Bottled water banned from Australian town and state government offices

The rural Australian town of Bundanoon has outlawed the sale of bottled water, making it the first community Down Under – and possibly the world – to impose such a ban.

Bundanoon, located in New South Wales, passed the decree in a town meeting earlier this week, hours after the state's premier, Nathan Rees, banned all state government departments and agencies from buying bottled water. Rees said purchasing bottled water was a waste of taxpayer money and natural resources.

However, as Bundanoon, a town of 2,500 residents, was making a splash in international headlines, Australian media reported that three companies who supply bottled water to state government departments have contracts lasting to March 2011.

The disclosure led Rees to backtrack slightly, saying yesterday that the state would minimise – and eventually phase out – the use of bottled water in government departments. He also conceded that exemptions may be made to provide civil servants with access to cool water on hot days.

Come September, bottled water will no longer be stocked on Bundanoon store shelves. In their place will be reusable plastic bottles that can be filled with filtered water for a small fee, or topped up for free at the town's water fountains.

Compliance will be on a voluntary basis, as penalties will not be imposed on shopkeepers who contravene the ban. However, it has the support of town's business owners, who have pledged to go with the flow.

Bundanoon residents have been fighting an ongoing battle against a Sydney-based company that wants to extract 34 million litres of water annually from a county reservoir, with the intention of selling it as bottled spring water.

Over the past 14 years, Norlex Holdings has submitted four water drilling applications to the local council, despite the applications being rejected each time. After the most recent refusal in December 2008, Norlex lodged a legal appeal against the decision.

The South Wales state land court has yet to hand down its ruling on the case.