Boiling Point!

A glass of filtered water right, looks clear and clean next to a
glass of turbid tap water in North Vancouver Friday
November 17, 2006. (CP / Chuck Stoody)

"Vancouver has entered its third straight day living under a boil-water advisory, with just under 1 million residents still subject to strict warnings about tap water consumption.

Advisories were lifted Friday in much of the surrounding area, but about 900,000 people living in Vancouver, the North Shore and Burnaby were still being advised to boil all tap water before drinking it as of Saturday morning."

Here I am, one of the 900,000 residents still boiling water in Vancouver. It's amazing to see the impact that contaminated water can have on a city, and it's amazing the length of time it takes to put together a meal without access to good clean water... boiling water, cooling it down, just to wash some lettuce...and that 's just the start - preparing any food , or drink is quite a process now...not to mention cleaning up - washing dishes and wiping counters with bleach water.
Not only that, there were 90,000 people without power as well, and restricted from their homes because of landslide warnings, etc. Thankfully we have not been affected by that. But I just can't imagine what it would be like to have a family in these kind of conditions.

Although our water "suffering" (if you can call it that) has been only 3 days, it has forced my mind to think of others around the world that struggle with this every day. And yet, I have the luxury of electricity to boil water, and the ability to purchase bottled water...although almost every store has sold out of it here - amazing.
I realized the "deep" impact on Vancouver when Starbuck's and Tim Horton's had to close their doors to a bunch of frenzied caffeine addicts. I was still able to support my habit through Continental coffee (and their copious amounts of bottled water) as well as by the good ol' fashioned way, of brewing my own.

I love my bodum!