I'm sure you have heard it before, "Don't drink the tap water in Mexico". Many people coming to Mexico for the first time get hit with the "Montazumas revenge", a terrible bout of vomiting and diarrhea which can leave you crippled for days. Some say it is from drinking contaminated food or water. Your safest bet in Mexico is to make sure you wash all your produce with Filtered water, brush your teeth with filtered water, and never swallow water out of a faucet- unless you have a quality water filtration system.
BOTTLED WATER IN MEXICO
The most common means by which people in Mexico drink water is by purchasing 20-liter bottles of water called "garrafones". There are garrafones produced by big corporations like Coca-Cola and there are local companies. Either way, most garrafones, and bottled water that you purchase are filtered through a process called reverse osmosis. A method that strips all the beneficial minerals from the water. The bottles that these garrafones are sold in also commonly contain BPA and other nasty chemicals, which leech into the water over time, especially when sitting in the back of a truck in the baking hot sun on the way to their destination.
ALTERNATIVES TO THE CONVENTIONAL BOTTLED WATER
After living in Mexico for 6 months, my husband and I decided to start our company called "Acuario". We couldn't carry on drinking "dead" water that had been thrown around in the hot sun all day. Quiet honestly we hated the taste, and without us knowing it was bad quality we knew that something about this water was "off" or dead...
We started off delivering garrafones of water that we filtered using a revolutionary system that uses "Electrolysis" to purify the water. This process removes all the contaminants whilst retaining all the beneficial minerals that are vital to health. It is some of the best tasting water. We instantly noticed the difference. Our lives were changed.
Fast forward a year or so, and we streamlined our business from the delivery model to self-fill water vending machines. We like to call them "Living water windows". These machines are accessible 24/7 and help to reduce plastic pollution in the community, through the elimination of single-use plastics. They are also ZERO waste machines, meaning ZERO water is wasted in the water purification process.
Here is a snap of our water window below
We plan to expand this model all over Mexico, to help spread awareness about the different qualities in drinking water. We also have franchised this model which we call "OYOP" Own Your Own Purificadora. Allowing people to own a stake in these living water windows and help expand the concept.
WATER FILTRATION SYSTEMS
There are many water filtration systems on the market, many ranging in price and quality.
We have heard many horror stories regarding water filtration systems. Cheap UV systems from Tio Sams, have proved to be worth the pennies that were paid. One client of ours ran tests on her system from Tio Sams after she got violently ill from drinking water. The results came back shocking, E.coli and other contaminants were found in the water.
Reverse osmosis systems are great at removing contaminants. However, they remove all the minerals from the water. Remineralization filters are definitely questionable, A number of companies use coral calcium as the remineralizing filter and it is true that coral calcium contains some 70 trace minerals. The problem is that the water passing through a filter system is not in contact with the coral calcium long enough to dissolve it. The water picks up carbonate and as a result the pH increases but essentially no minerals are added. You might see trace amounts of calcium and magnesium.
Another commonly used filter is the Berkey, which seems to do pretty well for a moderately cheap filter, however, the flow rate is slow and for a family like mine, we use ALOT of water. The Berkey is great in that it retains the minerals in the water and is portable. But overall its capacity just doesn't cut it for us.
Kangen systems are a big hit at the moment as they produce quality water that can be fine-tuned to your pH needs. The water is ionized and electrolyzed. Minerals in the water are retained. These systems are definitely expensive and do come with their shortfalls. Kangen systems have a weak filtration system, as they only have a single filter that works alongside the electrolysis. Kangen systems do not reduce heavy metals found in water. In my opinion, this is a major bummer for the price that is paid.
The Acuario water filtration system is able to tackle all the problems listed above. Let me explain... Our system removes ALL contaminants in the water including heavy metals and fluoride, whilst retaining the beneficial minerals. The flow rate on our systems is extremely high, producing up to 20 000 liters of water per day. The water goes through multiple filtration processes. Our systems have 1 carbon and 2 sediment filters, that work alongside the electrolysis process. There really is nothing that compares to it on the market. If you are looking for the best filtration system, this is it.