Aqua America prepares for National Drinking Water Week

BRYN MAWR, PA, April 21, 2006 -- Earth Day is tomorrow and the first week of May is National Drinking Water Week, so it's an ideal time for stories that celebrate the drink so many of us take for granted on a daily basis. Water. Aqua America Inc., the nation's largest U.S.-based, publicly-traded water company, wants to show Americans just how valuable and important water really is. Here are a few ideas you may find interesting, educational and even entertaining.

• How much is Enough?
To Aqua, a glass of water isn't just as half full or half empty -- it 's overflowing with opportunity and the essential fluid of life. It's the healer of our ills and the enabler of ripe old age. After all, you are what you drink. But most Americans don't know this.

Consider: 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated.

• Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue
Consider:
-- In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger.
-- Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as much as 3%.
-- Soft drinks accounted for nearly 21% of all calories consumed in America according to one study.
-- One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a recent study.

While just over 70% of the world's surface is covered by water, over 400 million children are deprived of water. The average U.S. citizen has more than 9,000 cubic meters of fresh water available per year, the average Jordanian has less than 200 -- a 45-fold difference.

• Hydration on a Dime
In addition to being a great healthy option, drinking water - tap water in particular - is one of the best buys in the country. Some of the related facts:
-- Tap water is a penny a gallon.
-- Coca-Cola is about 264 times the price of tap water, while the price of Evian bottled water is about 2100 times!
-- Carbonated soft drinks outsell bottled water by over 5 to 1 in North America -- but often bottled water is simply municipal water sold at a higher price.

• Turning on the tap can help save the World
Manufacturing anything -- from cars to bottles of water -- puts a strain on the environment. By drinking tap water, we can help eliminate some of the stress the bottled water industry puts on our planet. Consider:
-- Increased waste due to discarded plastic bottles
-- Increased fossil fuel consumption
-- Increased greenhouse gas and air pollution

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandates that municipal water treatment facilities manage and protect the watersheds from which they draw their water. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which oversees bottled water as a beverage, only mandates that the source of the bottled water be protected but says nothing about the watershed as a whole.

Aqua America (www.aquaamerica.com) is the largest U.S.-based publicly traded water company, serving more than 2.5 million residents in Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Illinois, Texas, Florida, New Jersey, Indiana, Virginia, Maine, Missouri, New York, and South Carolina. Aqua America is listed on both the New York and Philadelphia Stock Exchanges under the ticker symbol WTR.

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