Bottled water

The sales for bottled water are estimated to be between $50 and $100 billion (US) annually and increasing approximately 7 to 10 percent annually. In 2004, total sales were approximately 154 billion liters (41 billion gallons).[1]

In developed countries, demand is driven by a variety of factors including convenience, the perception that bottled water may be safer than local municipal water, and taste preferences. Packaging and advertising work to foster these perceptions and brand bottled water in ways similar to branded soft drinks. Though many municipalities, particularly in the developed world, provide high-quality, highly regulated, potable water, occasional problems with contamination from commercial fertilizer, MTBE, or other contaminants are often widely publicized. Violations of tap water standards are, in the United States, openly reported, especially examples like the severe 1993 Cryptosporidium outbreak in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which led to 100 deaths and 400,000 illnesses (see: Milwaukee Cryptosporidium outbreak).

In most developed countries, however, especially the United States, the regulations governing tap water quality, monitoring, and regulation are more stringent than those for bottled water, where monitoring is less frequent and strict, and reporting violations is often voluntary. In the United States, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency set standards for tap water; the Food and Drug Administration sets standards for bottled water.

In developing countries, demand is driven by similar factors but further increased by the lack of potable groundwater in many areas, the lack of reliable or safe municipal water in many urban areas, chemical and organic pollution of ground and well water, and convenience relative to boiling or otherwise treating accessible but potentially contaminated water. As in richer countries, advertising also contributes to water sales in developing countries. Though bottled water may provide an alternative to unsafe drinking water, it does so only for those able to afford it; many of the world's poorest people cannot afford bottled water (UN World Water Development Report 2006).

In 2006, the US bottled water sales surpassed 8 Billion gallons of water (31 billion liters)(Beverage Marketing Corporation, 2007) exceeding sales of all other beverages except carbonated soft drinks.