Companies in the US are selling "raw" water (opens new window), which means the water has been untreated. At $50 for 9 litres, it seems pretty expensive for something that's likely to leave you sick.

The idea seems to be that there's no artificial chemicals such as chlorine or Ozone in the water. And, of course, there are conspiracy theories about how fluoride is a mind control drug. However, there are ways other than chlorine to treat water and make it safe, such as UV treatment.

Presumably the companies, if not cleaning the water, are at least testing it regularly to ensure there are no nasty bugs in there. However, things can slip past testing whereas chlorine is much more likely to be a solution that doesn't let disease slip through the cracks.

Both Alison Campbell and Mark Hanna did a great job of telling the NZ Herald just how daft the idea is. Mark called the idea of selling raw water "quackery" and warned against people trying it in NZ.

Thankfully, bottling and selling raw water in NZ seems to be illegal so hopefully although we might see people jumping on the bandwagon over here we're unlikely to see anyone profiting from it.