The landscape of the Chinese bottled water industry has been recently put under the spotlight, as one of the most urgent issues that China needs to overcome. However, the amount of information that surrounds this industry is sparse. One of the main challenges in this field is the industry’s lack of transparency that threatens the safe quality of water. Furthermore, in this area the regulation is weak. For instance, Chinese bottlers are not required to list the water source or filtration method and often do not divulge this information to the public. This situation is particular alarming in countries with severe water pollution and weak legal and regulatory enforcement as China: in this way, is especially important for bottlers to be transparent about the water’s source and purification mechanism. The country’s weak regulatory regime represents one of the most important threat to the industry. The regulation does not require bottlers to test for a number of indicators as acidity or for compounds like mercury and silver. Data show that in China 70% of fresh water resources are polluted to some degree. These figures stress that stringent filtration criteria are crucial factors. Moreover, unhealthy water quality does not represent the only public health risk: recent events have revealed a number of scandals involving brand falsification. Some research have unveiled that nearly 60% of the bottled water jugs on the Chinese market are falsely branded. Additionally, these studies have stressed that many illegal water industries bottle tap water and sell it under the appearance of popular brand names. Recent contamination scandals have increased concerns related to bottled water safety. To make an example, surveys conducted by China’s regulatory authorities have found in bottled water elevated levels of bromate, an element suspected to be carcinogen. In that context, experts suggest that authorities need to establish stricter regulations in order to avoid the consequences of severe pollution and contamination on public health. However, the industry continues to rely heavily on self-monitoring, worsening the situation already characterized by a weak regulatory system. In addition to that, industries often fail to deal with internal standards set by the government. Finally, the price of bottled water may represent another alarming threat. Estimates show that domestic bottled water prices have recently risen 5–10 %: this trend will probably continue as quality standards improve and water scarcity increases. The gLAWcal Team EPSEI project Saturday, 2 August 2014 (Source: ChinaDialogue)