THE drinks giant Coca-Cola has borrowed the business acumen of Del Boy to launch its latest drink in Britain.

“Pure, still water,” it says on the label, produced with a “state of the art osmosis process”. But the question remains: Is it the real thing?

Just like the bottled tap water sold as Peckham Spring in the BBC comedy Only Fools and Horses, so Coca-Cola is marketing purified water from Sidcup as a designer product. The company has, however, decided against naming the water Sidcup Spring and instead chosen Dasani, already established as a leading brand in the United States.

The name was created by people who love water and who thought it suggested “relaxation, pureness and replenishment”, according to a company website.

The UK product comes at a designer price of 95p for 500ml and is sold in bright blue bottles suggesting idyllic fresh water scenes.

Thames Water, however, which supplies water to the £7 million water purification and bottling plant in Sidcup, charges its customers just 0.0316p per 500ml.

The source is also much less exotic. Sidcup tap water is pumped from a borehole linked to groundwater aquifers under the town. It is then treated at an unmanned plant at Riverside Road, Bexley, before being pumped to an underground reservoir at nearby Farningham, which feeds the taps.

Judith Snyder, a spokeswoman for Coca-Cola, confirmed that the Dasani source was the local mains supply to its Sidcup factory. She insisted, however, that the water went through a purification process which involved three filters to remove particles and debris including chlorine. The water then passes through a stage known as reverse osmosis, which removes “bacteria, viruses, salts, minerals, sugars, proteins and toxin particles”.

Ms Snyder said: “We then add a number of minerals to make it taste nicer.” According to the label, Dasani ingredients include calcium, 60mg per litre, magnesium, 20mg, sulphate, 95mg, sodium, 10mg, bicarbonate, 30mg and chloride, 100mg.

Asked whether she thought people would think they were being ripped off, Ms Snyder said: “I hope people will not be misled. On our pack it says we are using the process and that it is purified water. The only way people would be ripped off if it’s something they could get themselves, but they can’t. Dasani is water as pure as you can get.”

Barrie Clarke, a spokesman for UK Water which represents the regulated water companies, said, however, that the suggestion behind the purification process seems to be that tap water is impure.

“People don’t need to buy this stuff to get excellent quality, healthy water. The suggestion you have to spend a lot of money for a healthy drink of water is wrong,” he said.

Thames Water, which supplies Sidcup taps, appeared bemused. A spokesman said: “Our tap water passes 99.92 per cent of quality tests. If the water regulator thought any more treatment was needed, they would ask us to do so.”

A spokesman for the Food Commission, a consumer group, said: “You have to credit Coca-Cola with a large sense of humour. If anyone can tell the difference with tap water good luck to them. Your body won’t notice any difference, but your bank balance will.”

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