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The question, of course, requires some context. If you are a poor woman in Mali walking a 5 mile round trip to a dirty standpipe by the side of a dusty road, then it could undoubtedly be argued that a bottle of Evian would be a far better option. But let's assume, for the purposes of this debate, that we are located in a Western country with a safe and adequate tap water supply. This being the case, tap water is certainly better for your health, and moreover, better for everyone in your community too.

The second issue that we need to define is 'health'. Do we mean that our eyes are bright and our hair is glossy, or are we digging a bit deeper than that, thinking our health in a wider sense; perhaps a sense of wellbeing springs not just from good food and drink but from the way we live our lives in the world as well.

Spring water might taste great; better, sometimes, than the over-chlorinated stuff running out of the kitchen tap. Often, though there's no discernible difference, as many blind taste tests prove. In the UK there are strict regulations regarding bottled water, and the exact wording that can be used on the label. Here in North America, it's harder to figure out exactly what you're buying. Is it mineral, or spring? Is it naturally fizzy or artificially sparkling? Is it even spring water, or just that mysterious 'de-ionized' stuff, that just turns out to be tap water in disguise? Even before any environmental decisions come into play, you've got to wonder whether it's good for your health to overpay for a substance which you can acquire almost for free, just for the sake of convenience and a brand name.

And then there's the environmental and humanitarian argument. Let's follow that bottle of water that you have in your hand, swinging from it's cleverly designed red cap as you waltz into the gym. It rose from a spring, let's say, in the south of France. It's decanted, via some large machinery and a pumping station into a plastic bottle. The plastic is a by-product of the oil industry. It gets loaded onto a truck and driven to a port. It crosses the Atlantic on a container ship. At the other side, arriving in North America, there's more machinery, and another truck, finally reaching the shelf in your local store. How many miles has it traveled? How many tons of carbon burned? And when you've finished with it, even if you throw that bottle into the recycling can , more energy is consumed in carting it to a recycling center, and in the process of breaking it back down into its constituent plastic parts, to make something new.

Still feeling that it's done you more good than a glass from the tap?

Taking account of the environmental and human cost of those bottles of spring water should be enough to make anyone feel queasy. The four main global companies in this market are Coke, PepsiCo, Danone and Nestle. Do you want to give them any more money? What if we took even a fraction of that $85 billion a year that we can afford to spend on bottles of water and thought about our woman in Mali, walking to the standpipe? I bet she'd be glad of some clean tap water in her kitchen right now.

So next time you head out the gym, take a refillable bottle from the tap. Next time you're in a restaurant, ask for a glass of tap water. And send a few dollars to Wateraid. I promise, you'll feel much better right away.

Learn more about this author, Margot Maynard.
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