Have we noticed that the brands like Aquafina or Kinleys that we consume is not mineral water but packaged drinking water. There is a difference as we all must be aware of. A packaged drinking water is a regular water which is treated to get into standard norm of drinking and a mineral water is untreated water from the river water or clean spring water perhaps carry more of dissolved salts and minerals. There must be more than 200 hundreds brands of “mineral water” being “ produced” and marketed in Delhi
Me hailing from Hazaribagh had very little idea of buying water for myself in future. Thankfully my place is considered as place “jahan ka paani bahut accha hain “ and forms one of the various reasons Bengalis settled there. Strangely when a well was being dug at our home water emerged after digging only four feet. Our well only about 16 feet deep has never been dry . This time I hear there is an acute shortage of water in my small town and the supply water has been almost dry.A comparison with Delhi
So now water for drinking is completely a packaged and marketing game. Drinking water is synonymous with packaged drinking water. For other uses the water is from bore water we get from civil supplies. Everyone goes for some local brand of drinking water if Kinley and Bisleri cant be afforded. Unfortunately one can easily find out some local agencies filling the water from tap and supplying the same without any treatement and we take it as long as we are convinced of proper seal (we Indians so much fascinated by the concept of Seal). What amazes me is the change in the mindset where people are willing to pay for water on grounds of health. There are even one rupee packet for water.
Our per capita consumption of mineral water is only 0.5 litre a day. Which is 60 crore litre. And the business of these packaged drinking water would exceed more than 1000 crores.
But then around 28 crore Indians have no acess to drinking water at all.
Drinking water is indeed a great problem these days and even i never faced it at home in Bokaro.
ReplyDeleteBokaro was always water abundant. We got supply water all our life and still i havent really heard of any problems as we are 'privileged'. But mom said now the supply water comes only once in a day.
i understood real water problems only when i left home. Rajasthan stands out in that experience. I remember and u too would that i got paid water at my village, 50INR for a quintal fill for the underground tank. That was used for every purpose. And people would steal water too when we would be in office. So i had to lock my water tank ! Had never imagined such a situation in life. Later after i left my ex-colleagues told me the cost is now 150-200 INR.
I had many bad water experiences in life: at Ahmedabad (i remember taking bath in my office), at Rajasthan, at delhi hostel (where we would keep filled buckets locked in our rooms!)
again the quality was worst in Rajasthan. It made my hair thin, my skin dry and gave me several problems. I thought i would get bisleri to take bath but no good. How much can i buy! Though some people do!
The only place that i experienced good water was dehradun.
At Vizag it was only towards the end that we had problems. Yes, the water was not drinkable..
But now, again in delhi, i know water is precious stuff and so it is such a business.
If u r rich u can do a lot :) Near my office i see the St.Columbas School swimming pool is always filled with clean blue water and there is a fountain nearby...
i wanted to write about this..never did get the time...the things i want to write will make a post so i will do that..
ReplyDeleteBut both of you are right..this is just the beginning...the way we have played with our ecosystem with rampant misuse of our already limited water resource, just a matter of time...
Truly said!! Just think we are now buying Evian at a whooping price of 85/bottle.
ReplyDelete