Consumers are waking up to some startling facts about buying water in bottles, the National Consumer Forum (NCF) said on Friday.
”Apart from being ripped off, consumers are also threatening their health and the environment,” the NCF said.
In the United States, public pressure has been growing to force powerful corporations to disclose where their bottled water comes from, after research indicated that up to 40% of bottled water used tap water as its source.
Even one of the US’s leading brands of bottled water was found to contain tap water. Some consumers there are already paying a 3 000% premium on water by buying it in bottles instead drinking it from their taps, the NCF said.
”Were this to be the case in South Africa, consumers would be paying a thousand times more for the water in a 500ml bottle than they do from their taps.”
The NCF urged South African consumers to be cautious when buying bottled water, and to check whether the label indicates clearly where the water was sourced.
”We suspect that there is a similar trend in our own country to what is happening in the US,” said NCF chairperson Thami Bolani. ”Business sees an opportunity for a quick buck, and there are dozens of companies jumping on the bandwagon. Being as fashion conscious and status loving as we are, South African consumers have easily taken to buying bottled water — even though we have no need to.”
Bolani said if the US had a problem in controlling the honesty of suppliers, then SA should be extra vigilant. He urged the government’s consumer protection agencies to be vigilant about the possible abuse of consumer rights when it comes to bottled water. Standards need to be applied and enforced in this industry.
In terms of its effect on the environment, bottled water leaves a huge carbon footprint, according to research carried out in the US.
Making bottles to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water requires more than 17-million barrels of oil a year — enough fuel for more than a million US cars for a year — and generates more than 2,5-million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
There is also a negative effect on communities around the world and their immediate environment as bottlers extract water in huge amounts from local springs, potentially drying them up. They also deplete wetlands and drain rivers, with serious effects on ecosystems.
In a statement, Nestlé South Africa clarified its involvement in selling bottled tap water as spring water and said its Pure Life product is obtained from an internationally approved source that is tested every six months.
”We would like to refute any allegations that Nestlé uses tap water and market it as spring water.
”Nestlé’s Pure Life undergoes a strict quality-management system, which includes a full hydrological survey, chemical analysis and microbiological analysis to mitigate any potential hazards to the source,” Nestlé said. — Sapa