Not all bottled water is created equal: the hidden dangers in South Africa’s drinking water.
A bottle of water should be the simplest thing in the world. Clear. Clean. Safe. But after spending two days inside Thirsti’s bottling plant in Tulbagh with the South African National Bottled Water Association (SANBWA), one uncomfortable truth became impossible to ignore: not all water sold to South Africans is created equal.
South Africans are living through a strange contradiction. We are buying more bottled and filtered water than ever before because trust in municipal water systems is slipping.
In a country already battling crumbling infrastructure, water shortages and growing fears around contamination, what we put into our bodies matters more than most people realise.
What looks like a harmless refill station at your local shop or a cheap container of water could actually be part of a much bigger, unregulated problem.
