Water rip-off

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And a staggering 1.4 million children die every year because when they do, it kills them.

And now, you can buy it in Dubai, for the princely sum of dhs250 a bottle.

That is the price of a bottle of drinking water unveiled last night at Harvey Nichols when Bling H20 - a crystal-encrusted bottle of water - made its debut in the emirate.

The same amount of money would supply a child in Africa with water for life.

According to goodplanet.org, 5,000 people die every day because of dirty drinking water, while 1.1 billion people in developing countries currently have no, or inadequate, access to clean drinking water.

But it is not just this irony that has shocked some people, it is also the sheer amount of resources that goes into producing the luxury product.

Habiba Al Marashi, the chairwoman at Emirates Environmental Group (EEG), said: "The product is designed to cater to a certain market without any thought or concern about the environment.

"The amount of water used for packaging and transporting this product is much more than the amount of water it contains.

"Although we can only warn producers about what products and services they should offer to the people, consumers I believe should be guided by their common sense in buying such a product."

And some charities are hoping that if people are feeling flush, they may choose to donate the money to them, rather than splashing out on Bling H20.

Ted Kuepper is the executive director at Global Water, an international non-profit organisation that strives to help save the lives of people in developing countries that are lost due to unclean water.

For the last 25 years, Global Water has worked closely with communities and local NGOs establishing suitable water projects in rural villages throughout the world.

Having witnessed the hardships some people around the world encounter simply to secure a clean glass of water, the idea of spending dhs250 on a bottle of the stuff leaves a bad taste in the mouth of those who work with Global Water.

"As you could guess, paying exorbitant amounts for bottled water doesn't make much sense to us at our humanitarian organisation, Global Water," says Kuepper.

"We'd rather see those folks contribute to water projects that can help people in developing countries that do not have clean water to drink at any price.

"For example, we're trying to raise $2,400 (dhs8,800) right now to dig a well at a rural school in Nicaragua where about 1,000 students attend. That's only $2.40 (dhs8) per child to provide clean water to every child at the school."

He added: "And the children can bring water containers with them to fill at school for use at home later.  

"So the bottom line is one can get a very high return by contributing to humanitarian water projects that are managed by organisations such as Global Water."

And Al Marashi also had some suggestions on how better to use dhs250 than splash out on a bottle of water.

"Donate some money to EEG's million-tree campaign and contribute to urban greening," says Al Marashi. "Donating a Neem Tree costs around dhs150-dhs200.

"So, after spending some cash on a tree, you will still have plenty of change left to buy a bottle of refreshing water without the bling."

7DAYS asked Harvey Nichols to quiz Bling H20's founder, Kevin G Boyd, on issues surrounding its launch, including who would spend so much on a bottle of water, however we never received answers to our questions.

© 7Days 2009