Sanbwa members currently represent 80% of all bottled water produced in South Africa. Representation will increase to 90% when bottlers of prepared water join in 2008.

“Two errors being reported as fact are creating confusion for consumers,” says Sanbwa chairman, John Weaver.

“The first myth is that tap water is being bottled and sold as natural or spring water in some sort of scam and the second is that the quality of water being bottled locally is not acceptable. Independent laboratory tests that we commissioned in November on bottled water from both Sanbwa members and non-members, by way of reassuring consumers, prove that both assertions are wrong.

“We tested eleven brands: Ceres Spring Water, aQuellé, Valpré, La Vie De Luc, Bené, Waterval Naturale, Nestlé Pure Life, Aqua d’or, Hex Valley, Vitavie, and Bon Aqua. The first ten brands are sourced from natural or spring water. Bon Aqua is what is called in the industry and by South African legislation a “prepared” water.

“In all cases, the counts of Escherichia coli (E.coli), a bacterium that indicates contamination of the water, were 0.

“In all cases, total chlorine results were below 0.01 mg/litre – proving that the water was not bottled directly from a tap or other municipal source. The minimum requirement for municipal water is 0.2 mg/litre free chlorine.

“And, in all cases, the results of the total dissolved solids (TDS) test, which checks the mineral content of water, correlated with the values declared on the labels as well as the geological areas from which the natural waters were sourced. This tells us that the labels represent the true contents of the bottle.

“In other words, as we at Sanbwa already know because we randomly test bottled water in this country every month, the bottled water that South Africans drink is both what it claims to be and safe to drink.”

Weaver is amused at the idea of backroom bottlers trying to pass off tap water as natural or spring water in an attempt to scam the public. “There are far more profitable ways to scam people! For one thing, without the right kind of bottling equipment, it just takes too long to fill bottles from a tap – so it’s very nearly impossible to produce the volumes of bottles that would enable you to make even a tiny profit.

“Also, the profit margin on a bottle of water is about 15%. So, on a single bottle, you’re making less than 50 cents. In other words, you have to sell an awful lot of bottles to make satisfactory money out of bottling water. One or two bakkie loads a week just isn’t going to be worth your while.

“And, even if you do succeed in bottling enough of the stuff, you’ve still got to get it onto shop shelves – which is an expensive exercise all on its own. Retail stores don’t let just anyone put a product on their shelves.

“So, while there’s always a chance that someone will be foolish enough to try and pass off tap water as natural or spring water, it’s an extremely slim chance.”

Weaver also debunks the myth that ‘prepared’ water is tap water with a fancy label on it. “Prepared water can have tap or municipal water as its source. It can also be sourced from spring water. But in either case, it is first stripped of all its chemical and mineral contents. Municipal water, for instance, would have the chlorine that is used to sterilise it removed. Once the water is simply H2O, certain minerals may be added to obtain a balanced mineral content. Only then is it bottled for sale.

“The point being that prepared water is perfectly safe and often extremely palatable. Americans, Europeans, and people all around the world have been drinking – and enjoying - prepared water for decades.”

For more information on bottled water and Sanbwa, go to www.sanbwa.org.za or phone Charlotte Metcalf, Sanbwa technical director, at (011) 884 5916.