“Two dollars a litre for water says I.
I thought water was free as it fell from the sky”.
“That’s much dearer than petrol or diesel”, I said
“no wonder folks prefer to drink beer instead”.
“This water’s fresh sir, from an underground spring,
it has minerals and salts it has everything
It is best for human consumption they say
and each person should drink three litres a day.”
“Three litres a day,” said I as I frowned.
“If I drank three litres I’d surely be drowned
So if a family of six drink three litres a day
how can a man afford all that money to pay”
I was so stunned that I barely could speak.
“That’s one hundred and twenty six dollars a week
which is more than six thousand dollars a year,
we really can not afford to drink water I fear”
“But sir, the water itself cost only five cents
the containers though are quite an expense
Then marketing, freight, and also impost
is the hidden outlay that drives up the cost”.
“When bottles are empty, asked I, where do they go?”
And he freely admitted that he didn’t know.
“It didn’t matter,” said he and why should he care,
he supposed they could end up just anywhere.
He was right; anywhere’s the place things seem to go
when disposed of, and there’s few who want to know
or care about earth and our world wide pollution
So there’s an urgent need now to find a solution.
Seven litres of water it takes to make one bottle I fear
and three million tons of plastic we are using each year
Just ten per cent is recycled and that’s not enough;
Is there no way to safely dispose of this stuff?
Some is dumped in the ocean, or for filling in land
It’s microscopic pollution, folks don’t understand
It will choke fish and dolphins, get in the food chain.
it’s noxious to humans and could damage our brain.
Ban plastic bottles I say let’s not make any more,
go back the waterbags that we used before.
When it is empty, fill it time and time again
from your kitchen tap or a tank-full of rain.
© John Hayes