Detailed, nuanced, and utterly misleading . . .  Where to start?

First, bottled water is far from the only beverage where packaging costs outweigh production costs.  Almost all soda pops and some juices are this way as well.

Second, bottled water may seem an extravagance in the USA, where tap water is generally clean, but I'll tell you that I'm sure glad bottled water exists when travelling in India or South America.

Third, is it really the bottled water company's fault that Fiji can't pull its collective head out of its ass to provide clean drinking water on a major island tourist destination?  What does the author suggest, nationalizing the bottled water company so as to cut off income?  If they are really making such a killing, just tax them appropriately, and use the proceeds to purchase any one of a number of inexpensive water purification technologies available. 

Fourth, and most egregious, "The global economy has contrived to deny the most fundamental element of life to 1 billion people, while delivering to us an array of water "varieties" from around the globe, not one of which we actually need."  Precisely how has the "global economy" denied safe drinking water to people in need?  One might blame overpopulation of arid areas, ustable local governments, squandered loans and non-profit grants, but the "global economy?" 

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For the record, I hardly ever buy bottled water in the USA for many of the reasons cited in the article.  But too many of its conclusions are huge over-reaches for me to take the author very seriously.