Legislative Action

UK: MP's bottled water plea

Manchester Evening News. By David Ottewell -

MPS have been urged to stop drinking bottled water.

Blackley MP Graham Stringer urged Commons authorities to `stop the purchase of 250,000 bottles of water bought by the House every year' in a Commons early day motion.

The motion has already been signed by 29 MPs, including Labour's Jim Dobbin (Heywood and Middleton) and Liberal Democrat John Leech (Manchester Withington).

The motion claims `the most efficient and least environmentally-damaging way to transport water is by pipe'.

And it congratulates Phil Woolas - the environment minister and MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth - on his recent comments on the subject.

Earlier this month, Mr Woolas asked whether it was ethical for British people to buy so many bottles of water when they could get practically the same product straight from the tap.

He said: "It borders on morally being unacceptable to spend hundreds of millions of pounds on bottled water when we have pure drinking water, and when one of the crises that is facing the world is the supply of water. There are many countries who unfortunately haven't got pure tap water."

Mr Stringer said: "The amount of bottled water consumed every year is not only extremely expensive but also incredibly damaging to the environment.

"The motion highlights the amount of bottled water consumed in the House of Commons and asks for a plan to be drawn up to end this practice.

"The transportation of bottled water not only damages the environment it also contributes to the congestion on Britain's roads."