Ed, Many thanks’ for our paper’s coverage of former Clarence Valley resident, Joelle Gabriel, who was crowned Ms Earth Logic in Las Vegas last month (CVI 28/6/17). Ms Gabriel’s project “Water3” aims to provide an alternative to bottled water. The reason the topic of water is so vital is that water, one of our four essential needs, is a finite resource and we can live only a few days without a drink of life-giving water. The world only has a certain amount of water and we can’t make any more fresh water without the huge expense of running desalination plants. In fact the world’s limited availability of water will be the factor that finally limits global population growth. Bottled water is an extremely convenient product which provides short term convenience at long term environmental cost. The problem if you choose to use very convenient products is that many of them are single-use products and every product you buy uses precious water in the manufacturing processes. However if next time you take your own reusable cup to buy a coffee from one of the many Clarence cafes that offers a discount if you take your own reusable cup, not only will you receive a cheaper coffee but you actually use less water, for the water used in the manufacturing processes to produce your reusable cup is locked into your cup for the entire life of your cup. The future is what you choose and you could choose to be conned by the CONvenience of throwing away water every time you use a convenient throw-away product or you could choose a reusable product to help save your children’s precious water. Do you have children or grandchildren who don’t yet have a vote? Why not ask them what they would choose to do with such a valuable resource as life-giving water? The future is what you choose. Harry Johnson, Iluka