#34 – The Expat Files: Bottled Water, Water Purification, and Living in Latin America

Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.

[00:11] Hi everybody, I'm Johnny Mueller, and you're listening to The Expat Files, living in Latin America, the one-of-a-kind show that tells you what it's like to live, work, play and or retire in Latin America, so let's get started. Well in response to last week's program, when I talked a little bit about purifying your own water down here, which is highly recommended, well now I'm going to go into a little more detail on the topic of water, which is really important down here, because down here is a prelude to what's going to happen in a few years, if not right now, to the water supplies for you guys up in the first world. And don't forget if you email me, theexpatfiles at gmail.com, I'll send you a detailed description of my own water purification system, which I guarantee will give you more pure water

[00:59] than anything you have right now, and it's definitely much superior to any bottle water you can get anywhere, and I can prove it. But first, I want to talk about the bottle water industry down here in Latin America, because it's doing a huge business, and there are dozens and dozens of companies, and as you go from country to country down here, you'll notice that there's all different kinds of brands and bottle sizes. And what you'll notice many times, is that if you look closely on almost all of these bottles, well, there'll always be some industrial or governmental seal of approval, saying that this bottle water has been certified and tested by some agency or other, trying to assure you, the buyer, that this water is absolutely pure and sanitary. Now, if you've been listening to any of my past programs, you'll know that I repeatedly

[01:46] mentioned that down here in the third world, governments have pretty much passed all the rules and regulations that you find up in the first world, including every environmental and health and safety law you can think of. And they even have buildings staffed with people that are supposed to be responsible for enforcing these various laws. But don't let a big building, a staff of people, and a big fleet of vehicles fool you. They could care less about enforcing those laws, much less actually go out in the field and do some inspections. And if you've heard the stories about how bottled water in the first world isn't at all what it's cracked up to be, well, now imagine how they do things down here in the third world where there's practically no oversight and they're always in crisis mode. So if you pick up some bottled water here down in the third world and you're dumb enough

[02:34] to believe that that seal of approval on the back actually means they've got some kind of quality control going, well, then you deserve to drink that crap. But wait a minute, you say, there are some bottled water companies down here whose seals of approval are actually some of the same ones they put on bottled water up in the first world. So what's up with that? Well, if you see one of those familiar labels on a bottle like NSF certified or IBWA certified and they're in English, no less, standing right alongside those worthless Spanish seals of approval, which of course look nice, but don't mean anything. And better yet, a lot of the bottles will have a toll free 800 or 900 number you can call if you want to ask a question or logic complaint. So being the diligent expat that I am, I tried it and the first two numbers I called on the

[03:24] first two bottles didn't even connect. But I did connect with the number on the third bottle. And I asked a lady in Spanish, of course, if she got many phone calls on that number. And when she couldn't answer that or any more of my questions, she referred me to their website where they did have a contact us link. And when I tried to send a little note, I got an error message so it never got through. So much for customer service, huh? And you know what? I got the feeling that the lady who answered that phone, well, it wasn't her regular job because she knew almost nothing about the company she worked for. And stranger yet, I lay you odds that if you call that 800 number you have on your bottle up in the first world, chances are your customer service rep is down in Nicaragua working at a call center. Talk about ironies.

[04:11] Anyway, down here, nobody's mining the store. And actually then NSF and IBWA certification, which are bonafide first world water testing organizations with pretty high standards. Well anyway, the bottled water companies here down in the third world might even have had their water tested up in the first world. And they paid a big fee to get their water analyzed so they could carry that label. Actually that's good marketing to have a seal of approval from a first world testing organization on your bottled water down here. But just remember, to get a seal of approval like that, all you really have to do is send in a very pure water sample and pay your money to get it analyzed. And after they send you those nice lab results, you can go ahead and advertise how great your water is by putting that seal of approval on every bottle from then on.

[05:00] But after you get that approval, well, who do you think is monitoring that water down in Panama, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Argentina, or in any one of those water bottling plants? Well, it's all up to the guys in charge down at each one of these individual plants. And believe me, I've taken a walk through some of these plants. And in most cases, I wouldn't use that water to wash my car, much less drink it. So don't think even a first world seal of approval means anything down here. Forget about it. And another thing I wanted to mention, you remember in a past show when I mentioned just how hot the sun is down here, and that we all know now that there's a huge problem when sunlight hits a plastic bottle that has pure water in it, and that after some exposure

[05:45] to the sun, molecules of plastic leach into the water and now you're drinking carcinogens. Well down here in Latin America, you can multiply that problem by 10 or even 100. And no, in some cases, you might think you're absolutely safe from that effect, especially when you buy your bottled water in a nice, cool, shaded, dimly-litch supermarket. Well don't be fooled because you're far from safe. Because I can tell you right now, when these big bottled water delivery trucks pull up early in the morning to make a delivery at one of these grocery stores, they stack dozens, even hundreds of plastic bottles outside the loading docks, sometimes being blasted by the harsh tropical sun for up to a half a day before they ever bother to bring it inside. And that's true for neighborhood bottled water deliveries too.

[06:31] In fact, every expat down here can tell you about the giant fleets of bottled water trucks, making their daily deliveries of tens of thousands of five-gallon water jugs and delivering that questionable stuff and picking up empties as they go door-to-door in business districts and residential areas all throughout the cities of Latin America. So what you see at certain times of the day as you drive around are blue-tinted five-gallon bottles, glistening in the sun, stacked on porches as far as the eye can see. In fact, it might remind you of the milkman route back in your grandpa's day, when the truck used to come around, drop a few bottles off on the porch, and pick up the empties. But at least in those days, the milk came in glass bottles. So the bottom line is down here, even the water that's delivered to your house has

[07:19] been exposed to sunlight for who knows how many hours a day. Not to mention the fact that all the trucks are wide open on both ends, and as they drive around delivering that water, those bottles are also getting soaked with sun. So if someone offers you a nice glass of bottled water, or you buy bottled water from a restaurant or a grocery store, aside from the fact that it's definitely not as pure as you think, remember it's quite likely that it's saturated with styrene particles, which are known carcinogens, and that's from sitting in the sun for hours and hours way before it ever got to you. And there's one more thing I forgot to mention. When I visited a few of these bottled water plants down here, I couldn't help but notice thousands and thousands of pallets full of bottled water in plastic jugs sitting out

[08:06] in the direct tropical sunlight out on the loading docks. And I asked one of the guys on the fork trucks how long those bottles sit there before they get loaded onto a truck or a train car. And he said they usually don't end up out there for more than a week. Now that's good news. So imagine right now they're telling us up in the first world that we should never let our water in a plastic bottle sit out in the sun, and they're saying any exposure for any length of time is not good at all. Now tell me, what good does that do if your water was sitting out for a whole week in the sun before you ever bought the bottle? Okay I hope I scared you a bit with that, cause I meant to. But you know, down in Latin America, people have not yet at all caught on to the fact that bottled water is no good either.

[08:52] In fact, if I'm ever with a group of Latins and I happen to bring it up, or they notice the fact that I bring my own bottled water along with me instead of let's say ordering bottled water at a restaurant, well they usually don't ask me why I'm doing it, but they do look at me like I'm strange, or at least they think I'm a mighty cheap S.O.B. They look at me kind of like they look at a guy who brings his own bottle of wine to a restaurant. Which is pretty tacky huh? But I don't care, the thing is, I gave up a long time ago trying to explain to the people down here, even the educated ones, that bottled water is just no good. Because every time I did, I just get that glazed eye look. But you know, investigating the water situation down here, I came across a very strange irony. As if Latin America isn't full of ironies.

[09:40] Well anyway, I discovered one more. It seems that somehow, some of the poorest of the poor people down here have access to really pure, high quality drinking water. In fact, much better than any of the water that comes out of the tap, or from the bottled water companies. So how did that happen, and what's that all about? Well thanks to a bunch of first world do-gooders, and the United Nations, millions of people down here, who live on less than $2 a day, have their very own first world designed, high tech portable, purification units. And they either got them donated for free, or they were priced so low, even these people could afford them. What I mean to say is, these days, all throughout Latin America, in the small backward towns

[10:26] out in the sticks, where most people are so poor, they don't even have running water. In fact, these are people who usually haul their water from a river or a lake, or get it from a town spigot in a central park. That's how poor they are. Well anyway, about five years ago, up in the first world, the United Nations, along with some non-profit charity organizations, jumped on the bandwagon to try to get some cheap and easy solutions to the polluted water problem within these very poor communities, where mostly indigenous people lived, so they never could afford a fancy municipal water purification system, much less bottled water. So anyway, some scientists and non-profit groups up in the first world, came up with a great solution. And now, if you go to any one of these small little towns, you're bound to see a lot of

[11:15] white plastic, five gallon paint buckets everywhere. Only they all have a little water spigot at the bottom end. Other than that, they just look like five gallon paint buckets. And if you look at one up close, that's just what it is. And if you lift up the cover, you'll notice that inside, there's a little domed ceramic half circle that looks like a softball cut in half. And that thing is a special high-tech ceramic water filter, which filters water down to less than a micron, which means it filters out dust particles and organic material down to one thousandth of a millimeter. And if you remember your fourth grade math, which you probably don't, there's 25.4 millimeters to an inch. So filtering down to less than a micron will provide better water quality than any municipal

[12:05] water system in the first world. And this little domed ceramic filter is also impregnated with ionic silver, which kills off any bacteria that might be lingering around as the filter gets used and picks up organic material. And this little filter can last years and years and years, producing thousands and thousands of gallons of pure water. That is, as long as you do a little maintenance every three months. And all that entails is cleaning the outside of that ceramic piece with a stiff plastic brush, because it's going to get loaded with dirt, grime, and organic material. Because that's the inlet for the dirty water. And as far as that maintenance issue, like I said a hundred times, latins are not good at maintenance. In fact, it doesn't exist in their vocabulary.

[12:50] However, in this case, they're actually reminded that they have to do maintenance, because if they don't and they skip it, the water will eventually slow to a trickle and then stop. Now, if that's not an incentive to do routine maintenance, I don't know what is. So you either do the routine maintenance or you go back to drinking river water. And the real beauty of this system is that it's gravity operated. That means no electricity, no pumps. In fact, you could use it anywhere, even out in the jungle. That is, if you don't mind hauling a five gallon pail around with you. Because that's exactly what it is, your regular five gallon plastic pail. With a few simple modifications inside. And that's why they can make it so cheap. So you just pour untreated water in the top from a river, a faucet, a ditch, or wherever.

[13:36] And in a few minutes, it's passing through that ceramic element and coming out crystal clear from the spigot. And one of these units is perfect for a family of four. Easily producing 20 gallons a day of very pure water, from whatever source. And when these things first came out, the UN and a lot of the non-profit organizations, were just donating units to various communities. But now, they've become so popular that you can buy them down here. Or order one or two or ten off of any number of websites. In fact, I bought one myself just to have in case of emergency, that is, if the electric power went off. And believe me, if there's one constant down here in Latin America, besides rice and beans, it's the fact that the power will go off. And it doesn't matter how rich or poor you are, or what subdivision you live in, the

[14:24] power will go off. But we'll talk about that in another program, so stay tuned. Anyway, I bought one of these units at my local Ace Hardware store, which is called Samaco down here, and I paid 40 bucks for it. Now let me ask all you would-be expats up in the first world. Would you be willing to pay 40 bucks to have practically an unlimited supply of very pure water from a unit that'll last for years and years? Well, the only drawback I can see is that these units are pretty damn ugly. And I'm pretty sure it just won't fit the color scheme of your kitchen, and it certainly won't blend with that $5,000 Corian countertop. I mean, there's only so many places you can hide or camouflage a 5-gallon paint bucket, which is basically just what it is. So if you're a fashion-conscious snob up in the first world, one of these things just

[15:14] might not fit in with your lifestyle. But to be serious for a second, I recommend that everybody in the first world get one of these too, just for emergency. Go ahead and get one and stick it in your attic or your basement, or just use it to make the world's best bottled water, for yourself, for your family, and for your friends. So what if it's ugly? And you know, I don't make any money off this stuff, and I have no connection with this business whatsoever, but I do have one of these units, and it's great. So if you're interested, just Google, O-N-I-L, Water Purification System. That's O-N-I-L. And I know down here you can get them at a lot of places, and most of the ones I see down here are sold and distributed by a nonprofit organization called Helps International. So you can Google that too if you want.

[15:59] And you know what? For all you first world do-gooders up there who like to contribute and donate to third world causes, you might want to think about buying one of these water purification units for like 30 or 40 bucks, and donating it to one of these dirt poor families down here. And you know what? That 30 or 40 bucks will do more for that family for a much longer period of time than any other donation you might give, especially for the price. I mean, if your 30 or 40 dollar donation would normally buy a sack of rice and flour and fertilizer, how long is that going to last the family? Three months if they're lucky? And then what? Okay, enough said about that. Anyway, since the water purification business is getting pretty big down here, especially now that Latins are coming to terms with the fact that they've polluted practically every

[16:48] lake stream and water supply down here, well I've noticed yet another simple kind of water purification system that's shown up around here lately. And what it is, is just a simple twist on an age-old water purification method that's been used in the Middle East for centuries. And I don't know if you know this, but all this brand new ceramic element technology that we've been seeing lately, well it's been incorporated in those tiny little individual water purification units used by backpackers and mountain climbers. You rough riders out there know what I'm talking about. Those little palm-sized purifiers with a tiny pump on the side. But I'm not recommending you go out and buy one of those things. Not for general use down here, because they're really low volume, and a unit like that won't last long under continuous use.

[17:34] So save your money. But I only mentioned that to point out that this ceramic filter technology is pretty much the wave of the future, and it's really taken off. But what I've been seeing a lot of lately down here are local home-grown companies producing their own version of a kind of a crude filtration system that in theory should work pretty well. And you could say it's based on a kind of an old-style ceramic filter technology. That is, before they even named it ceramic technology. Now the way the Arab people and the nomads in the Middle East have done their water filtration for hundreds of years is a system so simple yet effective that you almost can't believe it. They take an unglazed terracotta ceramic bowl and pour water into it. And because it's unglazed, it's porous, and the water seeps through, eventually dripping

[18:24] through the other side. And believe it or not, that water that drips out is very, very pure. It's basically a low-tech ceramic filter. Only every ceramic bowl has different properties, different porosities, and a different level of filtration. In other words, no two ceramic pot filtration systems are exactly the same. And the exact filtration process is hard to regulate. But they do work, and they filter water very well. And lately, I've seen these terracotta pot systems popping up all over the place down here, costing anywhere from 30 to 100 bucks. And they run by gravity feed too, so you don't need electricity, or pumps, or motors. In fact, it's the simplest system you could imagine.

[19:09] But right now, I'm not inclined to give them my all-out recommendation, especially when that little ceramic United Nations unit is available for around the same price, and in some cases, even cheaper. And I say that because the United Nations unit has been tested over and over again, and it's putting out very pure water. And combine that with the fact that it's housed inside a five-gallon plastic paint bucket, that means it's virtually indestructible. And if you drop one of those terracotta jobs, well, it's like dropping a flower pot. And that means it's all over. And can you trust these locally-made terracotta units to put out pure water? Well, that comes down to, again, who's making them. And though there might be governmental regulations on the books somewhere, as usual, no one's down here inspecting the units, so who knows.

[19:56] And naturally, the product information claims they put out really pure water. But so do the bottled water companies, and we all know what that's worth. But I will say, these ceramic units are purifying water. To what degree, I don't exactly know. And that's the problem. But I'll tell you what, I'd rather have a glass of water coming out of one of those units than from anybody's bottled water down here. That's for sure. But I'll tell you, there are two things about those ceramic units I like. One is, they look really nice, in some cases, like works of art. And two, you can really see that they're purifying the water. Because inside of that bowl, which is the intake reservoir, after some gallons of water have run through it, you'll see the dirt and the scum in the filth collect on top of that filter.

[20:42] So after you see that, you know it's working. And for that matter, it shows you how really bad your tap water is. Because that's what most people use to run through the device. Okay, now that I've pretty much exhausted the topic of water down here, I've had more than a few emails asking me about a previous show when I talked about building a house. People are wanting to know what kind of finish work is available down here. They're asking about doors and lamps and light fixtures and flooring and trim. Because in the first world, when you build a house, when it comes to the finished details, you often are given a choice by your contractor of having low, medium, or high-class trim and fixtures. In other words, the low or standard quality would be baseboard trim and doors made out

[21:28] of a composite masonite or plastic material made to simulate wood. Yuck, and to me and everybody else, that's low-end and pretty crappy. But for a few thousand bucks more, you can move to the next option, which is actually real wood, usually pine. But it is real and not fake. Though it might be laminated pressboard and not 100% solid wood. And then there's option three, which costs a lot more. And it's usually oak because all of the other hardwood options you might have had years ago like cherry or birch or mahogany or maple. Well, these days only the real rich folks can afford those options because worldwide those real high-quality hardwoods have pretty much been logged out. In fact, these days in the first world, anybody who builds a house with real oak trim, well,

[22:15] most people look at that as the high end of the scale. Whereas 50 years ago, back in your grandpa's day, oak was a pretty common material, even for the middle classes. Well, I'm here to tell you right now, one of the real joys of living in Latin America is that you could have the best quality of what are considered to be exotic and luxury materials for the equivalent of the price of pine in the United States. When you go to a lumberyard down here, the first thing that you notice is that there's many exotic hardwoods available. For example, you'll commonly come across beautiful hardwoods like paloblanco, cauba, and teak. Now I ask you, whoever heard up north of having a whole house trimmed out in teak? I'm talking about doors, kickboards, window frames, ceiling beams, the works.

[23:03] And you know how nice teak is. You've seen that Scandinavian furniture. Imagine having a whole house done out like that. Now let me tell you, the last house I built only a few years back, I had completely done out in the hardwood cauba. Now I've checked, and I believe in the United States, a solid pine eight panel door, dead smooth, high quality, and without knots, can cost $200 or $300. And that's what you pay for a nice solid pine door in the first world. An teak door like that will cost way over a thousand. Well my cauba doors, by the way, cauba is considered a very dense mahogany. Anyway, each of these high quality doors I paid $100 a piece for. You heard right, $100 a piece. And that's what you pay for a crappy masonite synthetic wood door in the United States or

[23:51] in Europe. So what I'm saying is that you could have your house completely done out in an exotic hardwood for less than or equal to the cost of pine in the United States. And in fact, hardwoods are so cheap down here, if you like real solid wood floors, you could have that for the price of a medium grade carpet. And if you like Spanish or ceramic tile or terracotta floors, this is the place to be. In fact, very nice high grade tile like that can be had for about a dollar a square foot. And even if the price of high quality ceramic tile floor down here were the same as the United States, which it isn't, it's much cheaper, sometimes half as much. Just remember that down here, even skilled contractors and workers only get about $15-20 a day, not $15-20 an hour.

[24:38] Anyway, the installation costs on that ceramic tile are going to be next to nothing compared to what they'd be in the first world. And as far as lights and electrical outlets and other fixtures, they have everything imaginable down here. In fact, every small and big city has dozens of electrical supply stores and lamp and fixture outlets. And the big surprise is you're likely to have more selection down here than you ever had in your town up in the first world. Because down here, not only do they stock American imports, but they stock South American and European products too. Stuff you'll never find in your own hometown. They have all the good stuff. Plus the junk that comes from China too, just like you get up in the first world. And while we're at it, we can't forget about the metalworking down here, which is pretty much a lost art up in the first world.

[25:25] Anyway, down in Latin America, you could have just about any kind of ornate metalwork you've ever wanted. From lamps to light posts to gates to fences, you name it, and you could have anything from the simple to the extravagant. And because the cost of labor is so cheap down here, all you really have to be concerned with is the price of the metal. But if you like a lot of ornate metal, I do have to give you a word of warning. With the humidity and the rain down here, in time, your metalwork will start to look a little ratty, especially if you live close to a shoreline or a beach. So when you do get some metalwork done, you have to make sure they use a high quality rust-proof paint as a base before they put the final color on. And make sure they use one of the American brands like Sherwin-Williams, not one of the local brands. Oh yeah, and I have to mention.

[26:12] Down in Latin America, they love to dilute their paint. And you know how on every paint can, especially latex paint cans, it always says, use directly, do not dilute. Well down here, because the people are either cheap, thrifty, or just don't follow directions, every painter I've ever seen dumps a load of water into his latex before he starts. And every expat I know has seen this happen. And because adding water is so ubiquitous down here. One coat just never does it. And you know how in the first world, pretty much every paint company guarantees you can do the job in one coat. At least that's what they promise. Well down here, not only is that just not possible, but no paint company ever makes that guarantee. So is adding water to all the latex paint down here a conspiracy to get extra work?

[27:03] Well though it sounds like that might be the ulterior motive, I don't think so. And that's because you see property owners add water to paint when they paint their own houses. And why would they do that if they knew it was going to take double the work? Well diluting paint down here is just another one of those Latin American conundrums that expats just will never understand. And when expats paint their houses, and they don't dilute, the locals think we're nuts. So go figure. You've been listening to The Expat Files, living in Latin America. And don't forget you can email me on anything at all about Latin America. The Expat Files at gmail.com. That's theexpatfiles at gmail.com.