Woolas slams bottled water industry

Environment Minister Phil Woolas questioned why Britons drank millions of litres of bottled water every day when safe tap water is available everywhere.

In an interview for the BBC Panorama programme, he raised concerns about water being imported to Britain when other countries faced problems with supplies.

He said: "It borders on morally being unacceptable to spend hundreds of millions of pounds on bottled water when we have pure drinking water, when at the same time one of the crises that is facing the world is the supply of water.

"There are many countries in the world who unfortunately haven't got pure tap water. We should be concentrating our efforts on putting that right in my opinion."

His comments follow concerns from environmentalists regarding the carbon dioxide emissions from the packaging, transportation and disposal of bottled water products.

Shadow environment secretary Peter Ainsworth supported Mr Woolas' comments, saying: "I don't think Phil Woolas is wrong. Huge amounts are imported from other countries, some now ludicrously from the Far East.

"This is an ecological nightmare and it doesn't make economic sense either. It certainly raises questions about the basis on which we have constructed our economic lives. By any rational standard it's crazy to be importing water from countries far away when there's perfectly good water in our taps.

"It looks like the epiphany of any unsustainable human activity. I think as consumers we should consider the impact we have on the environment. If they think about it they might change their behaviour."

Next week Thames Water, supported by Friends of the Earth and Mr Woolas, will start a campaign to persuade restaurants, pubs and hotels to make tap water more easily available to customers. The initiative aims to cut carbon-dioxide emissions from transportation and manufacture of the bottles by persuading people to switch back to tap water.