Bid to turn town on to tap water

12:26pm Thursday 17th April 2008

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A NEW campaign to encourage people to drink tap water over bottled has been launched.

Great Sankey based United Utilities is urging readers of the Warrington Guardian to think green and favour tap water over bottled.

“At a time when we are facing such huge environmental challenges, buying bottled water at the rate of three billion bottles a year in the UK is clearly unsustainable."

Philip Green, UU chief executive

The company, which provides drinking water to its seven million customers, wants to draw attention to the huge environmental and cost advantages of drinking tap water.

Restaurants are to be a key focus of the Tap Into Water campaign with the company urging the hospitality trade to make it much easier for diners to opt for free tap water.

And window stickers for restaurants which back the cause will be provided allowing customers to easily identify tap-water friendly places to eat.

Research by the National Consumer Council has revealed that nine out of 10 restaurants do not offer choice over water pushing customers towards bottled water.

Phil Woolas, the environment minister, said: "I fully support United Utilities' campaign to encourage more people in Warrington to drink tap water.

"We've got some of the best tap water in the world here and we should rightly be proud of that.

"There are more than a billion people in the world without access to safe water, and yet, here we are with pure water on tap, buying it in bottles - I believe it's morally indefensible."

Philip Green, UU chief executive, added: "At a time when we are facing such huge environmental challenges, buying bottled water at the rate of three billion bottles a year in the UK is clearly unsustainable.

" It's no longer cool' to be carrying around the latest bottle of designer water. What we should be carrying are bottles for life' which we keep on filling with our excellent tap water.

"I very much hope that the hospitality industry will recognise their customers are environmentally aware and offer them free tap water without prejudice."

gdunning@guardiangrp.co.uk