FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

-Originally posted on November 17, 2016

INDIANAPOLIS — The 20-year statewide funding gap for Indiana wastewater and drinking water infrastructure is estimated to be between $6.5 billion and $8.5 billion, according to a new study by the Indiana Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations.

Between 2005 and 2014, local governments invested approximately $4.5 billion in combined wastewater and drinking water infrastructure. If spending levels remain at the same level, state and local governments will face an annual shortfall between $326 million and $423 million to meet the infrastructure capital needs identified in the report.

“This represents a significant challenge for both local and state government,” said state Rep. Mike Karickhoff, R-Kokomo, who chairs the commission. “There has been a lot of focus on roads infrastructure funding in the state, but it’s incredibly important that we are aware of the needs for wastewater and drinking water and take appropriate steps to close this funding gap.”

In addition to the funding gap, the study, titled “Financial Needs for Water and Wastewater Infrastructure in Indiana (2015-2034),” includes several major findings:

• The 20-year statewide capital needs for wastewater and drinking water are $15.6 billion and $17.5 billion.
• Indiana has significant needs in all water-related infrastructure categories: combined sewer overflows, wastewater, septic systems, storm water conveyance and management, and drinking water.
• All 92 counties have significant capital needs.

The estimates in the report, which was prepared by the Indiana University Public Policy Institute, are based on self-reporting, surveys, engineering models and other data depending on the type of infrastructure. The yearlong study was sponsored by the commission and the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs.

Bill Konyha, executive director of the Office of Community and Rural Affairs, said the state’s ability to maintain quality wastewater and drinking water is critical to its growth and stability.

“Access to safe water for consumption and fire protection is essential to every community,” Konyha said.

Of the five infrastructure categories, drinking water accounts for the most capital needs at $6.6 billion. The estimate, which is based on the Environmental Protection Agency’s “2011 Drinking Water Needs Survey and Assessment,” has Lake County — with $678 million — accounting for more than 10 percent of that total. The median Indiana county has $44 million in capital needs for drinking water infrastructure.

Across the state, the working estimate of individual county capital needs ranges from a low of $11.5 million to $12.2 million in Warren County and a high of $3.2 billion to $3.5 billion for Marion County. More than one-third of Indiana’s counties have needs greater than $100 million.

While local government investments in water and wastewater infrastructure are supported by agencies such as the Office of Community and Rural Affairs and the Indiana Finance Authority State Revolving Loans Program, the funds available from these organizations are limited. Access to additional grants and low-or-no-interest loans will be needed to minimize utility rate increases across Indiana.

“While we know that much of the infrastructure improvements will be paid for with user charges, it’s important we do everything we can to wring the most utility out of available resources so that we can minimize the impact on our most challenged communities and residents,” Karickhoff said.

About the Indiana Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations

The Indiana Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, or IACIR, was established in 1995 by the Indiana General Assembly to provide a forum for discussion and planning in light of the increasing demands being made on state and local governments. The commission is composed of members of the Indiana General Assembly; representatives from municipal, county, township and regional government; representatives of intergovernmental expertise; citizens; and state officials. The Indiana University Public Policy Institute staffs and administers the commission.

By Kaveel Singh, originally posted on November 17, 2016

Cape Town – An investigation into working conditions on Western Cape farms has revealed that at one farm, workers had no access to safe drinking water, Economic Development MEC Alan Winde said on Thursday.

“This investigation has brought clear evidence to light that there are employees in our economy who receive very poor treatment. This was never ever acceptable, and it still isn’t. It will not be tolerated,” he said.

The investigation follows allegations raised in a documentary focused on the working conditions of South African farm workers on wine farms.

Some supermarkets in Europe allegedly removed South African wines from their shelves following screenings of the documentary, “Bitter Grapes – Slavery in the Vineyards,” which was produced by Danish filmmaker Tom Heinemann.

Originally posted on November 17, 2016

Predominantly black neighborhoods excluded from municipal water service have poorer quality drinking water than nearby neighborhoods with access to municipal services.

(Chapel Hill, N.C. – Nov. 17, 2016) – A new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reveals inequities in water quality in central North Carolina.

In Wake County, some predominantly African-American neighborhoods completely lack access to the municipal water system. As a result, residents are exposed to notably higher quantities of microbial contaminants viawell water.

The study’s corresponding author is Jacqueline MacDonald Gibson, associate professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. Her co-author is Frank Stillo, an alumnus of the same department who currently works in UNC’s Department of the Environment, Heath and Safety.

The researchers’ findings, titled “Drinking Water Quality and Health Disparities in North Carolina Neighborhoods Excluded from Municipal Water Service,” were published online Nov. 10 by the American Journal of Public Health.

In previous studies, MacDonald Gibson and colleagues identified neighborhoods in Wake County that depend on private wells for drinking water. In many cases, these neighborhoods are home to largely African-American populations, but are surrounded by mostly-white neighborhoods that do have municipal water access.

After identifying these neighborhoods, researchers went on to determine that residents are more likely to visit an emergency room for acute gastrointestinal illness than are individuals from nearby neighborhoods with public water system connections.

Continuing the investigation, the most recent study shares the results of direct water quality surveys conducted by the research team in these same areas. Laboratory testing revealed that residents are indeed being exposed to significantly higher quantities of microbial contaminants, including bacteria associated with human fecal waste.

Nearly 30 percent of the 171 private well water samples tested positive for coliform bacteria, and more than six percent tested positive for E. coli. In samples from households on the municipal system, results for both contaminants were only a fraction of one percent.

Based on these findings, the study’s co-authors estimated that more than one-fifth of the underserved communities’ 114 annual emergency department visits for acute gastrointestinal illness could be prevented if municipal water service were extended.

By Alton Mitchell, originally posted on November 17, 2016

The talk of the town right now seems to center around rain or more so the lack of it in the local area. As LaFayette and Chambers County has faced burn bans, wildfires, and now water restrictions the hope of rain in the local area still appears to remain low in the local area.

Over the past week hazy and smoky skies have filled the local area. These are the results of wildfires burning across Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, and North Carolina that are spreading south from their origins. The wildfires are the result of a regional drought that has plagued the five state region.

Those wildfires have torched more than 80,000 acres of land and resulted in evacuations in many areas. Smaller wildfires have sprung up right here in the local area and that was a fear several weeks ago when the state of Alabama placed a burn ban in effect across the entire state of Alabama. The ban originally only covered north and central Alabama, but the prolonged drought conditions have now resulted in all of Alabama’s 67 counties being placed in a burn ban.

That burn ban means that outdoor burning is limited, and state officials are taking the restrictions very seriously. Those who are found to be in violation of the burn ban can face a fine of up to $500 and up to six months in jail. The pockets of violators can go beyond the $500 fine as any fees associated with fighting a wildfire that a violator may have started can be charged to the violator. This can include manpower hours as well as equipment charges.

LaFayette last week took steps to limit water consumption in the city of LaFayette as water sources for the city are beginning to run low. Outdoor watering restrictions have been put in place across the LaFayette to attempt to conserve water in the city.
LaFayette is in the brunt of the drought. All of Chambers County is in what is now called a D4 drought status. That status is also known as an exceptional drought. East Central Alabama and Western parts of Georgia find themselves in this classification. This is the same designation that southern California finds itself in. Conditions in all three areas are similar as waterways are drying up including rivers, lakes, streams, and ponds. This is the situation that has led to LaFayette officials closely monitoring the water situation.

The upcoming forecast remains dry in the near future for LaFayette and Chambers County. The city averages around 54.53 inches or rain per year. Much of the rain this year was received in the early parts of the year when the New Year was ushered in with flooding across the area and springtime showers. The past several months have been dry with LaFayette seeing its last trace of rainfall on October 16th. In the upcoming seven days LaFayette looks to not even receive a trace as rainfall chances remain near the 0% chance. In the meantime Forestry officials continue to warn that even the smallest spark or flame could spark a massive wildfire.

by Christopher F. Petrella and Ameer Loggins, originally posted on November 17, 2016

While much attention has rightly been paid to those who are courageously protecting water resources and sacred land on North Dakota’s Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, few mainstream commentators have situated Standing Rock as part of a larger political struggle for self-determination and survival. Linking the politics surrounding the Dakota Access Pipeline project to Flint, Michigan’s lead-poisoning crisis is critical for understanding how race and class informs presumed social risk, vulnerability to premature death and access to democratic decision-making.

In the case of the Dakota Access Pipeline, the Army Corps of Engineers Nationwide Permit No. 12 (NWP12) has fast-tracked construction – circumventing the democratic will of members of the Standing Rock Sioux community – by exempting the project from certain environmental inspections. Similarly, the application of Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law (EML) to Flint – a majority Black city – authorized the state’s governor unilaterally to appoint unelected officials to make decisions about how and where to source cheap water for the municipality. This sourcing resulted in widespread lead poisoning.

Both NWP12 (a provision strongly supported by the oil industry and its lobbyists) and Michigan’s EML (legislation passed with bipartisan support) constitute policies that pervert the democratic process. Both serve the interests of wealthy white men and thwart the decision-making capacities of communities of color.

These policies beg larger questions: What is the color of democracy? Who is presumed to be capable of self-governance? And which types of communities have the right to avoid public health risks and increased vulnerability to premature death?

Since March, thousands of tribal nations and non-indigenous allies from across the country have gathered at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation to protect land and water that could be destroyed and/or contaminated by the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline. Many members of the tribe oppose the pipeline’s construction near their reservation on the grounds that it threatens their public health and welfare, water supply, cultural resources and sacred sites. If completed, the $3.7 billion pipeline fabricated by Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners would span nearly 1,200 miles from North Dakota to Illinois and would transport at least 470,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

These policies beg larger questions: What is the color of democracy? Who is presumed to be capable of self-governance? And which types of communities have the right to avoid public health risks and increased vulnerability to premature death?

Members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe have argued that under federal law the U.S. government should have consulted with them about the pipeline in the early stages of project development – and did not. Last July, the Standing Rock Sioux and the nonprofit Earthjustice sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in federal court, contending that the agency had wrongly approved the pipeline without reasonable consultation. The tribe has also argued that because the Dakota Access Pipeline would cross right under the Missouri River at Lake Oahe – the reservation’s main source of drinking water – a leak or oil spill could prove disastrous.

According to the National Institute of Health, safe drinking water is presently “unavailable in 13 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native homes on reservations, compared with 1 percent of the overall U.S. population.” Moreover, the tribe points out that the pipeline’s original path was supposed to go farther north, near Bismarck, but state and federal officials rejected that route out of concern that a leak might harm the state capital’s drinking water.

According to the National Institute of Health, safe drinking water is presently “unavailable in 13 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native homes on reservations, compared with 1 percent of the overall U.S. population.”

According to federal pipeline regulators, the Bismarck route would have traversed land considered a “high consequence area,” a designation reserved for zones determined to have “the most significant adverse consequences in the event of a pipeline spill.”

This is significant for the following reason:

To be sure, the language of “high consequence areas,” serves as a politically vacuous euphemism for high consequence lives, people and bodies. These raced and classed demographic realities beg the questions: Whose lives matter? Whose historic use of land and water matter? And whose health matters?

One could ask the same questions of Flint, Michigan.

Whereas members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe were not consulted in the initial stages of the Dakota Access Pipeline planning process, many citizens of Flint, Michigan – a majority-Black city – were subjected to a lead-tainted water supply and stripped of their civic power, representative government and legal recourse in an effort to save the city from financial default.

Residents of Flint, 57 percent of whom are Black and 42 percent of whom live below the poverty line, were deprived of the basic right to govern their city from 2011 to 2015 by Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law (EML). The provision empowers the governor with the authority to appoint unelected officials to control any city determined to be in “fiscal crisis.” The emergency manager has the power to “renegotiate contracts, liquidate assets, suspend local government [and] unilaterally draft policy.”

In 2013, Flint residents filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Michigan’s EML on the basis that most appointments have come in cities in which most of the residents are people of color. A federal appeals court upheld the state’s EML in 2016 by arguing that citizens have “no fundamental right” to elect local government officials.

The court also found that the law appeared to be applied with colorblind intentions and was “facially entirely neutral with respect to race.” The outcome of these policies, however, strongly suggest otherwise. In theory, emergency financial managers are supposed to assist municipalities based on an unbiased evaluation of their financial circumstances – but majority-white communities facing similar fiscal challenges have not been subject to the same levels of unwanted political imposition.

Ideologically, the EML law rests on the assumption that residents of predominantly- Black cities are ill-equipped to manage their own local democracies, as six unelected managers have been assigned to govern Flint over the past 13 years. One should ask if the same in loco parentis form of governance would be applied to majority-white cities in Michigan with the same zeal? To date, Allen Park, Michigan seems to be the singular majority-white city in the state to have come under the supervision of an emergency manager.

A similar question could be posed to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and political leaders in North Dakota’s capital of Bismarck: Would an oil pipeline of great economic significance ever be allowed to traverse a local water source in a relatively affluent city that is 95 percent white?

Though it would be wrong to suggest that Standing Rock is the new Flint, the struggles over access to democratic decision-making power are strikingly similar, as is the raced and classed (in)ability to eschew exposure to environmental health risks and vulnerability to premature death.

The political battles at Standing Rock and in Flint are not just about clean water. Rather, access to clean water serves as a powerful litmus test for evaluating access to full and non-negotiable democratic participation. The fight over the color of water – that is, its racialized policy antecedents – provides a deep challenge to the parameters and possibilities of self-determination and survival in a political space hostile to communities of color.

A similar question could be posed to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and political leaders in North Dakota’s capital of Bismarck: Would an oil pipeline of great economic significance ever be allowed to traverse a local water source in a relatively affluent city that is 95 percent white?

The truth is that the very assumptions of social worth undergirding the decision to divert the Dakota Access Pipeline from Bismarck to Standing Rock are the very same assumptions that inform the decision to source Flint water from a polluted river.

Linking these battles over political recognition, entrance to democratic participation and access to basic public goods such as clean drinking water brings into relief the necessity of coalition-building and the acknowledgment of shared interests. We must contest these race- and class-based injustices from Flint to Standing Rock and beyond.

Solar-powered device pulls drinking water straight out of thin air.
People living in arid, drought-ridden areas may soon be able to get water straight from a source that is all around them – the air, US researchers say.
Scientists have developed a box that can convert low-humidity air into water, producing several litres every 12 hours, they wrote in the journal Science.
Share on Facebook SHARE Share on Twitter TWEET Link "It takes water from the air and it captures it," said Evelyn Wang, a mechanical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and co-author of the paper.
The technology could be "really great for remote areas where there"s really limited infrastructure", she said.
The system, which is still in the prototype phase, uses a material that resembles powdery sand to trap air in its tiny pores.
When heated by the sun or another source, water molecules in the trapped air are released and condensed, essentially "pulling" the water out of the air, the scientists said.
Areas going through droughts often experience dry air, but Wang said the new product could still help them get access to water.
"Now we can get to regions that really are pretty dry, arid regions," she said.
It opens the way for use of [the technology] to water large regions as in agriculture."

By Sreya Panuganti, originally posted on November 16, 2016

“Water is the frontline of climate change. It’s what every report that you see identifies as the sort of first and foremost effect we see from a climate changing world,” said Sherri Goodman, a public policy fellow at the Wilson Center and formerly of CNA and the U.S. Department of Defense, on October 19.

As the climate changes, availability and access to water is changing and growing increasingly uncertain in some regions. Water has multiple implications for human development and national security. It affects agriculture, drinking water, and global health; diplomacy through transboundary agreements and upstream and downstream water sharing; and defense outcomes, such as state fragility, humanitarian missions, and new military equipment and basing requirements.

“Water problems, if they are prolonged enough, relate to and drive social instability,” said retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Jeffrey Talley, now a global fellow with the IBM Center for the Business of Government. “And that will eventually drive political and economic instability, and then it will absolutely become a security issue.”

There are, however, also many opportunities for cooperation and peacebuilding around water. The essential and shared nature of water resources encourages collaboration, even among adversaries, as in the case of the Jordan and Indus Rivers.

Two panels of experts at the Wilson Center discussed how to maximize the cooperative potential of water in the face of climate change, moving from a framework of risk to response. They spoke about technical innovations, management and transparency of hydrological data, and institutional changes that will help policymakers and practitioners blunt the potential for resource-driven conflict.

Broad Implications

Approximately 21 of the world’s 37 largest aquifers are being overexploited, pumped faster than they can recharge, said Talley. And demand is only increasing due to population growth and development. Working against supply is climate change, declining groundwater tables, and pollution.

Rod Schoonover, director of the environment and natural resources at the National Intelligence Council, said there is a great deal of agriculture reliant on unsustainable groundwater extraction – what he called a short-term solution to food security, but a long-term challenge to managing natural resources. Desalination plants can act as a “lifeline” for many societies, he said, but they also create “single points of failure” and tempting targets for “security incidents.”

The implications of water scarcity are numerous for health, education, and even the empowerment of women and girls. “We will never get to the rest of the [Sustainable Development Goals], unless we can meet Goal 6,” said Christian Holmes, deputy assistant administrator of the Bureau for Economic Growth, Education, and Environment at the U.S. Agency for International Development and the agency’s first Global Water Coordinator. Goal 6 – to ensure safe and affordable drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene for all by 2030 – is critical, he said, “because [it enables] young children and young women to be able to get past certain major obstacles in human development.”

For example, many young women and girls are forced to drop out entirely from school after they begin menstruating for lack of proper facilities, said Holmes. In Kenya, Doris Kaberia, director of country programs at the Millennium Water Alliance, added that many health centers themselves lack proper water and sanitation facilities, leading to the closure of maternity wards.

Stunting in children – decreased growth because of lack of nutrition – is also linked to inadequate access to clean drinking water and sanitation. In India, the stunting rate is about 45 percent in children under five, said Holmes. Waterborne diseases like diarrhea drain the body of resources and in children can lead to permanent physical and cognitive effects with no chance of reversal.

From the Ganges to the Mekong

Although there are serious challenges stressing supply, retired U.S. Army Brigadier General Gerald Galloway, now a professor of engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park, said the crisis is less about quantity and more about how we manage it.

“There are 276 shared water courses in the world,” said Ken Conca, a fellow at the Wilson Center and professor at American University. But “fewer than half have any kind of international accord, treaty, [or] some sort of legal arrangement.” What’s more, existing agreements are often static and inflexible.

The Ganges River Accord, signed by Bangladesh and India in 1996, created a water allocation scheme around “fictional water,” Conca said. The two nations based how much water each country would receive on figures from the highest flow years of the preceding century. “That’s clearly not the kind of flexible agreement that monitors and adapts how we will deal with drought years,” he said. “How will we deal with sustained droughts and extremes that become the new normal?”

Such concerns have been elevated as a global priority within the national security apparatus, said Goodman. At CNA, a research organization based in Washington, DC, she led the first Military Advisory Board report on climate change, which emphasized the implications of reduced access to freshwater and was signed by 11 retired three- and four-star generals and admirals. She also noted increased attention from the U.S. intelligence community, including a 2012 unclassified global water assessment and 2016 assessment on climate change generally.

Regional issues, when exacerbated by scarce natural resources, can serve to build up a “cauldron of risks,” said Goodman. “And we don’t know exactly where that tipping point is.”

Along the Mekong River in Southeast Asia, states are also experiencing transboundary strains as China proposes more upstream dams, said Klomjit Chandrapanya, a senior regional adviser for Southeast Asia at the Stockholm International Water Institute.

Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand depend on the Mekong’s flow from Tibet and with China having already constructed six dams, they fear the effect new dams will have on food production. Hydropower can alter flows and has an impact on sediment accumulation, which can greatly affect downstream ecosystems like Vietnam’s delta, which is already facing salinity problems, said Chandrapanya.

The Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Mechanism, launched in March, offers an opportunity for “closer cooperation [and] better sharing of information and data,” which could reduce tensions, she said, but there is much work to be done as development plans march forward in many basin countries.

Sandra Ruckstahl, an independent consultant and author of the USAID Water and Conflict Toolkit, urged focus on the long-term relationships between actors in a community when implementing water projects. Making and nurturing these connections encourages collaboration and negotiation rather than conflict. “As we consider security and potential for peacebuilding through any of our development investments,” she said, “we have to think about those perceptions and implications for long-term effects.”

Managing Risks

“People realize that water is a connector,” said Kaberia. From a policy perspective, sharing hydrological data is one way to build on this collaborative nature.

There is a wealth of water data, knowledge, case studies, and solutions available, said Talley. But much of the information lacks standardization. After Kenya decentralized its government in 2013, for example, hydrological data was literally fragmented on different laptops across different organizations, said Kaberia. Efforts are now underway to consolidate the data and provide government decision-makers with online access.

The U.S. Agency for International Development relies on data from the Famine Early Warning Systems Network and agencies like the National Air and Space Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and U.S. Geological Survey to “provide projections on food insecurity, based on vegetation analysis [and] soil analysis,” said Holmes. Some of the data is shared with local partners and used to train communities in reading and understanding climate projections. But “what we really need is a platform where big data can be integrated and cognitive analytics can be applied, providing shared insights worldwide,” said Talley.

A further response in the policy realm is to create more flexible accords, said Conca. Agreements like the Ganges River Accord focus on allocating a “fixed pie of water.” Instead, he suggested thinking more about “expanding that pie through sensible and cooperative management” and building in stronger dispute resolution mechanisms.

Conca also proposed environmental impact assessments for dams and other major water projects that account for how they may affect the health and livelihoods of downstream communities, not only the immediate environment.

He suggested using the SDGs as a starting point to push countries to enact changes in water management. “Whether we’re talking about livelihoods, about gender equity, about public health,” Conca said, “water is one of the real fulcrums for multiple gains across multiple goals.”

“The larger frame is one of uncertainty and managing risks…and in that context, the good news is that there are a lot of cooperative opportunities. There are barriers to tapping them, but certainly we have to try.”

 By Katrina Shankland, originally posted on October 25, 2016

The City of San Diego says that a 12-inch concrete cap broke, but the cause is indeterminable.

by Alex Presha and Rafael Avitabile, originally posted on February 10, 2017

Nearly 200 residents in the Bay Park neighborhood spent the majority of Friday without water after an overnight water main break.

The main broke beneath the street on the 4900 block of Gardena Avenue near Bonus Drive just after midnight.

Residents in the area went 13 hours without running water, and likely would have had to wait longer had it not been for one neighbor’s precaution.

David Sogliuzzo, a 25-year resident of Bay Park, has security cameras surrounding his home. When he looked up at his monitor and saw water flowing down his street, he immediately knew what had happened.

“I just happened to look up at the TV set as I was resting and watching TV,” Sogliuzzo said. “And as I saw it I thought ‘Well, we’ve got a busted water main.’”

Sogliuzzo was able to report the break immediately and crews were tending to the water main within an hour. They worked through the night and into the day, and were able to restore water to the neighborhood by around 2 p.m.

Surely it was an inconvenience, but it could have been worse.

“There’s a lot of old folks in this neighborhood, “Sogliuzzo said. “So they don’t have drinking water, they don’t have water to bathe and shower- it’s a difficulty.”

The roadwork forced traffic diversions, parking trouble and home-delivery hiccups. This isn’t the first time Sogliuzzo has had to deal with this in his 25 years living in the neighborhood, though. He says that in the last two years alone, three separate water main breaks have occurred.

“The city takes care of it,” Sogliuzzo said. “They bring in the water truck, they bring in the crew, but they’ve had to do it more than once.”

The City of San Diego says that a 12-inch concrete cap broke, but the cause is indeterminable. Crews working to repair the break said that it could have been the result of a number of things, including weather and old infrastructure.

originally posted on December 17, 2016

Singapore is considered as one of the cleanest countries in the world. Hence it’s not surprising that the tap water quality in the city state far exceeds the WHO standards. However, surprisingly, the bottled water business in the country is at its peak. The industry is estimated to be $134 million in 2015, a 24 percent rise in five years.

So what is the secret behind this obsession for bottled water in Singapore? Most of these bottled water products claim to be made from mineral-rich springs, including market dominators like F&N’s Ice Mountain and Coca-Cola’s Dasani, which makes almost half of the total sales.