Inferior Aqua: Jakarta, Indonesia

I drink heaps of water every day and I am forever popping into the Circle K or another outlet and buying a few litres. There are so many brands on the market and even that fancy crap that tastes yuk, Evian.

To me water is water and there is no need to import the stuff because I reckon the locally processed bottled water is just fine. Generally, Candika and I choose Aqua. She is forever checking the plastic seal has not been tampered with. God bless her!. Good point this because there are some disreputable people out there wanting to make a quick buck.

Take the case in Tangerang where two people were arrested for deceiving consumers into thinking they were buying Aqua. City police detectives raided a house where they suspect inferior quality water was being bottled and labelled as top brand Aqua. These guys were doing okay with their deception because they were selling about 600 19-liter containers of fake Aqua a day!. The fake aqua was bottled in containers produced by Aqua Golden Mississippi. A 19-liter container of Aqua sells for about Rp10,000 but the type of water the suspects were selling fetches about Rp2,500.

This might seem to have happened a long way from Bali but it is a case of you just never know. So, next time you purchase that bottle of water just check the plastic seal has not been tampered with. What gripes me is when you are in a restoran and they bring an 'opened' bottle of water to the table. It has happened to me a few times. I won't write what Candika told them to do with it!.