep up with appearances, and to take a drink from the tap would be rather demeaning. Tap water is the poor man’s drink.

But now, the MCWD could cash in on the dignity of its better kind of water, as even some leaders like Cebu City Councilor Gerardo Carillo, who hosted the media forum, Barangay Camputhaw Councilor Raymond Garcia, and Tinago Barangay Captain Joel Garganera have already lined up behind the call to support the revelation.

Truth to tell, I am one of those who have long been avoiding the lowly tap water in our kitchen. Since the tap water is thought to be siphoned up from just anywhere, it is too risky to take, even if it is cheap compared to bottled water. Indeed, it should be a joyful occasion for the MCWD’s better product.