What are the better options for packaging water?

It used to be that we could use a public fountain or water source in many places. Why do we have to buy water in the first instance. 

Perhaps companies who already package thousands of bottles of water a day, would simply switch over to a bio-degradable form of plastic that would reduces the risk to the environment.

I think that reusable bottles would alleviate the problem: Bring your own and just pay for the refill with clean drinking water. Growing up, this is how it worked with milk for our family! Besides, this might also be cheaper for the manufacturers, since their drinking water product could be transported in larger quantities and distributed over a small, inexpensive local vending station.