Just how bad is bottled water?

Being anti-bottled water is all the rage these days. I read long ago about how tap water is actually required to meet more stringent health standards then bottled water. Plus, all that plastic, transportation, etc. I really like this guy Pablo's column, it just moved to Salon. By his analysis:

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/01/14/ask_pablo_water/

an EMPTY 1 Liter bottle requires 7 liters of water, 162 grams of oil, and creates 100 grams of green house gas emissions. And that's BEFORE the bottled is shipped to your local store.

I question his analysis that we could provide clean water to everyone for 1/5 of what we spend on bottled water. I'm not sure simply digging wells is the answer (don't many people not have clean water because digging wells in their area isn't possible?). But, it's very clear that if we re-allocated the resources we spend on bottled water, we could do a lot of good!