'Distilled versus mineral' spat leaves consumers the losers

WATER used to fall from the sky and we drank it. Now it is so complicated you need a manual to understand it.

The United States Department of Health and Human Services, under the Food and Drug Administration, produced such a manual last year. Entitled 'Beverages: Bottled Water', it ran to 102 single-spaced A4 pages. Its aim: to 'establish a standard of identity for bottled water' and to 'recodify the standard of quality'.

Establishing water's identity, among other things, meant defining mineral (untreated water from a natural source containing not less than 250 milligrams per litre of minerals), artesian (pumped from an aquifer or well), spring (from a natural spring but can be treated), purified (distilled or deionised), and sparkling (with natural carbonation).

Europe has similar terms, but there mineral water does not need a minimum content but must be consistent.

Yet much of the water you buy is little different from what comes out of your kitchen tap - and that may be the best for you anyway.

Such complications for simple water have come about because it has become big business. In the US, water sales reached US$4.3 billion (HK$33.4 billion) in 1998, according to New York consultants Beverage Marketing. Yet in Hong Kong the market is both poorly regulated and ripe for growth. Perrier has estimated that 32 litres of bottled water are drunk per person per year on average, a little more than half a litre a week, compared with the recommended three litres of water a day.