Bottling line

www.timesonline.co.uk Anne Barrowclough in Sydney Until yesterday the town of Bundanoon (population 2500) was best known as the host of Australias version of the Highland Games. Now it has become the worlds first place to ban bottled water. At a public meeting last night its people agreed to back the ban, which will mean local businesses will stop selling bottled water and visitors will be discouraged from drinking it. Instead, they will be provided with bottles labelled Bundy on tap that can be refilled with water from taps and filtered water fountains on the main street. Its a moral thing, said Huw Kingston, the owner of a coffee-and-bicycle shop who had already stopped selling bottled water. Its not easy to do when youre running a business in a small country town — a thousand dollars is a thousand dollars. But the sale of still bottled water is a fantastic con by the beverage industry — convincing people to spend A$3.50 [£1.70] to buy essentially the water that comes out of a tap. Until recently it seemed that the worlds love affair with bottled water would never end. Sales in Australia increased by 10 per cent last year, with Australians spending more than A $500 million on still and sparkling water. This goes against the trend in the northern hemisphere, where sales have begun to fall. In April Nestlé, whose brands include Perrier and San Pellegrino, nicknamed the champagne of waters, reported that sales of its water fell by 4.1 per cent in the first three months of <b>...</b>