Beijing residents consume vast quantities of bottled water on a daily basis to escape the Chinese capital’s pollutant-and-germ-infested tap. But it’s a wet Russian roulette, according to Chinese reports, since it turns out that one-sixth of that supposedly clean water is actually taken from the same tap Beijingers wanted to avoid in the first place.
Statistics from the Beijing Association for Barreled Drinking Water give a total of around 10,000 businesses selling filtered water in the city, of which only 50 to 60 percent are regulated. The association said that nearly 5,000 shops sell unfiltered or partially unfiltered water.
Of 650,000 filtered water containers sold in Beijing daily, the association estimates that one- sixth contain water from the tap.
Back-Alley Water
A typical establishment is the Yongkang Water Delivery Service Center, which, like many other such shops, is located in a small Beijing alley. A report by Beijing Evening News described dozens of water barrels “casually piled up” in the shop along with produce, packaging boxes, and miscellaneous goods.
The water containers at the Yongkang center were plastered with labels reading “High quality drinking water.”
These stickers are a good sign that the water is actually tap, said Mr. Lang, who heads the market supervision office at the Beijing Association for Barreled Drinking Water.
“Labels that don’t specify the factory name or brand are all fakes made by small workshops. Those small workshops don’t have the ability to make filtered drinking water, let alone ensure quality or safety. Some of them directly fill the barrels with tap water,” Lang told Beijing Evening News.
