I got an email out of the blue the other day from a guy I used to surf with at Uni. Anyway turns out his wife runs a bottled water business, but one with a big difference. It's called Frank Water ( www.frankwater.com ) and essentially donates all its profits to providing drinking water for developing countries.
You'll have probably heard the adverts that Volvic (the French mineral water guys) have been running about their water for African water campaign. I'd like to think that it's the Frank Water guys who've kicked the Volvic guys into action, although they only promise 10 litres of water for Africa for every litre purchased, whereas the Frank Water guys provide 200 litres for every one litre purchased.
This seems a very interesting model, where we the "haves" can indulge ourselves with the likes of bottled water and do something constructive for the so many "have nots" around the globe. It will be interesting to see if this spurs any of the other water brands into similar action.
Perhaps in these times of credit squeeze and tightening family budgets bottled water will be perceived as an unnecessary luxury and people will just revert to the tap and a reusable water bottle you can buy from ay sports shop for £2 or so.
