Bottled water set to overtake carbonated drinks in US sales

Bottled water will be more popular than soda for the first time in the US this year, thanks to its convenience, and fears over what’s coming out of the tap.

The biggest US bottled-water companies — Nestle Waters, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Dr Pepper-Snapple Group — say Americans have switched from carbonated beverages because their products are calorie-free and as portable as a can of Mountain Dew.

But the expectation that future sales will rise has to do with another, less happy reason: crumbling infrastructure.