Aqua Cola sells 2 billion bottles of beverages a day all over the worl

Hello, err. This is a strange question, and I am pretty sure it would not appear as such on the GMAT™. It is not entirely clear what addressing its water issues may refer to in the question stem: the fact that Aqua Cola uses a lot of water to create its product? Is such usage unsustainable? Is the company having trouble finding enough water? Anyway, to help with your query, answer choice (A) centers on potable or drinkable water in particular. The passage does not stipulate how the 3 liters of water are used to produce the one liter of cola. There is no reason to assume that the water must be drinkable. (What happens to those 3 liters during the manufacturing process? Is any water in the cola? Perhaps there is some sort of purification process of undrinkable water, or the water is simply used for boiling or steaming. We cannot know for sure.)

Answer choice (B) is the least objectionable option, in my view, since, between (B) and (E), the two other options that pair Aqua Cola and water, (E) is less direct: taking part in public awareness programs could mean paying for a billboard or printing ads in a newspaper, and we do not know the reach of these efforts (e.g., one city, one country, or something larger in scope). Meanwhile, working with governments in many countries to preserve the world's rivers sounds like more commitment. I think whoever designed the question wrote it in this train of thought: again, a company uses a lot of water to produce its product, so it needs to address its major water usage, and it does so by working with not just one, but many governments to preserve global water sources. It may not be an airtight chain of logic, but I can see a connection at least.

Perhaps the question, or at least answer choice (A), makes more sense now. Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew