Authors: Dimitra Koumparou, Spyros Golfinopoulos

Title: The right to clean and safe drinking water: The case of bottled water

Abstract

For a part of the world the access to safe drinking water is perceived as given. But even in the West where there were struggles from 19 century about the water as human right and the provision of clean, cheap and safe water as a public service is undeniable. Today for the neo-liberal economic policies the privatization of the water has become a crucial issue. Water from a public good available in low cost it turns to be a commodity like any other product, available to be bought and be sold for a profit. In the West, the houses have clean, safe and cheap water. But the western citizens go out of their houses to buy the potable water in a very high price, sometimes higher than fuels. In this paper the authors discuss about the quality of drinking water, the treatment and the technology of the water. The water is not always safe for the human consumption and this is the case for bottled water too. The authors try to trace how the bottled water disguised to a product with high symbolic value, conceals a destructive environmental behavior.