Municipalities all over the country decided a long time ago that having safe water to drink was a pretty good thing. It was so good that people in the community were willing to contribute to it. So they worked together to gather enough money from people who had a lot and people who didn't have much to build water systems that would deliver safe water to everyone. Everyone could drink right out of their taps. As an added bonus, they didn't have to worry about dealing with the wastewater that they generated from peeing and pooping.
It worked pretty good. In fact, it worked great. By the time I achieved legal adulthood in 1981, pretty much any tap water in the country was safe to drink. But by then Reagan had been elected and things got fucked up. A weird side effect of that was a bunch of liberals with a little bit of money got so confused that they started rejecting things like the tap water that they could count on.
It took about ten years for the sharks to figure out that the monied liberals were ready to ungrid, were ready to scorn the municipal water systems, were easily seduced by the prospect of looking pretty sexy with their Perriers and whatnot. But figure it out they did.
So the bottled water industry exploded in profits and sunglasses and bikinis and holier than thou health claims that had no basis in reality. Meanwhile the rock-solid infrastructure that had delivered safe drinking water for decades deteriorated to the point where it's no longer safe in some highly populated United States cities.
True story. For more info, check out Jen Hayden's diary here.
It's time to pay attention to what's fundamentally necessary to have a civil society in this country. Potable water for everyone is one of those things. Unlimited campaign contributions and 24 hour big screen TV advertising isn't.