Battling the bottled water industry

American states are countering the $15 billion bottled water industry with campaigns on the purity of public water supply. Why are middle class Indian consumers opting for bottled water instead of demanding that the State provide potable and pure drinking water?

A recent editorial in the New York Times wondered if Americans were one of the world's thirstiest people! It would seem so if the telltale cap of a water bottle sticking out of every other satchel is an indication, be it in New York or Denver. Over 25 billion litres of bottled water are lifted from the grocery shelves each year. That’s about $15 billion worth of bottled water sold in the US each year, and trade in bottled water is growing at 8%.

Drinking water is undoubtedly a good thing, far better than buying soft drinks or liquid candy, as nutritionists like to call it. But the editorial bemoans the obsession with bottled water when the country has some of the best public water supplies in the world. Why should the average American import a single bottle of water from Italy or France or the Fiji Islands and end up spending $1,400 annually when the same amount of tap water would cost about 49 cents?

Some local governments are protesting this trend. It has been reported that the city of San Francisco has prohibited its departments and agencies from buying bottled water, noting that the city's water is “some of the most pristine on the planet”. Salt Lake City has issued a similar decree, and New York City recently began an advertising campaign that touted its water as “clean and zero sugar”.

With billions of dollars at stake, the bottled water industry is not going to give in easily. Beverage giant Pepsi has already announced that its new bottles will carry the label – ‘The purified water originates from a public water source’. Not that this hasn't been the case thus far, says a report by the Washington-based advocacy group National Resource Defense Council, as one-fourth of all bottled water is just bottled tap water -- sometimes with additional treatment. Thanks to a campaign by Corporate Accountability International, this bottled secret has leaked out. Although the beverage industry has been on a damage control spree, consumers have been taken aback by these developments. Having gone thus far, the challenge before the campaigners is to confront the marketing muscle of the bottled water corporations and simultaneously revive confidence in public water systems around the country.

The bottled water business in India is also growing fast, but the supplies are erratic and the quality of water delivered is unreliable too. No wonder consumer preference for bottled water has spurred a billion-dollar industry during the last decade. From less than 2 million cases in the early-’90s, the current consumption of bottled water is well over 90 million cases in India and growing.

With a little over 5 billion litres of bottled water being consumed in a year, the bottled water industry has been growing at a compound growth rate of anywhere between 25-40%. This is the highest amongst the world's leading bottled water consuming countries. Industry pundits believe that the boom time for the Indian bottled water industry is to continue -- more so because the economics are sound, the bottom line flat and the government uncaring about what happens to the nation's water resources.

The phenomenal reach of bottled water, available in plenty even where taps run dry for the better part of the year, is worrisome on three counts. One, the unrestricted reach of bottled water absolves the government of its primary duty of providing potable water to its citizens. Two, the patronage of bottled water by the middle class leaves the poor at the mercy of unreliable municipal supplies. Three, overdraft of unregulated groundwater by the bottled water industry leaves the farmers high and dry.

Calls for regulating the bottled water industry have often gone unnoticed. Far from taking the bottled water industry head on, the State is instead playing to its design. Else why would the world's largest railway system have its own brand of bottled water and why would the Delhi Jal Board launch its own version of packaged water? India's enormous water resources seem to be for the taking, by the State or the private vendor!

Ironically, consumers are not aggrieved at this usurping of peoples' rights. Nor does the judiciary consider it an infringement of fundamental rights. This leaves the bottled water industry space and scope to rework its marketing strategies. Targeting the growing middle class segment, companies have re-invented their 20-litre jumbo home packs that are fitted with a spout to make them more 'consumer-friendly'. Bottled home packs have become part of household grocery bills across cities.

The question is: can consumers, who are the victims of the erratic and unreliable public water distribution system, be expected to lead the change? Unless the well-off stop buying bottled water, there will not be sufficient political pressure to rev up quality public water supply. The unquestioning consumption of bottled water reflects an abject surrender of one's fundamental right! Inadvertently, access to cheap and clean water to millions is denied too.

Away from the rights-obligation discourse, there are compelling reasons for the State to revive public water distribution systems. If calculations by the Washington-based Earth Policy Institute are any indication, it takes about 300,000 barrels of oil to manufacture the water bottles Indians use each year. Add the substantial amounts of fuel used in transporting water and the cost of recycling, and the environmental costs of bottling water are substantial.

Sudhirendar Sharma

InfoChange News & Features, October 2007