Belu (filtered water taps that help others)

Belu is an amazing social enterprise, which offers filtration systems for industry, and uses profits to help provide clean water in Global South countries. Just imagine is everyone switched over, what good it could do?

The company offers a range of machines, and can provide filtered water both front and back of house, with marketing materials and user instructions for staff. It also offers water dispensers for offices, meeting rooms, restaurants and restrooms.

There are options for chilled, still, sparkling and hot water available. Free-flowing filtered water also can boost revenues, as you will not be buying in bottled water for your business.

Over 700 million people in the world have no access to clean safe drinking water, with around one million women and babies dying each year, due to lack of clean places to give birth. Every 2 minutes a child under 5 dies, from diarrhoea caused by dirty water. And climate change is making things worse.

Frank Water also offers filtered water stations for wholesale, with profits to provide clean safe water in developing countries, mostly for children in India.

Never give sparkling water to to pets, it could cause bloat.

Although tap water in England is perfectly safe, many people choose bottled water whether that’s for travel, at the gym or in emergencies when there is no tap around. But most shops sell an array of confusing bottled waters in various packaging.

How do you know which one is best to buy? In short, choose water that is locally-sourced (not shipped by plane from Fiji) in sustainable bottles that are easy to reuse and recycle.

Look for bottled water in aluminium cans or glass. Although many brands are now in recycled plastic, when littered they still fall down drains and break into microplastics in the sea, accidentally ingested by marine creatures.

How much water should we drink?

The average adult needs around 1.2 litres per day (more in hot weather or after vomiting or diarrhoea). That’s around six 200ml glasses. So drink two glasses when you wake up, have two more before lunch, and two more before dinner. Add more per glass of wine or beer, or per tea, coffee or cola.

Wash and rinse pet bowls daily. Avoid fizzy water or guzzling water after runs or car trips (both could cause bloat). Don’t let pets drink from puddles (due to bacteria, oil, antifreeze). For outdoor pets, ensure drip-feed bottles are not blocked or frozen.