How the bottled water industry is masking the global water crisis

Published 2023년 3월 23일

Tridge summary

The article highlights the growing bottled water industry and its impact on water access and affordability around the world. It points out that the industry profits by selling water at significantly marked-up prices, while millions still lack access to safe drinking water. The industry's growth, particularly in the Global South, is seen as a sign of government failure to provide public water systems. The article calls for stronger regulation of the industry and more financing for safe drinking water supplies to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. It also suggests that the bottled water industry could play a role in funding these goals through initiatives aimed at scaling up finance for the SDGs.

Disclaimer:The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

Bottled water is one of the world's most popular beverages, and its industry is making the most of it. Since the millennium, the world has advanced significantly towards the goal of safe water for all. In 2020, 74% of humanity had access to safe water. This is 10% more than two decades ago. But that still leaves two billion people without access to safe drinking water. Meanwhile, bottled water corporations exploit surface water and aquifers—typically at very low cost—and sell it for 150 to 1,000 times more than the same unit of municipal tap water. The price is often justified by offering the product as an absolute safe alternative to tap water. But bottled water is not immune to all contamination, considering that it rarely faces the rigorous public health and environmental regulations that public utility tap water does. In our recently published study, which studied 109 countries, it was concluded that the ...

Source: Phys