Nakiya Wakes, who lives in Flint, refuses to pay for the water supply that made her family sick.
“I refuse to pay for poison,” she told me.
Because she owes $1,983.59 to the city of Flint in unpaid water bills, the city cut off her water supply last month.
The state has shut a number of free bottled water pick up sites in Flint – or PODs as they’re known here locally.
Nakiya and her son begin to pour bottle after bottle of Nestle water into the cistern of their toilet.
“It takes two cases of bottled water for just one flush,” Nakiya tells me.
And instead of the ‘fix’ for Flint promised by visiting politicians, Nakiya and her fellow residents now face the final indignity.
I get it that the city needs money – but the state should be paying.
They did this.” Despite repeated requests, the City of Flint has been unable to confirm the exact number of homes where the water has been shut off.
Melissa’s work that I filmed back then [and that of fellow resident Leanne Walters] was crucial in rallying Flint residents to conduct a citywide lead tests with the help of professor Marc Edwards at Virginia Tech university.

That’s what triggered the process of designing the rOcean.
The rOcean is your key to not buying and throwing 52 plastic bottles away per year.
Not just a water filter, but also a carbonator with the ability to flavor, the rOcean gives you pristine still water, flavored electrolytic water, or fizzy sparkling water, depending on exactly how you want it.
Water is free and always should be, so think twice before you shell out a big buck for that sparkling water you love so much, or multiple small bucks (is that a thing?)
for the regular mineral water you drink to stay hydrated.
Its carbonation unit fizzes up the water inside the device, rather than building pressure within your drinking bottle.
This means you can use any sort of bottle you want with the rOcean or even drink sparkling water from a glass.
Sported on the front of the rOcean is a UI that’s incredibly universal and user-friendly.
To make sure the experience remains streamlined even in the long-term, the rOcean can even auto-order carbonation cylinders, or filter replacements the minute they finish, so the only time you lift a muscle is to drink a glass of refreshing and tasty water you’ve been served!
Designer: rOcean

McGill announced that it will begin phasing out the sale of single-use plastic water bottles from all food locations and vending machines on campus, with the goal of completely removing them by May 2019.
This initiative was the result of consultations between the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), the Post Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS), the MacDonald Campus Students’ Society (MCSS), and student stakeholders in November 2017.
Shortly after the ban was announced, the SSMU Environment Committee passed a new Sustainability Policy on March 29 to outline how it will help student clubs and organizations obtain alternative sources of drinking water for their events.
He predicts that the ban will help fulfill McGill’s Vision 2020 Climate and Sustainability Action Plan by lowering the university’s carbon footprint significantly, as each bottle is manufactured and transported using fossil fuels.
Dr. Joe Schwarcz, director of McGill’s Office for Science and Society, believes that the university has taken an environmentally responsible step as he explained the process of manufacturing bottled water.
“The university does not benefit from it, society does.
Transporting water is an expensive business because [water] is heavy.
Also, depending on where the water is taken from, you are disrupting the aquifers.
The University of Winnipeg was the first to ban plastic bottles from its campus in 2009.
He cited schools like Washington University in St. Louis, where banning single-use plastic water bottles instead lead to lower soda sales.

Was Dasani bottled water recalled due to parasite?
No, this is an old rumor that has resurfaced again.
Coca-Cola, Food and Drug Administration, University of Maryland Professor of Entomology: Michael Raupp, Central Florida Aquarium Society
A creepy story spreading about parasites popping up in water bottles is freaking people out online, including one of our Verify viewer from Damascus that reached out to the Verify team.
The website "News KTLA” first shared the story back in 2016.
When we took a closer look at the site it’s a lot of fear based headlines but not a lot of facts.
So much so, that Dasani’s parent company Coca-Cola got involved shutting down the bogus rumors from the hoax news source website and urged people to drink up and “share the facts”.
Now that the rumor has resurfaced again, Coca-Cola responded to customers via Twitter in March 2018 saying “We want you to know Dasani is safe to drink.
WUSA9 researchers verified water bottles have not been recalled due to parasite contamination.
As for parasites, being able to enter water bottled, when asked if that is something that occurs, University of Maryland Professor of Entomology, Michael Raupp, told WUSA9 researchers he never heard of such that happening.

PFAS chemicals has been found in a well that serves the Rutland Airport Business Park in Clarendon, affecting several businesses including the Vermont Country Store.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, PFAS are a group of man-made chemicals that include PFOA and PFOS.
Walke said 10 wells were tested in and around the Rutland-Southern Vermont Regional Airport.
Vermont maintains one of the strictest limits for PFOA and PFOS in drinking water at 20 parts per trillion.
Levels close to that limit and slightly above it were found in two wells that serve a single water system.
The well with levels above 20 parts per trillion provides water to six businesses at the business park including the Vermont Country Store.
The affected businesses were notified and bottled water was provided for employees.
Rick Gile, president of the Rutland Airport Business Park Association, said all the affected tenants received notification of the state’s findings as well as information about health hazards through a flier that could be provided to all employees.
Gile said he believed most tenants were using water for cooling equipment or providing water to staff, but Vermont Country Store operates an on-site bakery.
Gile said he believed the state’s involvement in the contamination in North Bennington and Bennington allowed them to respond as quickly and efficiently as they had in Clarendon.

One-thousand-four-hundred-and-vforty days.
As of Tuesday, it has been 1,440 days since the residents of Flint, Mich., have had clean, safe water traveling through their pipes.
In exactly three weeks, we will hit the four-year mark since the lead-contaminated-water crisis started.
While the water may no longer be coming out of the Flint River, it is still not completely safe in homes and throughout the city—including in the Flint Community Schools.
MLive reports that what is expected to be the last round of state-sponsored testing for lead in water in school buildings was conducted last month, and according to the results published by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, more than 4 percent of the water samples collected had elevated levels of lead.
At the same time, the state will soon decide whether to continue free bottled-water distribution throughout the city of Flint.
Fortunately, Flint Community Schools has separate agreements with companies to cover the supply of bottled water for its campuses through the end of the school year.
While each of the 10 buildings in the school district had at least one instance of water with at least 15 parts per billion of lead, one elementary school has continued to register high at multiple test sites—including three samples that registered at more than 100 ppb of lead, which is more than six times the federal action limit.
Flint Mayor Karen Weaver believes the bottled-water distribution should be continued until all lead and galvanized service lines have been removed in the city, something MLive reports could take the next two construction seasons to complete.
According to a previous report by MLive, the state spends an average of $22,000 per day providing bottled-water delivery in the city of Flint.

The eco-friendly water filtration systems company Soma and the organization Parley for the Oceans have teamed up to create a limited edition product designed especially for Starbucks.
They recently announced the debut of their reusable water bottle with a sleeve made out of Parley Ocean Plastic – a material created from upcycled marine plastic waste.
Moreover, a portion of every sale will go to support initiatives of the Parley Ocean Plastic Program and implementation of the Parley AIR Strategy which calls to “Avoid plastic wherever possible, Intercept plastic waste, Redesign your life.” “Soma is excited to partner with Parley and Starbucks to support this movement to create change.
Parley for the Oceans is a global network aiming to raise awareness of the plastic pollution crisis and collaborate on solutions that will curb our use of plastics and help the oceans.
Its Parley Ocean Plastic is a range of materials created from plastic waste intercepted from the oceans, shorelines, and in coastal communities.
We all have a role to play.
This bottle is another reminder of that fact and the beginning of a new collaboration in the movement for solutions.” This is amazing news considering the extent of our current plastic crisis.
If we want to protect the ocean, its many inhabitants, and ourselves from the negative ramifications of plastic waste, we all need to participate in the effort to crush plastic.
To find out how you can help the planet in your everyday life by using less disposable plastics, check out One Green Planet’s #CrushPlastic campaign!
Image source: Soma Water/Facebook

Leading companies operating in the bottled water market are PepsiCo Inc, Nestle Waters, The Coca Cola Company, Groupe Danone, and Mountain Valley Spring Company LLC.
The still bottled water segment is estimated to account for 78% of the market by 2024.
The growing number of health conscious consumers worldwide will be a chief driver for the growth of this segment.
Heightened Sense of Hygienic Consciousness among Consumers to Drive Demand The growing number of educated and health conscious people across the globe is increasing and this is creating a heightened demand for hygienic food and drinks.
As the demand for clean and hygienic water is increasing, the demand for bottled water will also increase.
The growing demand for convenient, safe, healthy, and refreshing drinks from health conscious consumers will continue to drive the growth prospects of the global bottled water market.
Adverse Health Effects of Carbonated Drinks to Hamper Demand There has been a decline in the sales of carbonated soft drinks from a couple of decades on account of adverse health effects.
Health concerns regarding consumption of additives and high concentrated sugars will deter the consumers from consuming carbonated and flavored bottled drinks.
On the other hand, the global increase in the disposable income and improved standards of people in emerging nations of Latin America, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa will drive the growth of this market.
Stringent government policies and strict laws regarding the disposal of the bottles have led to negative publicity and affecting the bottled water market.

FLINT, MI — More than 4 percent of water samples collected in the final round of testing at Flint Community Schools’ buildings had elevated levels of lead, according to reports published online by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
The third round of testing, carried out throughout last month, is expected to be the last state-sponsored testing in school buildings — at least before a decision is made by the state on whether to continue providing free bottled water for distribution throughout the city.
FCS has its own agreement with private companies, including Walmart, to supply bottled water to students until at least the end of the current school year.
But after that, students will be in the same position as residents throughout the city — waiting for the state to finish its review of the overall quality of Flint water before making a decision on future bottled water funding.
The review started after the third round of school testing was completed, and Tiffany Brown, a DEQ spokeswoman, said she had no additional information on the testing or the future of bottled water supplied by the state.
The final tests in the city’s public school buildings showed at least one instance of water with at least 15 parts per billion of lead in each of the 10 buildings.
Doyle Ryder Elementary School continued to register high lead at multiple test sites — six in the last round of testing — and also had three samples that registered more than 100 ppb of lead, more than six times the federal action limit.
Flint Mayor Karen Weaver has said bottled water should be supplied to residents until all lead and galvanized service lines are removed, a job that could take the next two construction seasons.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has warned of the potential for large-scale releases of lead in the city’s water system during such extensive underground excavating.
MLive-The Flint Journal could not immediately reach Kristin Moore, a spokeswoman for Weaver, for comment.

Among those affected were between 6,000 to 12,000 children, who are particularly susceptible to the irreversible effects.
In Faizullah’s “I Told the Water,” she examines how water is both essential to life and often overlooked.
“Even if you consume something like water, you have no idea necessarily what its contents are or what [it] is going to do to you.” In April 2014, city officials switched the source of Flint’s water supply from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department over to the Flint River to cut costs.
Due to improper water treatment and natural corrosion from old pipes , Flint’s water supply was exposed to heavy levels of lead contamination.
It’s been four years since Flint’s crisis began, and some residents still live without access to potable water, and the water at some schools still tests above the federal threshold some of the time.
To provide students and others bottled water, the state of Michigan currently shells out $22,000 a day.
Faizullah, a second-generation Bangladeshi, said her interest in water and the allocation of essential resources is “obsessive,” and draws inspiration from Bangladesh’s own struggle with water.
Millions are currently water insecure, and research conducted by World Bank predicts that climate change will decrease the country’s already scarce clean water supply.
“I Told the Water,” from Registers of Illuminated Villages, copyright © 2018 by Tarfia Faizullah.
Her second book is Registers of Illuminated Villages (Graywolf Press, 2018).