The sad return of bottled water

Water shortages are continuing to disrupt people’s daily lives. All throughout Ireland, but especially in Dublin, our clapped out water infrastructure has finally wheezed a sigh of relief and kicked the bucket.

On holidays in Croatia a few years ago, a friend’s father gave us his gorgeous island home while he went on holidays. Not before issuing a strict warning: use water carefully, as their tank contained nothing but  rainwater harvested during the year. Within two days, it was gone, and we spent the remainder of the week walking half a mile down to the sea and filling buckets, before dragging them back up a steep hill in the scorching heat. When we discovered that one of our eejit friends had unplugged the water pump and spent the week charging his phone, our relief was tempered with severe beatings.

It gave us a small taste of the difficulty many people across the world face in securing something we in Ireland take so much for granted. This week in Ireland, people have become accustomed to queuing at water tankers. Others are collecting water in barrels or buckets for washing up or flushing the toilet; this handy website tells you everything you need to know about harvesting water.

In the meantime, we still need to drink, so we reluctantly return to bottled water again. It’s like the Celtic Tiger, but stripped off all the fun parts. A Wicklow friend tells me that some local shops have been hiking the price of their bottled water. Here’s some cheaper suggestions:

• Some garages sell a one litre bottle for just €1, simply labelled “The Water.” I presume it’s nothing more than filtered tap water, but it does the job.
• Dunnes had a special deal on Ballygowan but it may have expired now.
• SuperValu are selling12 x 500ml bottles of Kerry Spring half-price, for €3.50

I’ve been using the lack of water as an excuse to drink fizzy water from Spar.

How are you getting by, and have you seen any good deals on bottled water?