Bottled Water Industry in Brunei Darussalam: The Unregulated Sector?

Abstract

Brunei is seeing a proliferation of bottled companies established in the country in the last decade, driven by cheap water supplies, easily available water filtering systems and demand by the public. This research found 16 ‘companies,’ ‘producing’ and distributing over 34 brands of bottled waters in the country. Since bottled water industry is ‘popular,’ it is necessary to understand how the industry is being monitored and regulated by the government as it involved products consumed by the public. Since most of the bottled water companies use water drawn from the pipes supplied by the government, it is also important to understand how the government is protecting, monitoring and regulating this valuable resource from exploitation. This paper is a preliminary research on the bottled water industry in Brunei Darussalam.