Hello again! Sorry for the late post! I must say that I’ve become a lot more environmentally conscious after coming to France, especially with recycling. I’ve been participating in AUP Green (the university’s environment club)’s club meeting recently and learning a lot of sustainability in France. From what I’ve learned so far, half of Paris’ drinking water comes from the Seine and Marne, which is really surprising because I’ve always thought that the Seine is heavily polluted judging by the color of the water. I’m on vacation in Crete right now, and we drove pass a spring today where the water is directly drinkable. The tour guide also told us that in the past people from the village used to do their laundry directly by the spring. I can’t recall the last time I’ve seen a spring like this and it made me realize how I’ve taken clean drinking water for granted because normally it’s really hard to find unfiltered drinkable water.
I’m also surprised that the Seine supplies drinking water! I wonder what the differences are between filtered tap water in Paris and the spring water in Crete– do they taste different? Do they have different mineral content? How do they compare to bottled water? I’ve thought a lot about how disconnected we are from food production, but not at all about water resources. Drinking water in Boston comes mainly from two reservoirs in central Mass, over 40 miles outside of the city. It’s interesting to see the aquifers that tell the story of ancient water infrastructure in Europe. I wonder how attitudes towards water differ between Europe and the US.