Pepsi has decided to openly declare its bottled water branded 'Aquafina' is made from a 'Public Water Source'. The water was never claimed to be from natural Spring Water, but consumers could have had that impression. The Bottled Water industry is increasingly coming under pressure on two fronts; first that it undermines confidence in normal tap water supplies, and that it is using massive amounts of precious energy to produce, bottle it, and transport it.

Global usage of bottled water is staggering, the Earth Policy institute claims 154 billion litres were consumed in 2004 which was over 50% more than the previous year. Italians use the most per head, and the US is the largest net consumer where demand continues to increase despite the product being no healthier than the tap water supply in many areas.
 
The burning of fossil fuels to bottle and package water, then to onward transport it, looks crazy when you compare it to the efficiency of delivering water via the existing water supply systems. When you consider that the 2.7 million tonnes of polyethylene bottles made annually are made from crude oil, and cannot be recycled then you may understand the current levels of concern.

That Pepsi now choose to effectively endorse our normal water supplies seems to be timed as a politically correct move, but ultimately does not address the main issue faced by the whole bottled water industry.