In recent trips to my local grocery store, I have become increasingly aware of the volume of bottled water that people in my neighborhood buy. Almost an entire aisle is dedicated to it, and people are buying by the case. The phenomenon is a little odd. Boston’s tap water seems fine to me.

Recently, the head of the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority took the Pepsi challenge. He and a panel of tasters, including a local wine expert and a local beer brewer, did a taste test with Boston water, Pepsi’s Aquafina, and a few other bottled water brands. Not only did the entire panel agree that the five water samples tasted roughly the same, lab tests showed that there were no significant differences between the quality of Pepsi’s bottled water and tap water.

Greater Boston spends 1,364 times the cost of perfectly good public water for Aquafina, despite indistinguishable differences, and Bostonians are not alone. Similar patterns repeat themselves across the United States.

Other scientific studies show that bottled water is no safer than public water, and often less safe, sometimes with high concentrations of toxins like arsenic and mercury. Food and Drug Administration rules for bottled water quality are quite poor compared to Environmental Protection Agency rules for tap water. But if bottled water is not necessarily cleaner or safer than public water, why have bottled water sales doubled in the United States over the past decade? And why do one of six people in the United States only drink bottled water?

The industry, led by Pepsi, Nestlé, and Coke is trying to dupe us. Misleading advertising is fueling the explosive growth of this industry. According to the most recent statistics available, in 2002 bottled water corporations spent $93.8 million to portray their products as “pure,” “safe,” “clean,” “healthy” and superior to tap water.

They position bottled water as healthy, when in reality it threatens our health and our ecosystems, costs thousands of times what tap water costs, and undermines local democratic control over a common resource.

Water bottling, is a fast-growing $55 billion a year business. Corporations take water from underground springs and municipal sources without regard to scarcity or human rights, and are setting out to replace our public water with a high-priced, aggressively marketed product.

Increased demand for water worldwide is draining away our rivers, lakes, and other fresh water. Today, over 1 billion people around the world don’t have access to safe water to drink. Each year, more than 1 million children die of diseases caused by unsafe water. And as water scarcity grows, these numbers will rise. By 2025, two-thirds of the world’s people won’t have access to enough water, putting the lives of millions more people at risk.

Corporations view water as one of the great investment opportunities of the 21st century, and increasingly seek to control it. Water is already a $400 billion a year business. That’s 30 percent larger than the pharmaceutical industry. If transnational corporations control our water, they can decide who gets it—and who doesn’t.

Just like air, water is precious and sustains all life on earth. Access to clean, safe water is a fundamental human right. Decisions about a life-giving substance and a fundamental human right must not be left to corporate shareholders unaccountable to the public.

Corporations like Pepsi, Coke, and Nestlé are seeking to transform water into a commodity that can be sold for profit to the highest bidder. Instead of buying into this approach, people across the United States should be demanding that our public water systems are well maintained. Clean, safe, public water is worth fighting for.

Patricia Lynn is the campaign director for Corporate Accountability International—formerly Infact—a nonpartisan membership organization that protects people by waging campaigns challenging irresponsible and dangerous corporate actions around the world. For more information visit stopcorporateabuse.org.