PROVIDENCE — On the day before the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors opens here, activists gathered Thursday on the steps of the State House to urge officials in Rhode Island and across the country to step up efforts to reduce the nation’s consumption of bottled water.

Members of the Boston-based organization Corporate Accountability International called on Governor Carcieri to order an end to state purchases of bottled water, which totaled at least $73,585 in the nearly 11 months that ended June 1, according to the advocacy group.

Rep. Arthur Handy, D-Cranston, who spoke in support of the effort along with Rep. Frank Ferri, D-Warwick, said the figure for those purchases, from Poland Spring, didn’t include other brands consumed at the State House.

The group also called on the U.S. mayors to adopt a resolution, which is on Monday’s meeting agenda, to investigate how much for water bottlers pay — and how much it costs communities — when beverage companies fill bottles with public water and sell them for profit. Providence Mayor David Cicilline cosponsored that resolution as well as one that the mayors passed last year calling on cities to phase out spending on bottled water.

rsalit@projo.com