It's about profit, say activists pitting Phila. water against major brands

By Harold Brubaker
Inquirer Staff Writer

Bottled water or tap water? Can you tell the difference?

An activist group, worried that water is being transformed into a profit-driven commodity, is putting Philadelphia's water up against major bottled brands - some of which are merely filtered tap water - in a blind taste test.

The "Tap Water Challenge" staged by Boston-based Corporate Accountability International is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. today on the northeast corner of 34th and Walnut Streets at the University of Pennsylvania.

The goal of the challenge, taking place here and in seven other cities, is to challenge the "misleading" marketing of bottled water as better for you and better tasting, said Dan Favre, Pennsylvania field organizer for Corporate Accountability.

"Bottled water is the most visible symbol of corporate control of water," Favre said. One in six Americans drinks only bottled water, despite its cost, he said.

The activist campaign was scheduled for this week to coincide with the 2006 World Water Forum, a government/industry meeting taking place in Mexico City to figure out ways to improve access to safe water worldwide, Favre said.

Today's Corporate Accountability event builds on growing criticism of the industry by environmentalists critical of the use of fossil-fuel resources to package and transport water in bottles rather than relying on gravity-flow through pipes.

A spokesman for the International Bottled Water Association, a trade group in Alexandria, Va., acknowledged challenges in delivering potable water in some countries, but said that zeroing in on bottled water as a culprit was misguided.

"We as an industry don't view it as a bottled vs. tap-water issue," said Stephen Kay, vice president of communications at the trade group. What's driving the growth is that consumers are "using bottled water rather than other beverages," he said.

The remarkable growth of the bottled-water industry cannot be missed, with huge numbers of consumers toting bottles of water everywhere they go and stores offering a mind-numbing variety of filtered, spring and other waters. The International Bottled Water Association lists 246 varieties of bottled water on its Web site.

Driven by taste, convenience, and the desire to cut back on sugar, the consumption per capita of bottled water soared from 10.3 gallons in 1994 to 23.8 gallons in 2004, surpassing beer and coffee over the last three years to become the second-most-popular beverage behind soft drinks, according to Beverage Marketing Corp.

Gary Hemphill, spokesman for the New York research and consulting firm, said 2005 data were not yet available, but he expected bottled-water volume to be up about 10 percent, with most of the growth in the single-serve market.

It is particularly irksome to Favre that PepsiCo Inc.'s Aquafina and Coca-Cola Co.'s Dasani, the two largest U.S. brands, are filtered tap water sold at huge mark-ups.

Joan Przybylowicz, spokeswoman for the Philadelphia Water Department, whose water is filtered by Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling Co. to make Dasani, said a gallon of the city's tap water costs about one-half cent. By comparison, a half gallon of Dasani can be had for $1.59.

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo deferred to industry groups for comment.

Corporate Accountability invited the Philadelphia Water Department to have an official presence at the table today, but the department declined, Przybylowicz said.

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