When I read that I don't think the full story has been covered. Id like to hear flight attendants side of the story. But in saying that airline is worried about contamination is more or less saying, "You are going to buy our bottled water and if you don't like it fly with someone else". Flew on a relatively new Emirates A340-500 recently, water stations with cups everywhere.
Dinned out in about 10 restaurants in Melbourne over the NYE period and asked for a glass of iced water at all of them, still they all came through and served me water from the tap.
Now this just makes me think in my whole life how many restaurants have said, "I'm sorry sir you can only buy bottled water for health & safety reasons".... not even one.
Personally I think it is a health hazard not to offer passengers water whether they buy it in a bottle or not due to the humidity in the cabin environment. I wonder how long before some tight-ass passes out because of lack of fluids?