Green Cities: Bundanoon-The Australian town that banned bottled water...

Well, it looks as though someone has finally conquered the industry and managed to ban the bottled stuff in a municipality.

Last week, the small Australian town of Bundanoon voted nearly unanimously to ban the sale of bottled water in its stores. This legislation is thought to be the first of its kind in the world. Up until now, the most notable bans of bottled water were within public buildings, including several Canadian cities.

Banning bottled water in public buildings appears to be quite a tough battle in Canada. At this point it's the most attainable jurisdiction for public bodies to enact such a ban. But banning within an entire municipality is a whole other ball game. Not only are government-owned buildings prohibited from selling it, more importantly, privately-owned businesses are prohibited from doing it as well.

For many businesses, in Canada at least, such an idea would hit a giant wall laced with barbed wire and laser cannons. After all, bottled water is one of the most popular and profitable products sellers can dish out. And since the health authorities haven't found anything that would pose significant danger to humans--other studies contradict that thinking--the businesses don't feel they'd have much reason to ban bottled water.

But the shopkeepers in Bundanoon felt quite differently. They voted unanimously for the ban, citing environmental concerns and the attempt by a bottling company to pump water from one of the town's groundwater reservoirs back to its bottling facility in Sydney. Undoubtedly, the bottled water would be sold back to the town's residents. It's not particularly surprising that something like that might bother people.

The lone voices of opposition during the vote came from (unsurprisingly) a representative from the bottled water industry and one resident who was concerned that tourists wouldn't have anything to drink. Instead, the town proposes to build additional water fountains and supply re-usable canisters labeled "Bundy on Tap".

It's true that this town might be in a unique position. It is very small (approximately 2,500 people live there), Australia is suffering from a very significant drought so any available water supplies probably shouldn't be touched by the bottled water industry, and it was subject to an 'invasion' by a bottling company. But this type of thing has to start somewhere.

Soon enough other municipalities will start to realize that they are not all that different from Bundanoon. Freshwater supplies are expected to dwindle in the coming decades, even in water-rich Canada, and bottled water companies will start to take from riskier sources of water. That is, sources that entire towns or cities rely on (some do this already).

The ban has already picked up some steam in Australia. The premier of New South Wales (the province Bundanoon is located in) is in full support of the ban and has banned bottled water in all public facilities. Hopefully, such a ban can be applied to a larger area.

This ban is a huge step. On its own, it won't do too much, but it will undoubtedly pick up momentum and start spreading to other areas. Perhaps it'll stay in Australia for awhile, but inevitably such a thing will migrate to the rest of the world. But don't be surprised to see the bottled water industry fire up its marketing arsenal for what will probably be the fight of its life.