Bottled water: a path to corrupt governments

Bottled water industry is earning more and more money all over the globe. Some corrupt governments also are seduced by this promissing industry, and they are becoming more commercial than public interest oriented.

More than one billion people don’t have access to clean water, but their governments are able to play a significant role to make water safe. Some don’t.

“Pollution very high”

“I have to use bottled water to drink every day,” says a Jakarta-based journalist Bertha Sekunda. She is convinced that the only way of drinking clean water in Indonesia is buying bottled water, because levels of water pollution in her country are “very high,” says Sekunda.

In Kosovo, southeastern Europe, a local journalist Ermal Panduri has a similar testimony. “At midnight, my best friend Beni, called me to say that he doesn’t have water to drink.”

Twelve hours out of water

While the western part of Kosovo has got plenty of water, the eastern part is running out.

In some cases, it is not that government water institutions are unable to make available clean water. It is because they make profit from letting the situation get worse.

Biggest business

In general, the global bottled water industry has become very profitable since 2000. 

Huge multinational companies currently make billions of dollars on water they simply extract from the ground, slap a label on and sell at competitive prices.

Some other companies don’t even go further. “For six months, a bottled water company, Uje Rugove, has earned more than a million euros just by filling bottles with tap water from the west and selling it to the east of the country,” says Panduri.

This happens while governments stand aside and watch. They are very passive either in making water drinkable or putting pressure on bottled water companies to deliver good services.

Bottled water and corruption

If water is cut in some parts of Kosovo, this creates a need which leads to more supply and of course earning more money. 

If the government in Indonesia is aware that bottled water is the most privileged solution to Jakarta polluted water, it will work slowly to set water cleaning mechanisms because this would reduce the demand.

The Kosovar government is benefiting from big amounts of money earned by Uje Rugove company, and it is hard for that government to put an end to that theft.

“the situation must change,” says Panduri with a sight on his laptop. “This government can’t go on like this,” he adds.

“Governments should hold the responsibility of providing clean water to its citizens,” says Sekunda  and all the people should now be conscious that each time they buy a plastic bottle of water for only because it looks trendy, they might be supporting corruption in countries like Kosovo!