Author: Frora Istrefi (Page 3 of 8)

Some pet peeves I have when reading online is when the words are so big that It makes the book look longer when it really isn’t . Also I dont like when a book doesn’t have a nice cover and back that is appealing because the book should make me want to read it and also like the book should connect with the cover, for example if its going to talk about a persons life issues that they are going through maybe the author should make the book look dark like a black splash or dark colors with maybe someone crying or someone thinking . A website as well needs to look clean but fun like your website looks really fun and neat and has visual pictures which is a plus and makes someone want to Read what you have to say

Frora Istrefi 10/25/2020

English 1101

First Draft Bibliography

English is always surrounded by literature and the understanding of curiosity. When reading someone else’s story you wonder why someone wrote this, or it can even expand to curiosity and wanting to learn why something happened. When we first had to come up with a question regarding what makes us curious, the one question that popped into my head is “Why do we pay for water, if it’s a basic necessity”. The question really made me think when last summer I went to Europe and had a layover and Switzerland for a day. Since it was a long layover we got a hotel and explored the country and the first thing I noticed was that there were water wells all over and that everyone was filling their bottles. I went into a supermarket and they didn’t sell water only seltzer which I found was so interesting. I asked the women in the store where bottled water is and she looked at me funny and said people never buy water here, we have wells all over Geneva that gives water to the people for no cost, and I was like taken back because it really showed me that if Switzerland can do it, then why can’t we ? In researching for articles and writing my entries I found a lot of articles all the way back from 2015, and 5 years later and people were still talking about it . It actually made me get intrigued into really understanding why we have a water bill and why people need to pay for need , which isn’t a luxury or desire. At the end of the research I really hope to find the answers to my questions and why we have a price on water.

When doing my research I came across an article named “Revealed:millions if Americans can’t afford water as bills raise 80% in a decade “. It was published by The Guardian . This article is more recent but It was very eye opening because it’s only 3 months old . This article also talks about amid the covid cases US cities show emergency affordability of water. We just went through a pandemic and were still facing some challenges and water was a discussion for debate . During the very beginning of the pandemic a lot of people couldn’t file for unemployment because they either didn’t have citizenship or couldn’t because they didn’t qualify. A lot of people were forced to stay home and not work which created a lot of conflict because they had all these bills they needed to pay for and didn’t have the funds to pay for it .”Exclusive analysis of 12 US cities shows the combined price of water and sewage increased by an average of 80% between 2010 and 2018, with more than two-fifths of residents in some cities living in neighbourhoods with unaffordable bills”. This statistic also shows that a lot of cities have been having this problem for a long time, for over 7 years and it’s still something a lot struggle with. Something also that was said was “America’s growing water affordability crisis comes as the Covid-19 pandemic underlines the importance of access to clean water. The research shows that rising bills are not just hurting the poorest but also, increasingly, working Americans.” Even through a pandemic our nation couldn’t make a decision that would help millions. A lot of people have to work over 60 hours a week just to be able to give to their family or pay a bill, they have to over work just to pay a simple bill that means nothing to someone else. Other countries have fresh water available to everyone and you won’t see a homeless person in the street. For example look at Switzerland you have free water and an amazing government that Is for helping the people and giving us our necessities for free. America should open their eyes and maybe mirror other countries and see their techniques or things they did to make water affordable. Another statistic that also was eye opening was “ In Austin, Texas,if prices in the city continue to go up at the current rate, more than four-fifths of low income residents – defined as people living under 200% of the federal poverty line (FPL) – could face unaffordable bills by 2030.” This quote made me realize that it’s not just Texas that will be going 200% under the poverty rate it will be Arizona, New Orleans, Cleaveland that will also drop under that rate and face a crisis . The article also tells us that a truck driver in Cleveland had to borrow from his family to pay his 30,000 water bill. A Lot of people you see nowadays have to borrow money because it’s a lot for one to pay for all the bills and still provide for the families.

The next entry I choose to answer some questions is actually a video from Youtube. It’s called “ STOP PAYING FOR WATER “ and the guy speaking about this issue is named Noyle. This actually was interesting to watch because it has to do with the UK but the same thing applies to the US. He makes excellent points to why we should not be paying for water. The first point he makes is that behind him is a body of water that is free and comes from the seas/river also goes to the clouds and comes back down to the rocks and gets filtered and there you have drinkable water. He goes on to say that Water Companies make over two billion pounds which in dollars is $2,612,000,000. He says that 1.5 billion of that goes to shareholders. He makes a great point and says why are 1.5 going to shareholders if we don’t pay for clouds to produce it which actually makes a lot of sense. Humans are not producing water, we get water from mountains/ rivers and clouds which is nature not man made. In the UK, they pay over 30 pounds just to consume a natural resource, it doesn’t take that much from every person to maintain the sewer and water system. Basically the UK is ripping off their own people. The same thing is happening in the United States, every year more and more water companies raise their prices and come out with “water that has electrolytes” and water that is “more expensive” for what. Water is water , the water you drink from a mountain is the same thing as the $3.00 Essentia water bottle you buy. They make us think that we need to pay for water to maintain a balance of how much water we are using but in reality we know how much water we use a day and a lot of people dont waste water for no reason. It’s the water companies that profit from making water prices higher. He also says that they care more about taxes then their people which is a great thing. America centalizes everything over taxes which is not how you should be looking at it . Nothing is free in America because it either is man made or takes a lot to make , but one thing that we should not be paying for is water. We don’t need to be paying for something that earth provides us with . It’s like saying you need to pay for oxygen when you need that to live. If you go in the City to shop or go to work you see that the homeless rate is increasing and that many ask can you buy me a bottle of water or something to eat. This video raised a lot of interesting perspectives of different viewpoints.

The next Entry that I choose to write about is my favorite and most interesting. It’s called the “The Story Of Bottled Water” published by The story of stuff project. This is a video which is not too long and answered all of my questions. It has over 6 million views and has been noticed by a lot of people. The first thing that she says that the world is entering a system of crisis, she took Cleaveland as an example . In Cleveland a lot of people don’t like drinking tap water because of the taste and because it’s not filtered but that’s actually not true. When Fiji water first came out with their campaign strategy, they used Cleaveland as an example and saying that Fiji is not bottled in Cleveland which made them annoyed and wanted to see the difference between Fiji Water and regular tap water. What they did was run a bunch of tests to see the purity of each water and the results shocked them. A glass of Fiji water is less quality than tap water and costs thousands more to manufacture. The reason for this is because Bottled water is less regulated than the water we get from our kitchen sinks. She made a great point by saying that across the world many people have taste tests and blindfold themself and choose tap water over bottled water. The point she makes is that Water companies make it seem like tap water is terrible so that they can market their water for a price that is reasonable in their eyes. Americans buy over half a billion water bottles a week . Another point that was made was that in the 1970 when companies realized that people started finding soda is terrible for you they came up with a new plan which was seltzer water from the brand Pierre which many drink now .Companies all around started to manufacture demands which basically instills fear into people making them believe that tap water is terrible for you. The first thing they did was use market strategies by using ads /commercials to scare us. The second thing they did was seduce us by having pristine looking bottled water , for example they hide the truth that it’s tap water and put a mountain on their bottle to show the purity of it . When in reality bottled companies like Aquaphina and Dasani are straight tap water. Going back the reason we pay for water is simply because it takes oil to make water bottles and manufacture them as well as shipping them and then people buy them and drink it in 2 minutes and trash it . The truth behind water prices are based on misleading us to believe that we need to pay for water. This is the reason why companies increase water prices every year and more and more people don’t have access to it .

The last entry I chose was an article called “clean water should be a basic human right. Why are we charging so much for it ? This article is by Ben Adler and was published in June 2016. In his article to summarize he makes excellent points as why we are paying for water If its a necessity . He has a lot of factual information and made his article gravitate to a lot of people’s eyes. When reading his article one point that stuck out to me is this quote “The fundamental problem: Municipalities treat water as a pay-as-you-go product, rather than a public good supported through tax revenue, such as police or public schools. But water is not a luxury. It’s a necessity. You can’t just stop drinking or bathing if you lose your job. And yet failure to pay the water bill comes with real consequences: More than 33,000 Detroit water accounts were cut off in 2014, for example.” This point that he makes is excellent because he also goes on including a chart showing how much the nation increased the prices for water. He shows that electricity and gas stayed stagnant while water shot up. He also questions why the nation can’t regulate water instead of making us pay for water, it’s not like its a luxury, its something we need, he makes a point by saying that a lot of families have other bills to worry about , a water bill is not important , we have families to feed and Cars that need gas . The United Nations also told congress that they need to adopt a national affordability for water for all houses doesn’t matter if they are low income or not, congress disregarded that information and did nothing . Something also that makes me very curious is another thing he says “The committee also calls for adopting water access as a human right in federal law, which would force local governments to create water access for the homeless at clinics or other public facilities. (There are more than 500,000 homeless Americans, and most of them lack reliable access to clean water and sanitation.) Again, Congress has failed to even consider such action — although a new coalition of environmental justice groups plans to push for federal policy along those lines.” This point also makes you think if other levels of power are saying these things and congress is disregarding it why doesn’t someone say something . They are saying that it’s a basic right and everyone has access but that’s not the truth because that’s not happening . For example if you go to New York City the homeless rate is actually skyrocketing you will see a homeless person on every block almost or mostly they will ask you to buy them water which is always the case . These people are not homeless because of choice; it’s usually the case that they get evicted or have nowhere to stay so the streets are the only place they can stay. Water though and food is something that has cause a big issue all around the United States, its 2020 he says and were encountering the same problems all over again each year, he makes a point by saying that we need to sit down as a nation and mirror countries that have free drinking water available and see what techniques they use to make that possible which is one of the smartest ideas someone of power can do.

From researching I found a lot of answers to my questions , I saw videos and read articles to educate myself in why we are facing this issue. From all of the entries all have the same idea and same concept of why water shouldnt have a price on it. It was interesting to see statistics and watch videos that showed a detailed explanation and made points that were intriguing. The most important thing I learned from this research is the thought process of the minds of water companies. The video from the Stuff Project was a great video with so much information and was so clear in what goes behind these water companies objectives and how an why certain things are done. This research definitely deepened my understanding and really educated me on the basis and other people’s viewpoints. The audience that should really know about this people with power , people that are governors and presidents and committees that sit down and discuss issues should open a book and educate them self the same way I did and come up with something to do because once people go under that 200% poverty rate their will be no turning back.

Reviewers Memo

1. In my bibliography I wrote about why do we need to pay for water if its a basic necessity
2. I think so far Im doing good and had 4 really good entries but I have to fix some grammar and punctuational things and just revise my conclusion
3. Do you think that the 4 entries flow all together and also do you like how I started my introduction??

The article I choose is called ” We shouldn’t have to pay for water , twice ” this article is written by Emrich. He published this in April 17,2014. He talks about how so many families he see struggle with the large water bill at the end of the month and all have to pay a hefty price of 300 or more dollars a month. He makes a great point by going on and saying that we basically pay twice. “A standing charge will have to be paid even if the household uses no water,” he said. “Water is a basic human right and should not be charged for or privatised. The Government says it must charge for water to maintain the infrastructure but we already pay for this through general taxation. We shouldn’t have to pay twice.” This.is a point that I didn’t get from any of the other articles, he says that we pay so many taxes that half our salaries go to taxes , they take up to 5,000 from our salaries, that is just a rough estimate but that’s just salary and then minus the bills and taxes we pay evert year which leaves us with nothing . In a general way doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor , no one has to pay for water because its a necessity its not a luxury, fresh water that comes from nature and runs through the mountains is free, its not man made, workers are not being paid to  make it. He also makes a great point that our government doesn’t listen to the people and that he recommends that estates and families raise light to this issue.