The walk from the FT to the Savoy Grill was longer than I remembered. It was a warm London day and I was running late. Arriving, I discovered to my relief that my lunch companion was running even later. “Can I bring you anything to drink?” the woman who showed me to my table asked. A glass of tap water, I said. You would have thought I had requested a lap dance from the ma?tre d'.

  從報社到Savoy Grill餐廳的路比我記憶中的要長。那是倫敦一個溫暖的中午，我遲到了。到了地方之后，我欣慰地發現，跟我一起吃午飯的人甚至比我還晚。“您要點兒什么喝的嗎？”帶我到餐桌前的引座員問道。一杯自來水，我說道。你會想，這簡直就相當于讓她來一段腿上艷舞。

  After some disapproving shuffling, my water arrived as my companion slipped into her seat. “Some wine?” our waiter asked. Just water, she replied. “Sparkling, still or” – he gave me a sharp glance – “tap water?”

  經過幾番不滿意的推諉之后，我的水終于上來了，這時我的同伴也坐到了座位上。“來點酒嗎？”我們的服務員問道。就要水吧，她回答說。“蘇打水，蒸餾水，還是”——他犀利地掃了我一眼——“自來水？”

  Repeat this performance often enough and I suppose we should not be surprised that sales of bottled water worldwide have increased to 180bn litres a year from 78bn a decade ago. But future generations of historians will surely view our attitude to drinking water with astonishment.

  只要這種表演重復的次數足夠多，我想，對于全世界瓶裝水銷量從10年前的每年780億公升上升到1800億公升，我們就不會感到驚訝了。但未來的歷史學家一定會以驚奇的眼光看待我們對喝水的態度。

  Thames Water charges my household a little over £1 (€1.40) a day for all the water we can drink and as much as we need to shower, bath, flush the toilets and run the washing machine and dishwasher. Why would we pay a price close to that daily rate for a half-litre plastic bottle of the stuff?

  對于我家喝掉的所有水，以及淋浴、泡澡、沖馬桶、洗衣服和洗碗用的水，泰晤士水務(Thames Water)每天收取略高于1英鎊的稅費。為什么我們要支付接近于這筆稅費的價格來買半升裝塑料瓶裝水呢？

  Those of us who have access to clean and safe drinking water are the luckiest people on earth. Millions do not. We are also the luckiest in history. Until a little under a century ago, public drinking water carried with it the risk of typhoid fever or cholera. Only the very poor drank water. Those who could afford it drank beer or tea with boiled water instead. People with some money drank “small beer” – water mixed with enough beer to kill off some of those nasty micro-organisms.

  我們之中能夠喝到潔凈安全的飲用水的人，是地球上最幸運的人。數以百萬計的人都喝不到。我們也是歷史上最幸運的人。在不到1個世紀以前，公共飲用水還攜帶著感染傷寒或者霍亂的風險。只有最窮的人才喝自來水。那些可以負擔得起的人則喝啤酒或者用開水沏茶。有點錢的人喝“淡啤酒”——水中攙上足夠多的啤酒，以殺死部分骯臟微生物。#p#分頁標題#e#

  Adding chlorine to the water supply changed all that. In his illuminating book, Wellsprings: a Natural History of Bottled Spring Waters, the American hydrologist, Francis Chapelle, says the chlorination of public drinking water “has probably saved more human lives than any other technological advance in public health history”.

  在自來水中加氯改變了這一切。美國水文學家弗朗西斯•夏佩爾(Francis Chapelle)在他的啟蒙著作《水源：瓶裝泉水的自然史》(Wellsprings: a Natural History of Bottled Spring Waters)中寫道，用氯處理公共飲用水“或許比公共衛生史上任何技術進步所拯救的人類生命都要多”。

  So why do people still buy bottled water? Many say it is the chlorine that drives them to it: they do not like the taste. Except that in blind tastings, most people cannot tell the difference between tap and bottled water. My favourite tasting was carried out in 1997 by The Sunday Times. One supposedly expert member of its panel described a glass of water as having a “fresh, sweet lemony aroma”. It was tap water from a Birmingham public toilet.

  那么，人們為什么還要購買瓶裝水呢？許多人說，是氯迫使他們這樣做的：他們不喜氯的味道。只可惜在味覺盲測中，多數人都分辨不出自來水和瓶裝水的區別。《星期日泰晤士報》1997年刊登過一篇我最喜歡的味覺測試。一位大概是測試小組專家成員的人稱一杯水有一種“清新、甘甜的檸檬味”。它實際上是伯明翰一座公廁中的自來水。

  Others say they do not believe tap water is as safe as their governments claim. Drinking water poisoned people in Cornwall, south-west England, in 1988. In 1993, hundreds of thousands in Milwaukee suffered diarrhoea and vomiting after the water supply was contaminated. More than 100 died.

  其他人表示，他們不相信自來水有政府說的那么安全。1988年，飲用水導致英格蘭西南部康沃爾郡的人中毒。1993年，在水源受到污染之后，美國密爾沃基市許多居民出現腹瀉和嘔吐。逾100人死亡。

  But bottled water has had its contamination scares too, although admittedly they have never hurt any one. Perrier had to destroy 160m bottles in 1990 after the discovery of benzene levels twice as high as those regarded as safe by the World Health Organisation. (Benzene is a flammable chemical used in the production of paint and cleaning fluids.)

  但瓶裝水也存在污染問題，盡管不可否認，它們從未對任何人造成傷害。Perrier在1990年發現，其瓶裝水的苯含量達到世界衛生組織安全標準的兩倍，該公司不得不銷毀了1.6億瓶水。（苯是一種易燃化學物質，用在涂料和清潔劑的生產中。）

  In 2004, Coca-Cola recalled its Dasani bottled mineral water in the UK after discovering that it contained illegal levels of bromate, a chemical that could increase the risk of cancer. It also emerged that Dasani was processed tap water. Several of the leading brands are processed tap water.

  2004年，可口可樂在英國召回其Dasani瓶裝礦泉水，原因是發現其溴酸鹽含量超標。溴酸鹽是一種可能致癌的化學物質。人們還發現，Dasani是經過加工的自來水。幾個知名品牌使用的都是經過加工的自來水。

  In his book, Mr Chapelle argues that we cannot ascribe the vogue for bottled water to mere shallowness. Worries about water are buried deep in our consciousness. #p#分頁標題#e#

  夏佩爾在他的書中主張，我們不能將瓶裝水的流行單純地歸咎于膚淺。對水的擔憂深藏在我們的潛意識里。

  Water-borne micro-organisms, he writes, “have had 3.9bn years to figure out various ingenious lifestyles for surviving and thriving in water. Humanity, on the other hand, has only been in the water-treatment business for a few hundred years.” Water fussiness is part of what it means to be human.

  他寫道，水里的微生物，“花了39億年，來領悟各種在水中和繁衍生息的獨特方式。而另一方面，人類的水處理業務僅有數百年歷史。”對水保持謹慎是人類正常的反應之一。

  But even Mr Chapelle's sympathy is strained by the bottled-water drinkers of New York City, whose tap water arrives from the Catskill Mountains, naturally infused with just enough calcium, magnesium and potassium to give it a truly delicious taste. Yet New Yorkers probably drink more bottled water than anyone. It is about fashion, he concludes.

  但即便是夏佩爾的體諒，也受到紐約市瓶裝水飲用者的挑戰。紐約的自來水來自卡茨基爾山，天然含有足量的鈣、鎂和鉀，味道十分甘美。然而，紐約人飲用的瓶裝水可能比其它任何地方都多。他總結道，這是因為時尚。

  People spend thousands on luxury-branded handbags for the same reason. But at least buyers of handbags do not receive an unlimited supply of nearly identical products at home almost free of charge.

  人們花數千美元購買奢侈品牌的手袋，也是出于同樣的原因。但至少手袋的購買者不會收到無限量供應的近乎相同的產品，并且幾乎是免費的。

  Still, there is a change in the air. However much people fear chlorine in their water, they fear climate change more. And climate change at least has some solid science behind it. San Francisco's city authorities and the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs are questioning the environmental cost of bottling and transporting all that water. Coke and PepsiCo are promising to increase their recycling of plastic water bottles. We can all do our bit. Stand up to those waiters.

  不過，情況已有所改變。無論人們對水中的氯有多么擔憂，他們都更擔心氣候變化。氣候變化至少存在一些可靠的科學依據。美國舊金山市政當局與英國環境、食品和農村事務署正對將水裝瓶和運輸的環保成本提出質疑。可口可樂和百事可樂也作出了承諾，將加強塑料瓶的回收工作。我們都可以盡自己的綿薄之力。理直氣壯地面對那些服務員。