Lately, Marangeli Mejia-Rabell has been trying to get her partner to drink more from the tap.
Mejia-Rabell is director of community economic development at the North Philly’s Village of Arts and Humanities, where she runs into fear of municipal water all the time.
She’s excited about a new Philadelphia Water Department program that could help sway her neighbors to drink more tap — and ultimately save a bunch of money.
PWD surveys show there isn’t just one reason.
The most common reason Philadelphians reported they prefer bottled water is the taste — 53 percent of respondents said that’s why they avoid drinking from the tap.
A large number of residents responded that they’re concerned about the quality of Philly’s water supply, and the city pipes that carry it into their homes.
Following those reasons, 17 percent of people cited what happened in Flint, Michigan as reason for their distrust.
“That probably did not help,” Dahme acknowledged.
People reporting they don’t drink tap water seem to be willing to reconsider: 53 percent of respondents said they’d drink tap water if they knew for sure it was safe.
PWD is planning a bunch of programming to educate Philly residents on water quality and safety.

He also promised to keep bringing in bottled water until every lead pipe is replaced.
"This fight is not done.
We are back and we will continue to come back," Judge Greg Mathis said.
Mathis, along with Flint clergy, other community organizers and citizens, caravanned from Detroit to Flint – collecting bottled water along the way to distribute in Flint.
in Flint.
"She told me they poisoned the water, now they’re telling the people to go ahead and drink the water, they’re not going to drink that water," Mathis said remembering what Franklin told him.
Following Mathis urging Flint residents to vote on Tuesday, Nov. 6, he challenged his "old friend," former President Barack Obama to come back to Flint and drink the water.
"I need you all to tell us what you need," Mathis said.
We ask that you all lead the struggle and tell us what you need.
Mathis visited Flint in January 2016 to talk to residents and answer questions on what people affected by Flint water can do legally.

BENTON HARBOR — Donations of bottled water continue to pour into Benton Harbor Area Schools as the district gets the water at each school tested to make sure it is safe to drink.
Superintendent/CEO Bob Herrera ordered that all schools use bottled water for drinking and cooking after the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality issued an advisory last week that higher-than-acceptable levels of lead were found in some of Benton Harbor’s drinking water.
Herrera said school districts connected to a municipal water system are only required to test the water as it comes into the building.
He said the water coming into the buildings is safe to drink, but it may pick up lead from the faucet itself or from plumbing material.
He said he learned about water testing when he was superintendent of South Haven Public Schools, where the district is required to test its water regularly because it gets its water from a well.
“The water has to sit stagnant for eight hours,” he said.
“They come in at 4:30 or 5 (a.m.) and collect the water.” Herrera said MDEQ is testing the water for free at school buildings in the Benton Harbor city limits.
Donated bottled water can be dropped off at the school district’s administration offices at 1995 Union Ave., Benton Township.
Interestingly, he said, Benton Township on Wednesday advised many of its water customers to boil water for 1 minute prior to consumption because the system lost pressure due to the malfunction of two pressure-sustaining valves.
Because the schools in the township were already using bottled water, he said no changes had to be made.

The caravan was the idea of daytime television judge and motivational speaker Greg Mathis.
Mathis has campaigned to help people during Flint’s water crisis before.
He says this latest effort was inspired by a conversation he had with the late Aretha Franklin.
“She suggested I come back up here and help the folks with water and help with a little justice,” says Mathis.
Mathis says the timing of the caravan and rally at a Flint church, less than a week before the November election, was simply coincidental.
But since the state closed free bottled water distribution centers, many in Flint continue to use only bottled water.
Mathis says he can understand Flint residents who still don’t trust their tap water is safe to drink.
“The same people who poisoned me and now telling me go ahead and start drinking; it’s clean.
Before even rebuilding the pipes,” says Mathis.
“That’s why I felt compelled to come back.” Mathis promises to continue his efforts to assist Flint in the future.

Today, TV’s Judge Greg Mathis is coming to Flint to hold a rally addressing the Flint water crisis.
Mathis, along with clergy and other community leaders will hold the rally this evening in Flint starting at six and running until 7:30.
The event is at Quinn Chapel AME Church on 2101 Lippincott Boulevard.
Prior to the rally, a "caravan" will start in Detroit at about 10 this morning.
The caravan will collect bottled water as it heads to Flint for the rally.
The caravan begins at the Mathis Community Center located at 19300 Greenfield in Detroit.
The caravan then makes its way north to Saginaw where it will arrive at the Wolverine State Baptist Headquarters at about three in the afternoon.
This is located at 615 South Jefferson Avenue.
Second Chance Church at 5306 North Street and Vernon Chapel AME located at 5802 DuPont Street, both in Flint.
You can learn more about the caravan and the rally at the group’s website here.

When serial entrepreneur Samuel Ian Rosen topped his water bottle at an airport fill station and took a drink, it left a bad taste in his mouth.
Tap is a "software drink company" that maps out sources of clean, free water ー from street fountains to friendly bars, restaurants, and retailers.
The next step for Rosen is tackling plastic bottle waste.
"It’s kind of crazy to me that we leave our homes in the day and we purchase disposable, one-time, single-use plastic bottles because we are lazy.
The truth is, it is so easy to carry this bottle with us," Rosen told Cheddar Wednesday.
An enthusiast of Burning Man arts festival, which operates on the principle of "Leave No Trace," Rosen said the era of plastic bottles is coming to an end.
Rosen’s application, which he calls "the Google ($GOOGL) Maps for water," is designed to help make bottled water unnecessary.
He said it already boasts about 35,000 refill stations across more than 30 countries.
Rosen said the concept works because it costs bars and restaurants almost nothing to provide free water ー and more foot traffic may even expose businesses to new customers.
Restaurants, like Umami Burger and salad chain Sweetgreen "are opening their taps ー they have free water in stores for customers ー and they put a little sticker that says, ‘refill your bottle here,’ increasing the amount of foot traffic into their stores by giving away free water," he added.

The latest investigation is at Robinson Elementary School in Grand Haven after high levels of PFAS were found in the drinking water.
Those test results came back Monday, prompting school officials to notify parents and turn off the fountains and switch to bottled water.
A truck load of 33,000 was delivered to the school.
“All of our drinking fountains have been turned off and are non-operational, [so] there is no risk in anybody mistakenly using a drinking fountain.
Lots of students have their own drinking bottles ,” says the superintendent of Grand Haven Area Public Schools, Andrew Ingall.
School officials are taking a very precautionary approach with this and are waiting for a secondary test to confirm the initial results of PFAS levels which showed over 100 parts per trillion, which is well above the Environmental Protection Agency’s advisory of 70 parts per trillion.
“We’ve given our assurance that [the] school is operational and bathrooms are in use.
The water is okay for hand washing, we can wash dishes with it.
“We want our kids and our community to be safe and healthy and have great productive long-term lives.
We’ll do everything we can to mitigate the issue and move forward,” says Ingall.

A University of Connecticut student has formed an initiative titled “Take Back the Tap” that aims to end the sale of bottled water on campus by petitioning the board of trustees.
Sarah Hill, the initiative organizer and a third-semester environmental studies major, said the petition organizers’ ultimate goal is not only to end the sale of bottled water on campus, but to ensure that all students have access to safe, healthy and free water.
However, Hill has been talking with various on-campus clubs and organizations to help get the word out and plan events, she said.
We are planning to start petitioning outside, as we are a public university and can do that whether we’re a club at the school or not.” In the future, Hill said she is hoping the group will officially partner with UConnPIRG or EcoHusky to table for more petition signatures and to hold events such as a water-tasting event to compare tap and bottled water and a screening of the movie “Tapped.” Hill hopes people get involved with Take Back the Tap both because she believes it’s an important cause and because of what she believes individuals will gain personally from being a part of it.
“Not only is it a great thing to do and an opportunity to help both the planet and other people, but it’s also just a great opportunity for yourself,” Hill said.
If you go to the marketplace, you’ll see an 80/20 split, where 20 percent is for open beverages that Coke does not offer.” Larson said though there isn’t a specific line item in the contract requiring that UConn sell Coke bottled water, the area where Coke and other beverage companies are most profitable is their bottled water sales.
“If there was a sentiment or a thought to ban bottled water through or on the campus, we would contractually have a challenge with Coke on that, as obviously the contract doesn’t provide for that, they’re trying to sell everything.” Larson said that students who are hoping to ban the sale of plastic water bottles need to recognize the financial consequences of doing so.
“Any of the profits from (the contractual) relationship actually end up going back into the central fund, toward operational expenditures and cost.
So if the plan is to ban bottled water, then it would have that financial impact.” Larson said that ultimately, his office exists to support the wants and needs of UConn’s student community.
“From my perspective is, part of my responsibility is to make sure that we’re offering a proper choice to all of it,” Larson said.

Observing the bottled water as hazardous for human health, the chief justice expressed displeasure on the mineral water companies for extracting the water without paying the amount to government.
During the hearing, Punjab’s law officer informed that the government is considering to fix the cost on extraction by water companies.
During the hearing, the CJ also observed that the owners of water companies are approaching the high-ups for fixing Rs10 cost per litre.
Meanwhile, an audit report regarding Nestle Pakistan was submitted before the bench.
The sold water is 2.515 billion litres while 1.916 billion litre making 46 per cent.
69.46 per bottle provided by WASA, Faisalabad plant.
“The audit team is also seeking cost data from other leading bottled water companies like Pepsi Co, Coca Cola, Sufi, Gourmet and Qureshi etc for comparative analysis of cost of bottled water products.” Analytically that total fixed costs of Nestle Bottled Water business were Rs14.34 billion against total costs of Rs34.288 billion in last five years which ranged from 40per cent to 47per cent of total cost.
The fixed cost appears to on higher side and is a major factor to affect the profitability of Bottled Water business as well as consumer.
The view of audit team is that distributors and retailers margins are very high as compared to Nestle’s earnings and seems unjustified.
Last five years analysis depicts that in 2016 total sales discounts were 183.10per cent of net profit earned, 258.46per cent in 2015 and 347.640 per cent in 2014 which seems excessive and unreasonable.

But despite warnings about single use plastic, busy Londoners are still buying bottled water to quench their thirst before throwing it away, where it can take hundreds of years to degrade.
That’s why the Evening Standard is calling for the end of single use plastic bottles – starting with the Midtown area of our city.
With the Mayor’s commitment to deliver 20 new fountains across London this year, and potentially another 17 in the near future, the Evening Standard are pushing to see more drinking fountains in the Midtown area of the capital to combat plastic waste.
While underground stations are some of the most difficult places to install fountains due to limited space, a spokesperson for City Hall confirmed the Mayor’s interest: “The Mayor wants to work with landowners of areas directly outside Tube stations, and explore wider locations across the transport network like Overground stations and busy bus hubs to find suitable locations for water fountains.” It would also be good to see the historic fountain at Princes Circus made operational.
Campaign groups Water for London and Find a Fountain have been working to get more public fountains on our streets, while the likes of Refill, Tapwater.org and GiveMeTap have focussed on encouraging businesses to provide free tap water.
He says whilst community water schemes at shops such as Pret, Costa, Starbucks and Leon work for some, many still feel “pressurised to buy a cake or a coffee” when filling up.
In the first month the Mayor’s fountains at Liverpool Street station were installed, they dispensed more than 8,000 litres of drinking water, the equivalent to 16,000 water bottles.
The new drinking fountain outside Selfridges’ Duke Street entrance can be used by anyone.
Selfridges reported a 1,780 per cent increase in sales of refillable water bottles compared to the same period in 2014.
If we stop so many plastic bottles ending up in the river, we can make a difference to our oceans too.