BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - March 21 - This year’s World Water Day will be marked by city, state and regional efforts to choose tap over bottled water. In recent weeks, the city of Seattle, the state of Connecticut and more than 60 campuses have moved to reduce, or eliminate altogether, spending on bottled water.

Now, more and more cities are joining the trend, spurred by the national campaign to Think Outside the Bottle (for a full map of city actions click www.stopcorporateabuse.org/cms/page1640.cfm). In the coming weeks, city officials will join with restaurants from coast to coast to announce plans to cancel bottled water contracts.

This shift by restaurants aims to expose the environmental impact of water bottling and the dangers associated with the commodification of this most essential resource. The United Nations estimates that soon two in three people will not have access to enough water.

“The question is not about whether there is enough water to meet the basic needs of every person on earth – it’s about who controls water and to what end,” says Think Outside the Bottle Campaign Director Gigi Kellett. “When Coke, Nestlé and Suez control water, instead of the communities that rely on it for their basic needs – it threatens universal access to water.”

In North America, Think Outside the Bottle asks people and communities to make a commitment to opt for tap over bottled water as a show of support for public water systems. Misleading bottled water marketing has diminished confidence in tap water – though the tap is more highly regulated. At the same time, cities face a significant funding gap between what resources they have and what they need to maintain water infrastructure.

Think Outside the bottle has worked with cities like Minneapolis and Salt Lake to build the political will to reinvest in public water systems.

“Elected officials and communities are focused on a solution here in the states that protects water as a common resource,” says Kellett. “Today, on the United Nation’s own World Water Day, it is time that the U.N. made the same commitment.”

To mark World Water Day, Corporate Accountability International, and 125 of its allies from across the globe, are calling on Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to withdraw his support from the CEO Water Mandate. In a letter to the Secretary General, organizational leaders criticize the voluntary initiative for providing green cover for corporate efforts to control water supplies worldwide. 

The letter will be delivered to U.N. Headquarters in New York City today.

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