In a city with world-beating and untreated artesian drinking water, it constantly astounds me how much premium retail shelf space is devoted to bottled water. Why pay for a plastic fantastic when Christchurch Tap is, well, on-tap? Branded water is a marvel of marketing guile – proof positive that consumers are suckers for craftily packaged products. Of course beyond the domestic market, it’s a very different story for cities and countries that would never dream of quenching their thirst or brushing their teeth from the town supply. READ MORE: * For sale: 40 billion litres of Canterbury’s purest water * Second Canterbury property with water extraction rights up for sale * Elation as Ashburton council backs out of controversial water bottling deal Which is why the commercial extraction and export of New Zealand sourced pristine drinking water, without any payment of royalties, has become such a hot potato. The latest local flashpoint appears to be the former Kaputone wool scouring plant in Belfast, which Cavalier Carpets is in the process of selling. With it will go a lucrative water consent allowing over 120 million litres of water a month to be bottled. That’s 50 one-litre bottles a second. The consent doesn’t expire until 2032 and the only cost is an occasional $100 administration fee from the local council, should they bother to inspect the operation. Then there is Okuru Enterprises and its grand plans to pipe 800 million litres a month of glacial…