...

The Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) urges trekkers to use iodine. Tens of thousands of plastic bottles are disposed of each year and they are beginning to appear as a litter hazard. If the environmental argument does not convince tourists, then the cost one might. I used seventy-five iodine pills in twenty one days at a cost of about Rs400. This treated seventy five bottles of water. Since the price of bottled water was anywhere between Rs40 and Rs100 (depending on distance from the road), this saved my somewhere around Rs4000 (at an average of Rs60 per bottle). With an additional Rs4000 I could have trekked happily for another ten days!

ACAP are right when they urge trekkers to use iodine. It is better for the environment, but I am curious about why they do not take a stronger approach and make bottled water more difficult to obtain. It is not very easy to buy iodine in the mountains. I cannot help wonder if there is a financial argument staying the conservationists' hand. If anyone knows otherwise, I am open to correction.