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Bottled water is not a problem, it’s a symptom
Read aguanomics http://www.aguanomics.com/ for the world’s best analysis of the politics and economics of water Via email, I received this:
There is no reason for companies to produce bottled water in developed countries when healthy tap water is available at a fraction of the cost, bottled water is highly inefficient, costly, unsustainable, and a poorly regulated business.
Allow me to object, item by item:
There is no reason for companies to produce bottled water in developed countries when healthy tap water is available…
But they do, without guns to their heads, so it must be both profitable and in-demand. These forces are not necessarily evil, unless you want to have a LONG conversation about profits and/or people’s tastes. (Wait a sec on “externalities”!)
…fraction of the cost
And thanks god for that, as safe tap water is always cheaper than bottled water. I consider safe tap water as the first requirement of “developed” status. Now you have to ask yourself: what about parts of “developed countries” where the tap water is NOT safe to drink, from… say industrial or agricultural pollution. In those cases, I’d say that country wasn’t as developed as it claimed. Hear that, USA, Canada and a few others?
bottled water is highly inefficient, costly, unsustainable…
…from an economics standpoint, these mean the same thing. Inefficient means costs exceed benefits. I can imagine that to be true when you factor in the pollution costs of plastic production and plastic waste on ecosystems, but then we’d have to accuse bottled softdrinks of the same sins. (This is why I want a deposit on plastic bottles, to encourage recycling.) If you wanted merely to talk about wasting money, then I’d have to ask you why so many utilities use “average cost pricing” to sell desalinated water that costs $2 to make for $1. Isn’t that inefficient?
On the question of costly, I’d need you to explain why bottled water is so bad but iPhones are good. Aren’t iPhones more costly?
On unsustainable, I’d have to ask if this practice could “continue indefinitely,” and I’d say yes, given the high price of water. I’m pretty sure it’s easier to get bottled water in a drought than it is for a farmer to get (usually subsidized) surface water deliveries.
a poorly regulated business…
I’m not sure if the bottled water business is more poorly regulated than the tap water business. I know that 3 billion people lack access to safe tap water, and I know that I can get good bottled water in many of their countries, so perhaps bottled water “regulation” (via markets, professionalism, or government agency) is doing rather well in those countries. Are there incentives for bottled water makers to cut corners? Sure. Some definitely pump random groundwater they sell as spring water. But then you have to remember examples like Flint, Michigan, where the public water company cut corners in such an incompetent way as to endanger the entire city.
Bottom Line Bottled water, like tap water, needs to be clean and safe to benefit us. There are many aspects to improving water quality and they should all be pursued with respect to bottled and tap water.
If you’re interested in this topic, then check out the City Water Project — an effort by me and my students to improve information on water quality in cities around the world.
Source: http://www.aguanomics.com/2016/09/bottled-water-is-not-problem-its-symptom.html
