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By Kathy Michaels
When Brent Meikle was asked to be the executive producer of the award winning documentary FLOW: For the love of water, he started on a journey that could help alleviate the world water crisis one bottle at a time.
Meikle founded Watergeeks, a local company that offers an array of bottles, filters and natural health products that are designed to be an affordable alternative to the products that line grocery store shelves and pollute the water table.
“I am not an activist but knowing the problems that are in water, I knew we had to create solutions that empower people to change,” said Meikle,at the grand opening of his factory showroom store located at 2-2260 Hunter Road in Kelowna.
The shop, which is lined from one end to the other with colourful and environmentally-friendly products, is a venture that started when Meikle met FLOW’s director Irena Salina and saw 800 hours of her footage which documented the impact of water pollution in every country of the world.
The focus of that footage became the privatization of water infrastructure which Miekle says ranks profits above the availability of clean water, has contributed to a world water crisis, and claims the life of a child every 15 seconds.
The blunt nature of the film has won fans across the globe, earned accolades at the 2008 Sundance Film festival and even gained the attention of Barbara Walters, who spoke of the film on her daytime show, the View.
And as the film raked in praise, Watergeeks evolved.
“We are the generation that inherited this water crisis,” he said. “So my wife and I talked and said let’s create products that work for today’s generation.”
Using the business savvy he gleaned from being the president of the anti-theft device, the CLUB, Meikle set up shop in Kelowna and for two years he’s been developing a line of products that have been shipped out to destinations around the world — and now a wide array of those products line can be accessed at his store.
Ben Bazinet, Watergeeks president, explained the need for the products the store carries is becoming more apparent all the time.
“There’s a big backlash against bottled water,” Bazinet said. “Bottled water takes a huge amount of resources to make the bottle, transport the water, then at the end of the day lots of them do end up in the landfill.”
So, Watergeeks have created a filter which fits into any stainless steel bottle in the store and replaces 600 bottles of water.
It effectively filters out chlorine, heavy metals and any unpleasant taste in tap water.
It’s a product that’s gained enough acclaim to earn a spot on the shelves of 300 retail stores, and Bazinet expects that number will only grow after the Sept. 22 launch in New York.
“Basically everything in the store is made so you don’t have to make a big lifestyle change,” he said. “It will make a difference but won’t affect your life.”
For more, see our video report.
kathy@kelowna.com/(250) 575-0761.
Tags: bottled water, water pollution, watergeeks
