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P.T. Jyothi
Neha Kaushik

NEW DELHI, Feb. 14

ONE man's meat is another's poison can well be said in the context of the bottled water controversy. Even as the ripples seem far from receding on whether the pesticide-residue in packaged drinking water is a reason for concern — the water-purifier industry has lost no time in sniffing out an opportunity.

"Water from Waterguard is completely safe from harmful pesticides, bacteria, viruses and is economical too!", says an advertisement from Usha Shriram, advertising for its Usha Brita Water Purification Systems.

And in case you miss the point, the advertisement has in its background copies of media reports on `Pesticides in bottled water.'

Meanwhile, Eureka Forbes, touted to be the leader in the water purification segment, reacted more swiftly to the pesticide-issue and came out with "reassuring" advertisements, within a couple of days after the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) came out with its controversial report.

"The recent controversy has brought out a third dimension to bottled water — chemical-residue. Earlier consumers were only worried about the clarity of water, in terms of the physical residue and bacteria. Our advertisements were meant to reassure consumers about our water-purifiers," pointed out Mr S.K. Palekar, Senior Vice-President (Marketing) with Eureka Forbes.

With the controversy only 10-days old, he said that it was too early to see a perceptible increase in sales as a fallout of the controversy.

"But it certainly would help," he quips.

"With people preferring to carry water filled at home, boiled and purified to boot, the reversal in trend, away from convenience packs is bound to have its impact," points out another industry player.

But bottled water companies are putting up a brave face, despite reports of some consumers stopping their consumption of packaged-water. Pepsi and Coke officials, whose Aquafina and Kinley, respectively, received mention in the CSE report, told Business Line — after a Bureau of Indian Standards meeting on the issue — that the controversy had had no impact on its sales.

Responding to why retailers were not stocking bottled water in some key locations in the Capital, Mr Ramesh Chauhan, Chief of Bisleri, said that while bottled-water was safe, the CSE report had created a scare in the minds of retailers.

EU norms in focus

THE Ministry of Food Processing Industries on Friday held an inter-ministerial meeting on the issue, to "take stock and decide on the future course of action."

The Union Health Ministry too had met on Thursday evening to discuss the subject and according to sources, the inclination was towards aligning with the European Union (EU) norms.

However, the Bureau of Indian Standards reiterated its stand on the issue and said: "That it took into consideration the limits set by the USFDA, the EU, the World Health Organisation (WHO), Codex etc. and decided that since bottled water was a value-added product and in keeping the public/consumer interest, the (BIS) committee unanimously decided to quantify the maximum limits for pesticide residue and made the necessary amendments to the two Indian standards".

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