Throwback to 2015; my first trip to India and the culture shock upon arrival. Not only was I surprised by the disparities in the country but what struck me the most was the amount of waste piled up in every corner of the streets. (by waste, I mean a major part was plastic and single-use water bottles)
But, why is this ?
Many don’t know this, but, India doesn’t have proper facilities for the disposal of sewage; and a lot of it is pumped into the sea, from where it pollutes our beaches.
Untreated sewage is the leading polluter of water sources in India, causing a host of diseases including diarrhea (killing around 350,000 children a year), agricultural contamination, and environmental degradation.
*water, human urine or solid waste
During my trip, I witnessed many children play with heaps of garbage.
So much waste is on the floors, by the side of the roads, on railway tracks, in rivers, in oceans or burning on the streets. Some, even hidden in heaps, behind guesthouses, far away from the tourist eye.
Can you imagine what it would be like to live there just for one day?
People live with this everyday.
Although, I know a major part of this problem is due to the government; what I didn’t know is that the EU exports around 4.7 million tonnes of waste to India per year. I guess, in a way, we are also “partly” responsible for this. (I did say “partly”).
This trip was definitely filled with eye opening moments.
Knowing this, and having seen this with my own eyes, made me reflect on ways to prevent myself from contributing to this pollution.
Traveling made me realise I spent too much money on plastic bottled water. I cringed every time I had to purchase a bottle at the local shops, but what choice did I have? Where else could I find drinking water?
India has the world’s largest population without access to clean drinking water. It’s not surprising, sales of bottled water have been soaring. Drinking from plastic bottles has become an everyday way of life as more and more people are becoming health conscious. (did you know, almost no plastic bottles gets recycled into new bottles!)
Water is so important for our health and the damages caused to the environment created by single-use plastic bottles is too significant to turn a blind eye; especially when you hear they take 1000 years to biodegrade.
But what can we do to lower our impact on any country we visit?
Avoiding plastic bottled water when travelling seems a challenge; but in actual fact it isn’t. Just think, traveling to a country where you can’t drink the tap water. Say you alone, buy 2L of bottled water everyday. In one month, that’s 60 bottles. Imagine that you are in a place where waste collection and recycling isn’t on top. (this is very often the case in developing countries.) Your bottles are very likely to end up in landfills or worse, in the ocean, where plastic is likely to enter the food chain (fragments swallowed by fish that you find on your plate).
During my long term travels to Africa, I wanted to test out Water To Go‘s filter bottles as I knew clean water would be an issue. I can honestly say that this bottle should become part of your “essential items” on your packing list.
With @watertogo filter bottles you have access to clean drinking water by simply refilling the bottle as many times as you like from anywhere you want. Saves you from carrying those 2 litres with you!
I’ve refilled my bottle from taps, rivers and streams.
You save a fair bit of money over the long-term too by not having to buy disposable bottles and you help the environment by reducing the vast amounts of pollution caused by plastic bottles.
Water To Go, filters all microbiological contaminants in water like metals and chemicals, viruses, bacteria, parasites and provides you with drinkable water. It cleans water as you drink it and removes the taste immediately.
The bottles come in two sizes. The 50CL GO Bottle lasts 2 months (130 liters) and has a small indicator to know when the filter needs to be replaced. The 75CL Bottle lasts 3 months (200 liters).
Each recyclable filter replaces over 400 single-use plastic water bottles.
50cl Go Bottle 
75cl Bottle
For more information, you can visit their website https://www.watertogo.eu and for 15% discount they have kindly given me this code that you can use at checkout “EGGSMILEY15”
N.B. This is my actual honest review of the product.