Oh Yeah! Bottle My Water Baby

I grew up in Ankara. Capital of Turkey, with the population of roughly 5 million people.
It’s not by the seaside. It’s not the most unique or beautiful city, but I loved growing up there.

By the time I was 6 we moved into this awesome gated community next to METU. It was filled with professors. Long story short, it was awesome.

Ok so, I only lived in Ankara and Istanbul in Turkey, and spent my summers in Bodrum and Antalya. We NEVER drink tap water in the big cities. We can’t. It’s not safe nor is it clean.

Our gated community had clean tap water, at least that was what they told us. I got really sick and it turned out it was from tap water. We stopped drinking it. After that, anytime I drink tap water I get sick.

We don’t buy bottled waters for our houses in Turkey, we buy them in carboys. Also, 17 oz bottle of water costs around 25¢, maybe less.

People get really agitated with bottled water here in the US. It freaks me out. You can’t expect someone in their 20s who grew up scared of getting sick from tap water to just automatically start drinking tap water. The thing is you did not grow up in a developing country. Tap water smells and it tastes like.. sickness, wherever you are.. I’m serious. (I kinda feel like I’m over reacting, Eren drinks tap water both in Turkey and in SF, so the issues are probably a bit personal)

But, not finished yet. Listen to this. A few years back there was a drought in Ankara. They started shutting of the waters every other day. People were freaked out. At this time I lived in Istanbul. So, anyways, Melih Gokcek, who I find to be an utter failure, decided to merge Kizilirmak into the cities main water pipes. He did this without telling any of the residents.

People bathed in that water, drank the water. After almost a month he came out and told the people that river water was mixed into the main water supply. Mind you that people were getting sick -nothing deadly but violent diarrhea seams pretty serious to me-. It was then that we learned the river had elevated levels of arsenic. I got sick by just taking showers in the water.

That should be enough for me to have a freaking phobia.

So, please stop giving me that disapproving look when you see me buying bottled water. I’m not being smug. STFU and mind your own business dammit. Also, bottled water does not suck. It is awesome. Live with it. It becomes very annoying when you go on about how horrible bottled water is. It saves lives.