The owners of the San Pellegrino brand would have you believe that Leonardo da Vinci visited the Italian town of that name to taste its now-famous water. This sounded to me like the kind of gilt-by-association used by Molskine, claiming that Hemingway used their products -- an endorsement which turns out to be "not the absolute truth."

Hunting for evidence of the Leonardo - San Pellegrino connection involved the amusing process of registering at Italian-langugae e-Leo to peruse original manuscripts. I felt like a character in an Eco novel puzzling out the "Sfoglia i manoscritti." It was both fruitless and fascinating. But the internet had more to offer.

Searches for "bottled water" returned several blogs linking to an exposé in FastCompany magazine about the huge growth in the water market, mentioning Pellegrino but focusing on Fiji water. In fact, it's a well-researched and balanced article, but latter-day Malthusians can't be bothered to read the whole thing; the result is a lot of hand-wringing:

"What’s a conscientious gal to do? Confess on a blog? Will that wash away my carbon footprint?"

"I don't want to be the ranting environmental wacko ... how spoiled a nation we are ... I'm not saying we should completely ban bottled water...."

So what's the issue?

The key quote seems to be this:
"And in Fiji, a state-of-the-art factory spins out more than a million bottles a day of the hippest bottled water on the U.S. market today, while more than half the people in Fiji do not have safe, reliable drinking water. Which means it is easier for the typical American in Beverly Hills or Baltimore to get a drink of safe, pure, refreshing Fiji water than it is for most people in Fiji."

This irony must not stand! But people, relax a bit. How does the purchase in Baltimore of some Fijian water really affect the Fijians and their ability to get safe water? There are some clues in the article:

"The plant employs 200 islanders--set to increase to 250 this year--most with just a sixth- or eighth-grade education. Even the entry-level jobs pay twice the informal minimum wage."

"This spring, typhoid from contaminated drinking water swept one of Fiji's islands, sickening dozens of villagers and killing at least one. Fiji Water often quietly supplies emergency drinking water in such cases."

"The reality is, if Fiji Water weren't tapping its aquifer, the underground water would slide into the Pacific Ocean, somewhere just off the coast. But the corresponding reality is, someone else--the Fijian government, an NGO--could be tapping that supply and sending it through a pipe to villagers who need it. Fiji Water has, in fact, done just that, to some degree--20 water projects in the five nearby villages."

Seems crystal clear to me.