Bottled water as daily drinking water Thirty five years after Bisleri launched India's first bottled water, urban India is filled with numerous bottled water brands, some known, and some unknown. There are more then 250 brands and 2000 plus bottling plants across the country. The market for packaged drinking water is around Rs 10 billion and is growing at the rate of 40 percent per annum. However, there are many issues that come with this huge industry. One was the CSE expose that found contaminants in bottled water. That concentrated on pesticides and targeted the known brands like Kinley, Aquafina and Bisleri. I want to raise a few issues here about this industry that can be discussed: 1. There are numerous unknown bottled water brands across the country. There is a huge demand for packaged water among middle class urban Indian which believes bottled water to be better quality than tap, boiled or other water for drinking. Due to the presence of so many brands in the market, it is difficult monitor their manufacturing process and water quality. My question is -- are they adhering to quality standards or is the water is spurious? How does a consumer know it and where are the regulators to monitor it? 2. Another question that comes to my mind (I am not technically sure) is about the claims of the treatment undertaken to treat the water before it is sealed. Many brands, especially unknown local brands write in their bottles that the water is UV treated, RO treated, ozonized and various other treatments that the water went through before it was bottled. My question is -- are these technically true or they are just claims? Do we need water to pass though so many multiple treatment processes or one or two processes are enough? Does any of these treatment processes clash with each other? Are these just tall claims or they are actually undertaking all these processes? 3. It's my understanding that many times, when one opens a packaged water bottle, it is filled to the brim. But many bottles especially of known brands are not filled to the brim. The bottle has a capacity (500 ml for e.g.) and that capacity is not till the brim of a bottle but about a few ml below. Hence, when the water is packed though standard bottling procedure, the filled water is equal to the bottle capacity and this leaves a small portion near the rim of a bottle empty over which the cap is sealed. In case of spurious filling of water, which can happen from a normal tap, then the one who is filling does not normally think about this gap that has to be maintained, and hence fills the bottle to the rim and seals it. I found many bottles once opened filled to the rim in places like airport, railway stations etc. What is others take on similar experiences? 4. My final question to ponder: Is this urban India's sustainable choice for their daily drinking water needs-- the water which in most cases is extracted illegally from the already depleting groundwater? Does the urban consumer think about how much they are spending buying this water in a month and compare it to their regular water bills? The consumer is willing to pay about Rs 50 per bottle (one needs more then a bottle a month) for a 20 litre bottled water but is unhappy about paying for corporation water if that rate is hiked. - Binayak
Post By: iwp