What cruel person decided that we need to pay for clean water? I am lucky enough to live somewhere that provides access to the most imperative nutrient to our well-being, but still always at a cost. We buy Brita pitchers, reverse osmosis machines, expensive under-the-sink filters, all to evade the nasty chemicals that aren’t already removed from our drinking water. So we take that filtered water with us when we go out into the world to avoid paying for more, but when you actually hydrate, you run out of that water within hours and need to replenish. So you have three choices: drink bubbler water that is heavily flavored with chlorine and laced with so many other chemicals that people will actively dissuade you from drinking it, find somewhere to obtain more water that’s safe and clean, or sacrifice your wellbeing by not drinking at all.

Today I chose to get more water that, as far as I know, is safe to drink. I rolled up to the Dunkin drive thru to ask for a cup of ice water. At the window, the worker held it out to me, but recoiled when I reached for it, stating that it would be 85 cents. For a moment I felt ashamed for assuming anything in this world would be free and that this woman may have thought I was attempting to steal straight from her hands. But I was shocked there was a price tag on what I guarantee she pours free from a tap all day long to clean dishes and drink herself. I fumbled to grab my purse and paid the total with my discover, then drove away jaded that I paid nearly the same cost of a donut for the necessary liquid of life. 

We often speak of the tragedies that are homelessness and lack of access to water for those in less developed countries. We as humans cannot survive without water. You can survive roughly a week without food or water, but with solely water, that timeline can extend two to three months. There are unhoused people that don’t have 85 cents to spare to maintain their hydration because they need to prioritize clothing to stay warm in freezing cities as the elements could kill them before hunger or thirst were even a concern. Charging for water could be a deadly act for these lives and a harmful one to many others. Those that struggle financially and have children may turn towards cups of water from fast food restaurants to nourish their kids in a pinch or if they can’t afford reusable bottles, and those 85 cents multiplied by a few children may be the difference between a healthy meal and a frozen tv dinner when living paycheck to paycheck. I am lucky enough to be able to afford that cup of water, but the rest of the world isn’t necessarily so fortunate. 

Slapping price tags on the most basic element that we are entirely surrounded by and that is the basis of all life on our planet is a moral failing of our species. We feed the rich by restricting the health of the poor. I found myself pondering how many of those ice waters Dunkin sells in a year, and how fat the paycheck that gets stuffed in the pockets of the billionaire owners is because of that one “menu” item. 

With 11,300 Dunkin locations, it would only require 2 people asking for a cup of ice water at each location in one day for me to have $19,000 to spend on a new SUV that isn’t worth less than the repairs it requires. That 85 cents sounds trivial when you think about one cup of water. But the owners placed a price tag on it for one reason and one reason only: most people won’t say no to the cost of necessary nutrition, especially when it’s less than a dollar and their body is screaming for hydration, but those owners will see an extra nearly $10,000 in profits per day with one 85 cent purchase at each restaurant. With the lines that pour onto the street from their drive thru locations, I find it hard to believe that the number of people asking for a cup of ice water is ever as low as one. They might say the charge is to cover the cost of cups, but I would be willing to bet my own money that each cup costs less than ten cents, if not less than one cent. And I’m sure they can absorb that financial loss for the sake of providing water to thirsty people all over the world.