Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Magazine Ma | Page 40

Roundup
Can Tap Water Curb Drunk Driving?

Can restaurants “legally charge you $1, $3, or even $5 for
a glass of tap water? Absolutely. However, it probably
wouldn’t make much business sense, and that’s what keeps
them from doing it in the first place,” the report said.

Sugar on trial: What you really need to know
It has been called toxic,
addictive and deadly, the
driving force behind obesity,
heart disease and diabetes. Is
sugar really so bad?

Free tap water may be a weapon in the fight against drunk
driving.
A bill introduced to the Connecticut state legislature
would ensure bar patrons can order free tap water,
according to CBS New York. Democratic State Rep. Chris
Wright, who introduced the legislation, says drunk driving
might be mitigated if tap water were free.
“I think anything we can do to promote safe driving and
have as few people on the roads who have been drinking
as we can, I think that it’s a minor thing,” Wright said in
the news report. “As a way to promote designated driving,
if somebody’s willing to do that, I think the least that we
can do is let them have a glass of water.”
In the U.K., many bars are already required to serve free
tap water. According to the Consumer Council for Water,
a group that represents water and sewer ratepayers, pubs
and restaurants have to serve free tap water if they also
serve alcohol. The aim is to “ensure that customers have
access to free tap water so that they can space out their
drinks and not get too intoxicated too quickly,” the group
said.

Imagine you are sitting at a
table with a bag of sugar, a
teaspoon and a glass of water.
You open the bag and add a spoonful of sugar to the
water. Then another, and another, and another, until you
have added 20 teaspoons. Would you drink the water?
Even the most sweet-toothed kid would find it unpalatably
sickly. And yet that is the amount of sugar you are likely
to eat today, and every day – usually without realizing it.
Sugar was once a luxury ingredient reserved for special
occasions. But in recent years it has become a large and
growing part of our diets. If you eat processed food of
any kind, it probably contains added sugar.
Source: New Scientist

Kepler telescope bags huge haul of planets

Here is a version of the legislation that mandated free tap
water in the U.K. Back in 2008, before the law was passed,
nine out of 10 restaurants did not provide free tap water,
according to research cited by The Guardian.
At the other end of the spectrum, a cafe that recently
opened its doors in New York City specializes in
serving—and charging—for tap water.

Artist’s impression: It is now clear that multi-planet
systems are common

“Not just any tap water, insist the owners of Molecule.
They say the water streams through a $25,000 filtering
machine that uses ultraviolet rays, ozone treatments and
reverse osmosis in a seven-stage processing treatment to
create what they call pure H20,” the Wall Street Journal
reported.
In San Francisco, restaurants are not required to offer free
tap water, but SF Weekly says there are economic reasons
they are unlikely to refuse such a request.

This is a huge new haul.
In the nearly two decades since the first so-called
exoplanet was first discovered, researchers had claimed the
detection of just over 1,000 new worlds.

38

Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • March - April 2014

The science team sifting data from Nasa’s Kepler space
telescope says it has identified 715 new planets beyond
our Solar System.

Kepler’s lat \