by The idea that “bottled water is safer than tap water needs to be questioned,” warns a United Nations (UN) report published on Thursday. This economic sector — one of the most dynamic in the world, growing faster than any other in the food industry — includes the annual sale of 350 billion liters of treated water, which produces 25 million tons of waste plastic items.
“We were surprised by the number of studies showing contamination of bottled water, including biological, and mostly with bacteria. This was remarkable and breaks the image of “clean and healthy water”, for which consumers pay dearly. While these contaminations are usually isolated cases, this shows that it is actually the same trend as in tap water – where, when contamination does occur, it is also sporadic.“, says PÚBLICO Zeineb Bouhlel, co-author of the report and researcher at the Institute for Water, Environment and Health (INWEH), at the United Nations University, based in Canada.
The INWEH report shows that several cases of contamination (organic, inorganic or microbiological) have been documented over the past five decades in hundreds of bottled water brands. Our review of approximately 60 case studies from more than 40 countries provides us with multiple examples where the claim of purity and safety is called into question.
“Beverage companies are able to market bottled water as a ‘safe alternative’ to tap water, citing isolated failures in the public water supply. At the same time, Bottled water rarely faces the same rules strict in terms public health and environment. The scientific data supporting claims of purity and safety are limited,” says the report by INWEH, one of the academic “arms” of the United Nations.
Portugal is represented in at least three studies, two on a cholera outbreak in the 1970s and another on antibiotic-resistant bacteria, dated 2012. There are also global reports or studies, such as one released in 2019 by the World Health Organization on with presence microplastics in the water.
“This review provides strong evidence against the misconception that bottled beverages are an unquestionably safe source of drinking water. And it clearly shows that product quality can be compromised by both water origin and industrial processes that can potentially impact human health,” the authors concluded in the report.
Golden age of the water industry
The paper also notes that the water industry has become, in its own right, a thriving economic sector in just five decades. An analysis of data covering 109 countries shows that this global business is currently worth around €252 billion. And it only tends to grow: it is estimated to double in the period between 2025 and 2030, reaching more than €466 billion.
Considering that we are talking about the trade of something vital for humans, the UN report highlights that the dizzying growth of the water industry confirms not only the importance of regulating the sector, but also the existence of global inequalities. If in the northern hemisphere bottled drinks are often seen as a tastier or healthier option than tap water, in the southern hemisphere the consumption of the product is mainly due to the lack of reliable public supply. In other words, what is a luxury in one place may be a necessity in another.
Another aspect highlighted in the paper is the pressure the water industry is putting on local resources in countries where there is often little or no regulation of the exploitation of natural water reservoirs.
“Some private companies exploit a public good at low cost, treat it and sell it back to those who can pay. Ironically, many cases in 40 countries show that the product is not always safe,” the press release said.
The Asia Pacific region leads both the sales and consumption of bottled water in the world, followed by the United States and Europe. One of the graphs available in the document shows the consumption per capita of the product in 50 countries in 2021. At the top is Singapore (1129 liters per capita), followed by Australia and Malta. Germany, which is the largest European market, both in terms of consumption and sales, is in tenth place. Portugal appears in 35th place.
“Portugal is among the 50 countries that consume the most by volume (about 660 million liters consumed in 2021 (44th place) and 64 liters per inhabitant (35th place per capita), although it is not among the largest markets in terms of value. We did not do an in-depth country-by-country analysis, but the Portuguese seem to have, according to the existing literature, a good awareness of plastic waste recycling,” says researcher Zeineb Bouhlel in a response sent by e-mail.
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Production of plastic waste
This golden age of bottled water, according to the report, covers a global problem: the inability of many public supply systems to provide everyone with safe, clean water. Failure to provide universal drinking water means, possibly, failure to achieve the sixth goal of the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. In addition to the failure of other goals that touch the environmental sphere.
The annual use of around 600 billion bottles (or other plastic containers) creates an absurd volume of waste, capable of filling back-to-back trucks in an imaginary queue from New York to Bangkok. Most of this waste is not recycled, the document points out, ending up in landfills or clandestine dumps.
“It could be argued that if the world made more of an effort to publicly provide clean and safe tap water, the production of bottled water could decrease, which in turn would lead to a reduction in plastic waste. It is important to deal with the source of the problem and not the consequences,” the United Nations report recommends.
