A majority of the inhabitants of a town in rural Australia, Bundanoon, agreed July 8 at a town meeting to ban bottled water, the Associated Press reported July 9. Approximately 2,500 people reside in the small town 100 miles south of Sydney. It could well be the first town in Australia, and possibly the world, to ban bottled water.
Bundanoon took action, the AP said, in response to plans by Norlex Holdings, a Sydney-based beverage company, to build a water extraction plant in the town. After residents objected, Norlex appealed, and the matter lead to court proceedings before the New South Wales Land and Environment Court, the Sydney Morning Herald has reported. Residents sought to prevent the outside company from taking the community’s water, transporting it to Sydney to process and selling it back to them in bottles, the AP story said.
Prior to the town’s decision, the New South Wales state premier announced a ban on bottled water for all state departments and agencies, the AP added.
In the last few years, bans on bottled water paid by tax dollars have been implemented in at least 60 cities in the United States and a few in Canada and the United Kingdom, the AP said.
