That's sad, I think sometimes it's easy to forget how precious water is, thanks for the reminder.

Very true Emik. In USA we could drink out of any stream just a little over 100 years ago. Now we can drink from no streams at all. In the 60s I drank from high mountain streams, cold clear water. Now if you do it will make you sick. Very sad indeed.

I just think it's hysterical that Coke and Pepsi et al have somehow convinced us that we need to pay for the most plentiful element on the planet. I'm with you, cabldawg, I used to drink from those streams too, but now you'll get Giardia. However, even with all the problems, the US still has the cleanest water on the planet. If you drink from the tap, you'd be fine. But now we're supposed to waste our money on Coke and Pepsi's tap water - in court they both had to admit (Aquifina and Dasani brand) that there's nothing "special" about their water - they just got it from the factories' taps.