Members of one were told to drink half a litre of water (a bit more than an American pint) shortly before each of three daily meals.

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He said even 24 years later, people who lived in Camelford at the time of the poisoning should drink a litre of mineral water with a high silicon content every day as this could help flush aluminium from their bodies.

BBC: Carole Cross

Those slum-dwellers who buy their water by the litre, whether they live in Kibera, Dharavi or a Brazilian favela, will pay more for it than their neighbours in richer districts who get it from a tap.

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The US town of Concord in Massachusetts has banned the sale of bottled water in units smaller than one litre.

BBC: Concord, Massachusetts bans sale of small water bottles

Most of this burden was carried as an implicit subsidy to domestic energy consumers, with the price of diesel fuel, for example, set at the equivalent of two American cents a litre, and petrol selling for less than bottled water.

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This Lexus Hybrid Drive powertrain features an all-new, ultra-smooth running, 2.5 litre 4-cylinder petrol engine mated to a compact, high-output, water-cooled permanent magnet electric motor.

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While the report makes a raft of recommendations, Prof Stephenson attacked sugary drinks for being "just water and sugar" and lambasted a culture where it was deemed acceptable to drink a litre of fizzy drink at the cinema.

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Subsidies make up part of the shortfall: water is sold for 5% of what it costs to pipe it, petrol at 11 cents a litre, and 40% of Libyans don't bother to pay for their state-supplied electricity at all.

ECONOMIST: Libya