BBC PANORAMA: WAR AND WA(TE)R

Last night’s BBC Panorama programme was one of the most confused compilations of unrelated stories ever broadcast. War was the main theme, with hospital superbugs and bottled water curiously interspersed. One moment bottled water was evidently refreshing British troops in Afghanistan, then it was being criticised for its environmental impact. Afterwards, the BBC devoted an hour to the environmental impact of floods in Britain last summer, acknowledging how bottled water had made life bearable for hundreds of thousands whose tap water supplies had become contaminated or cut off. The BBC had nothing really new to offer in the bottled water debate. Objectivity would have been improved if it had used the latest market statistics. It chose to use weak April figures because of colder weather, when May sales were much higher because of hotter weather. I guess that didn’t suit its argument. It concluded with the cost savings of a local Council, my own in fact, from no longer buying bottled water. But most Councils and Government departments seem to be paying extra on expensive filters for their tap water. The Houses of Parliament decided to retain bottled water because water jugs and glasses cost far more to serve, replenish and clean. War and water need more care.