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Message in a bottle
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We celebrate World Water Day today guzzling gallons of bottled water. ANAND SANKAR delves into the phenomenon
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PHOTO: PTI
HAVE A SIP Bottled water is all about the mindset that says one can buy the resource
"Normal or bottled water, sir?" This is the first question at a restaurant today. How many actually go for normal water? I always tend to choose bottled water.
Today is World Water Day. UNESCO's theme this year is "Coping With Water Scarcity" and expect the maximum voices to be against commodification of the essential resource that is water. The lobby to privatise water resources, supply and distribution has been steadily growing in India and the role that the urban phenomenon of bottled water plays in the process is fascinating.
From the economic perspective, bottled water is a massive industry. It is quite difficult to find precise numbers for a city like Bangalore but statistics a couple of years ago placed the consumption at around five billion litres for the entire country. This with a per capita consumption of less than five litres a year when compared to a global average of 24 litres.
All about commodification
According to Clifton D' Rozario of the Alternative Law Forum, bottled water plays a role when it comes to desensitising people to the issue of commodification of water.
"It is not about bottled water, it is about a mindset in people that you can actually buy water. There used to be a time when we used to fill water in bottles or cans while travelling on trains. Railway stations used to have water-refilling points. Voluntary organisations used to take a role in providing safe drinking water, but today you pick up a bottle and keep going," he says.
The biggest selling point of bottled water is claimed to be its purity, but the expose by the Centre for Science and Environment put paid to that. "A fear was put into people that water from the tap is unfit for consumption, but that again is for people who have taps. The day might not be far when with your food bill at a restaurant you would get a bill for water," says Kshithij Urs of APSA (Association for Promoting Social Action).
Dr. Urs concedes that the growth of Bangalore has been without adequate state supply, especially in the CMC areas where bottled water is not a culture but necessity. But he is extremely critical of government policy across India that blindly promotes the growth of the bottled water industry, which is one of the most carbon-inefficient ways of transporting water. Dr. Urs cites the case of Andhra Pradesh where a plan is being mooted to supply bottled water to villages.
Isaac Arul Selva from the Campaign Against Water Privatisation Karnataka, blames the rational that if you pay for it, it must be good. He says the situation in our state is not as bad as in Tamil Nadu where according to him "not a single glass of water is available other than in bottles or sachets."
Selva is currently protesting the plan to have "100 per cent" metering of water in Bangalore, which he says would deny sections of society that cannot afford metering piped water.
Rozario points to a tradition in the country that person on his deathbed gets a last glass of water. He warns that in the future it might be necessary to keep Rs. 5 in the pocket to pay for it. "I am uncomfortable with the whole concept. The government has really washed its hands off proving safe drinking water."
The protests against the Coca Cola plant at Plachimada brought the case of exploitation of water resources to spotlight. The CSE report also noted Coca-Cola's bottling plant in the drought-prone Kala Dera near Jaipur. It said the company there gets its water free except for a tiny cess (for discharging the wastewater) it pays to the State Pollution Control Board. This cess was a little over Rs. 5,000 a year during 2000-02 and Rs. 24,246 in 2003.
The company extracted half a million litres of water every day at a cost of 14 paise per 1,000 litres. So, a Rs.10 per litre bottled water has a raw material cost of just 0.02-0.03 paise, taking about two to three litres of groundwater to make one litre of bottled water, the report said.
Rozario brings the issue into perspective when he says: "Bottled water is not extracted from somewhere. Local needs are being sacrificed by the extraction. Communities' supplies are being affected."
Myth in the making
The new fad in bottled water is the variety, which is said to be oxygenated. The water is supposed to be "supercharged" with oxygen. It is claimed to have its own health benefits. Health professionals when contacted said it was a "myth along the lines of using iodised salt".
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