In the drinking water project I prepared for an international environmental conference at the level of high school students, I addressed the problems in the use of tap water in Istanbul. When I realized that this issue had various dimensions, I decided to focus on it and advance it as a social responsibility project.
Access to clean drinking water has become costly but of poor quality, especially in metropolitan areas. Distrust of tap water has led a large part of the population to seek alternative methods.
Although the institutions supplying water to metropolitan areas and many experts claim that municipal water is safe, there is no strong will to address public concerns.
Although municipal water is safe enough, hygiene problems in drinking water pipes and water tanks in buildings deteriorate the quality of water.
Those who do not want to use municipal water as drinking water prefer packaged water or use domestic purification devices.
However, there are serious problems with the safety of packaged water and the quality of household treatment devices.
The packaged water sector is a large sector and thousands of people work in this sector. Packaged water producers have not only grown domestically but have also reached a position to export abroad.
There are major hygiene problems from the production stage of packaged water to the distribution, storage and sales stages. Analyses are not transparent, many companies do not even see the need to publish their analyzes, and public institutions do not publish the results of their inspections. In this regard, both packaged water companies should have their own internal audits and public institutions should have strict audits and all results should be shared with the public.
Another problem is the sale and use of unqualified domestic treatment devices.There are no local standards and supervision in this regard.On the contrary, consumers are deceived about some international standards.Sales are made in brands and standards that do not exist.The majority of the products sold most in online marketplaces do not have any standards. It is not clear where, under what conditions and according to which standards the filters and similar equipment of the devices are produced. It is surprising that such a sensitive issue such as drinking water is acted so easily.
In short, our people, who have been left uninformed and helpless about the use of tap water, have also been left alone in terms of packaged water and domestic purification devices.
My aim is to inform the masses about all these issues, to contribute to the establishment of the necessary control mechanisms by establishing a bridge between consumers, producers and public institutions, and to ensure that the public has access to clean drinking water in the most economical and healthiest conditions.