It may be a waste - but it is also the most effective public health measure ever introduced. Safe town water has saved more lives than any medical advance in history. Became general practice in most Western countries from the fourth quarter of the nineteenth century to the third quarter of the twentieth, and now being adopted in many non-western countries, although still with a long way to go.
Education plus filtering (or boiling) only the stuff you drink may achieve the same result, but takes generations to save as many lives.
John

