Everything in life comes full circle. Including bottled water.

According to an illuminating Dec. 16 Channel News Asia report, consumers in Singapore spent S$134 million on bottled water in 2015, data gleaned from research firm Euromonitor International showed.

Best of all, F&N’s Ice Mountain and Coca-Cola’s Dasani that made up more than half of the bottled water sales volume in Singapore in 2015, are derived from the local water supply in Malaysia.

According to CNA:

When contacted, F&N confirmed that Ice Mountain sold in Singapore “is sourced and packed in Malaysia from tap water”, while Coca-Cola said that Dasani produced for the Singapore market comes from “the local water supply at (its) facility in Malaysia”. Both companies also said they have multiple purification processes in place, which distinguishes their “pure drinking water” from tap water.

And where does Malaysia get its drinking water from?

From Singapore, of course.

Under the 1962 Water Agreement drafted before Singapore’s independence, Johor is entitled to a daily supply of treated water of up to 2 percent of the raw water it supplies to Singapore.

Our Public Utilities Board (PUB) is entitled to draw up to 250 million gallons of water from the Johor River daily.

Malaysia, therefore, draws about five million gallons of drinking water daily from Singapore.

A 600ml bottle of drinking water is usually sold for between S$0.50 and S$1 here.

The same amount of tap water only costs 0.1 cent, making it 500 to 1,000 times cheaper than bottled water.

But that's not stopping people in Singapore because consumers here spent 24 percent more than five years ago on bottled water.

So, please start drinking tap water and not bother about paying for bottled water.

Related article:

Johor’s Linggiu Reservoir that supplies water to S’pore is 22% full

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