Bottled water-A necessity, convenience or wasteful practice?

Water is essential for survival of life in this planet and human beings need about 1-2 liters of water every day for managing all the metabolic activities in the body and as a means of replenishment of lost water through all excretions. After all human body contains about 53% water, 25% fat and 21% bone and practically every metabolic reaction in the body is mediated in an aqueous medium. Dehydration beyond a limit can be fatal and therefore water intake regularly both direct as well as indirect is a must for survival. Americans have the 8x8 rule for water consumption which means one must drink 8 servings of 8 ounce water daily working out to approximately 1.8 liters. Interestingly the indirect water up take can be substantial as most fresh foods have water content varying from 60-90% and therefore serves the minimum need for water without much risks of dehydration. Water can also be toxic if taken in quantities higher than that which the body can cope up with, the most common consequence being draining of electrolytes through urine. Therefore there has to be a reasonable limit on water consumption while minimum quantity required by the body must be met with through direct consumption. 

Plain but safe water was consumed during earlier years and even to day in many American and European cities from piped water supply which was considered safe as a potable source of water. In fact they are so proud of their water supply systems, in a country like Italy attempts were made to brand the water supplied in some towns so that people could use it straight without looking for commercially bottled water! to quench their thirst. In sharp contrast in countries like India water supply systems are a sham and apology for what it should be! Practically no where in India one can drink from piped or the so called protected water supplies because they are neither treated properly nor sanitized fully with potential to spread water borne diseases like cholera, jaundice and dysentery. Funnily Government of India has launched its much touted Food Security Act to ensure that people get their daily calorie needs practically free through massive subsidies from the public exchequer. However it never occurred to this political rulers that water is equally crucial for ensuring healthy living style and the focus was never there on modernizing the water supply infrastructure in this country. Worst sufferers are rural people accounting for about 67% of the 1.3 billion population where even unsafe water is not available to manage their daily chores.

Bottled water industry globally is a major money spinner and in many societies holding a branded bottled water is a sign of modernity! The promotion of bottled water has been so intensive many kids in modern times are unaware as to the source from where water comes! It is like the dairy industry which offers pasteurized packed milk or UHT milk in laminated cartons and no wonder many kids are unaware about the existence of cows and buffalos which are the major sources of milk in the world. There was a time when mineral water was the rage because of the mistaken notion that these waters were coming from health spas and springs containing valuable and essential trace minerals required by the body. From such a situation where only a few major players were manufacturing bottled mineral water products, the scenario has metamorphosed to day when there are thousands of bottlers across the world packing just potable water conforming to well laid down standards with safety guaranteed. Probably to day's over dependence on bottled water by humanity can be attributed to the failure of governments to safeguard the urban water supply system year after year!

Look at a country like the United States of America where water intake by the citizens has been mostly through the sugar sweetened soft drinks route which also pumps in lot of sugar whether it is refined sugar or high fructose syrup. That is the beginning of the era of obesity in that country which is there for every one to see! Bloated and distorted bodies of people dot the landscape in the US with its own terrible consequences such as wide prevalence of diabetes, hyper tension, heart disease etc. Though from time to time demands were raised to tax these beverages heavily in order to reduce the consumption of soft drinks, nothing much was done at the government level through any orchestration of restrictive policies. The soft drink intake increased year after year and this "addiction" to these drinks was found to be very difficult to be curbed giving unlimited scope for the beverage industry to make a bonanza in terms of high volumes of sale and enormous profits. If there are a few giants in this area dominating the beverage landscape across the world, thanks are due to the benign attitude of the governments as well as increasing demands from the consumers, mostly youngsters who identified themselves as the "pop soda generation"! 

What is indeed alarming is that if the water market is restrained through restrictive policies, the consumption of sugary drinks is bound to increase as non availability of bottled water forces consumers to go for the unhealthy pop soda type of products. This has been borne out by the disappointing results of efforts made to ban bottled water in the school premises which ended with the disastrous consequence of a rise of 33% in the consumption of sugary drinks in the US. In 1998 Americans were drinking about 54 gallons (180 liters) of fizz beverages per capita on an average while this figure was just half in the year 1977. Shockingly the obesity among Americans doubled between 1077 and 1998 indirectly establishing a relationship between soft drink consumption and obesity. Increasing evidence about the bad consequences of sugar based drinks and heightened awareness about this among the consumers arrested the growth of soft drink industry in 1998 and then emerged a trend of declining intake of sugary drinks. Amazingly without the government there doing any thing significant to discourage consumption of soft drinks, the per capita consumption started going down and in a stunning reversal of the past trend, actual consumption fell down precipitously from 54 gallons to 44 gallons to day! 

Does it mean that overall water intake of the population has suffered any grievous blow with undesirable consequence? Not at all as the bottled water industry capitalized on the travails of the soft drink industry going for massive production increase since then. The loss of soft drink industry is proving to be a gain for the bottled water industry. From a meager consumption rate of less than ten gallons of bottled water per capita in 1998, it jumped to 21 gallons per capita in 2014. Taken together the decline of soft drink industry and the phenomenal growth of the bottled water sector it is expected that the latter will overtake the former within the next 10-12 years. Another intriguing factor is the renewed affinity of the consumers to piped water source and of the 58 gallons of water an average consumer drinking to day more than 60% comes from the public water supply taps. It will be very difficult to precisely predict how far people will switch their loyalty from the tap to the commercially bottled water. But the trend is that the bottled water industry is growing impressively in countries like the US and according to some estimates in the US alone the production is around 10 billion gallons per year to day.

There are two crucial issues that cannot be overlooked when we talk about bottled water industry. These are the wide scale use of PET bottles and dependence of many in this industry on public water supply. Use of PET bottles raises the inevitable question whether the safety of bottled water can be uniformly assured across all the countries because the difference in the quality of bottles can be significant and therefore the extent of leaching and safety credentials of the residues leached out can also be different. Already there are disturbing reports that liquid pharmaceutical products packed in PET bottles in India show abnormal levels of heavy metals like antimony, lead and chromium which were far beyond the safety limits prescribed by the WHO of the United Nations. Besides the contents packed in these bottles also showed high levels of the toxic chemical called diethyhexyl phthalate. This was brought out by tests at the reputed National Testing House in India, carried out as directed by the government. Though there are vehement protests and denials from the industry sectors including food, pharmaceutical and pet bottle manufacturers, this has become an issue that is not going to fade away soon.

The other issue is the indiscriminate exploitation of ground water by the water bottling industry causing water shortages in nearby communities. The bitter experience of a major bottling multinational company in Kerala a few years ago which resulted in shuttering its bottling unit in the face of fierce local agitation against over exploitation of the ground water cannot be forgotten easily. Such incidences of local opposition to setting up bottled water manufacturing units in many places in the country is likely to be a rule than an exception. Even sourcing the water from the public water supply system can distort the water availability in the urban areas. Of course it is a big dilemma for any government to ensure the industry has a sustainable source of water for their successful functioning. Desalination is thought to be the answer, at least in coastal area where sea water is available in abundance but there is reluctance to set up such plants by the industry because of cost considerations.

In India people seem to have resigned to a situation where water is going to be a scarce resource and even if available it is not safe to drink. This naturally has led people to go for domestic water purification gadgets based on technologies like reverse osmosis (RO), ultra filtration, resin treatment, UV disinfection, etc. Water treatment gadgets have become a foundation for establishing a roaring industry in India where there are many players catering to households with different income levels. Though RO based treatment is technologically sound, more that 65% of water intake is wasted to be flushed out and whether this is a sustainable approach is a matter of debate. From time to time simple gadgets not depending on power have been developed and one of the latest based on silver nano particle impregnated filters offers enormous potential for providing safe drinking water especially to rural areas.Though a liter of water in PET bottle costs about Rs 20, some feel that the organized industry's growth at 22% CAG cannot be easily wished away. Compared to the situation 15 years ago, on average the consumption of bottled water has increased from less than 5 liters per capita an year to more than 10 liters though this is much less than the global average of 25 liters. In spite of such impressive growth, the safety of bottled water, which is supposed to be assured through the safety certification and licensing by the BIS is under a cloud because of the mushrooming of hundreds of small plants coming up in smaller towns with neither a legal license nor any oversight by the concerned authorities. 

Ultimately a global debate may be needed to take a rational decision on whether bottled water supply or piped protected water supply  or purification of water at the house hold level is preferable in the long run. Some experts point out that the wide scale use of RO technology is not very efficient as more than two thirds of water received is wasted in the process. Others view is that the PET bottle based packed water also cannot be considered a solution due to some of the deficiencies highlighted above. Probably the most desirable option could be for a massive expansion of protected water supply system where ever it is feasible by investing in this sector as a top priority. Whether the governments in developing countries will adopt such a strategy remains to be seen!

V.H.POTTY

http://vhpotty.blogspot.com
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

Water crisis-How food and beverage industry can help global water conservation efforts

Recent reports from Delhi "state" where a new government took over the reins assuring 20000 liters of water free to every family are indeed scary when the country is facing acute shortage of drinking water in almost all parts. While quantitatively this may be sufficient, what is missed about the quality of water supplied under the so called protected water supply system in almost all towns and cities are supposed to have. Besides the tendency for many families to consume more than that is necessary and waste this precious natural resource is indeed appalling! It is true that government in any country should have the onus to ensure that every citizen is provided with clean air and clean water in adequate quantities which is not taken seriously by any government in India since independence. In stead precious money is being invested on distributing freebies on an alarming scale.under the pretext of food security! If even a fraction of this money spend on food subsidies, a substantial portion going to the pockets of undeserving people, had been invested in on potable water infrastructure projects, the current day problem of water scarcity and mal distribution would not have been so acute to day.

There is a consensus that it is time for launching a coordinated global action program to reduce the amount of hidden water used in food and drink production. Can this be true? The amount said to be used as of now thus is really mind boggling and if the average per person is computed it is still considered very high. According to some experts we must set a global target to reduce the amount of water used in food production worldwide at least by one fifth within 5 years from now which may not be difficult to achieve. If we refer to the UN data base each person consumes between 2,000-5,000 liters of water directly or indirectly through the food consumed every day working out to a staggering figure of 7.3 lakh liters to 18.25 lakh liters annually!  According to health pundits on an average a person needs at least one ml of water for every calorie consumed and imagine the minimum requirement for food intake only by 7 billion people in this planet. This is the bare minimum we need for just survival. Then there are other needs like cleaning, bathing and other daily chores to keep diseases away for which additional water is needed. 

By a rough estimate we use around 70% of all freshwater available for agriculture and allied activities while industrial sector absorbs another 20%, leaving just about 10% for domestic use. But this supply dynamics cannot remain static with the ever growing population calling for increased food production and greater quantity of water for industrial and domestic use. From where are we going to get this additional supply? If futuristic need projections are to be taken seriously, our water needs may burgeon to more than 7 trillion cubic meters in another 35 years! What will be the impact of such a situation on the habitats of people? Simple, almost 70% of them would be living in water starved areas while to day the corresponding figure is just 7%! Under such dire predictions can the world close the eyes praying to God to save us without doing any thing ourselves? 

Sure lot can be done if we take a common sense approach to solve the impending water crisis. Efforts by all including individuals, families, educational institutions, industries, farmers and every one having a stake in preventing a water famine in future must put their heads together to cut down on water use, conserve it and deploy modern technologies to recycle water. Efforts must be redoubled to reclaim pure water from sea water and brackish water bodies through low cost technologies, as Israel and gulf countries have shown to the world. If this has to be converted into an action program there are some essential steps that need to be thought of. Primary responsibility of the governments world over must be to reorient their food production policies to cut down on water usage by different stake holders by 20% within a matter of 5 years. Though industry is using less water than farmers, there is considerable scope to reduce its water foot print through technically sound solutions including water recycling in a big way. Probably it can get support from the governments through financial and other incentives to adopt them in a big way to see the impact almost immediately. How effective government cajoling can be seen in Tamilnadu where rain water harvesting has been made mandatory in the city of Chennai way back and the water shortage there is no more a critical issue.substantial investments in water management technologies and water purification processes are inevitable and the world cannot shy away from this responsibility any more. It is known that world will need 60% more food by 2050 to feed the population than and even with the best of technologies an extra 20% of water will have to be secured to make the extra food required by then.

As for food and beverage industry water is a critical input there cannot be any compromise on water need if product safety is to be ensured. Operations like raw material washing ,cleaning , formulation, steam generation, packing etc need water and that too germ free water and there are continuous improvements being achieved by food scientists to reduce the water needs to as minimum as possible.  Water recycling is an area which needs urgent attention and government has a big role in facilitating and encouraging the industry to go in for massive recycling efforts through appropriate and practical quality and safety standards and financial incentives. It is time we realize that water is not an individuals problem or a particular nation's problem but it a global problem requiring cooperative global efforts.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

Indian farmers-Between deep sea and the devil

India has been traditionally an agriculture oriented country with millions of farmers peacefully ploughing their land and growing a variety of crops as food as well as for cash generation. Though for centuries the bullock drawn ploughing "technology" has been in vogue, advent of tractors in a big way in the country made many farmers switch over to partially mechanized agriculture. But for millions of small farmers the bullock centric cultivation practice is still  inevitable as buying mechanized gadgets is unaffordable to them. Bullocks have a few advantages when it comes to rural environment though lately even these man-friendly beast is becoming exorbitantly costly to acquire and maintain. Why is that Indian farmers cannot modernize their agricultural practices in spite massive subsidization of this in the country?

The continuing saga of farmers is best reflected by the unceasing episodes of suicides in the rural area and according to governments own data, more than 10% of suicides in the country happen in the rural areas by farmers. Why should a happy farmers, as being claimed by the government, takes his own life, leaving his kith and kin in his family as destitute? Human psychologists are of the view that human being commit suicides for either of the two reasons. First he is driven to suicide by his compromised self respect, fearful of the humiliation in the society. Alternately desperate economic situation where he is heavily burdened by loans with exorbitant interests from local loan sharks who have a way of extortion and blackmailing to extract his pound of flesh. In spite of many progressive measures successive governments have been taking to "pamper" to the farmers, as many citizens feel, the benefits of economic growth have not touched a large number of farmers coming under the category of marginal farmers. There is a feeling that these benefits have been cornered by well to do, rich farmers with political connections! 

Look at the land holding pattern in the country where 70% of the population is engaged in agricultural and allied activities. Those holding less than one hectare of land constitute 62 % of the population while others with 1-2 hectares make up another 19%. In other words 81% of the agriculturists own major part of the agricultural landscape of the country. Under such a situation what one can expect from these unfortunate brethren of ours who work the whole day to eke out an existence for him and his family while raising about 71 kg of wheat and 80 kg of rice to every Indian citizen! In this process what is he getting back? A decent livelihood? No way! While the counterpart of Indian farmer in Australia raises 10.8 tons of rice per hectare, he is not able to produce even 3.5 tons per hectare from his land. As for wheat Indian grower produces 2.8 tons per hectare while his counterpart in the Netherlands enjoy a harvest of 9 tons per hectare. Chinese farmer produces about 3 tons of Chickpeas from each hectare of his land whereas in India the average yield is a measly 0.9 ton per hectare. Why is this happening in our country which was a food bowl of the world for centuries? Who is responsible for this shameful and pitiable condition of our farmers?  

With majority of farmers owning less than an hectare, what type of economic viability one can expect from their operations? Modern farming technology cannot be applied unless farm sizes are at least 10 hectares and above and no subsidies can change this situation to any significant extent. Unproductive farm land cannot be sold as per the country's law even if the farmer wants to sell it off! There will be no buyer because of the restrictive clauses that the buyer must be a farmer and his income from non-agricultural activities must not be above Rs 2 lack per year! Is it not interesting as to how politicians and bureaucrats earning millions per year have active farms all over the country in violation of these rules? Another interesting or say nauseating rule is that scheduled caste owners of land cannot sell their land unless permitted by a babu in the government! Another restriction is that a farmer is barred from renting his land to another person even if he is not able to cultivate it economically. In China such renting out is freely allowed for the sake of increased production. Can the Indian farmer have salvation ever? No unless government brings about massive relaxation of these restrictions immediately. 

Cooperative farming is touted  as a possible route for land consolidation and application of modern technology in such cooperative farms but this has been tried previously and given up as impractical under Indian conditions! Why? If Tibetan refugees can convert the 5 acre land lots allotted to them into a 5000 acre cooperative farm and help the state to become the top producer of maize in the country, why not Indians do the same? Here again the problem lies with the land regulations which do not permit any formal linkages of land lots through a cooperative society! The only one crop that can still be managed with small holdings is sugarcane because of the high minimum support price government offers and high productivity in some of the sugar belts in the country. A hectare of land, with adequate irrigation can produce as much as 100 tons fetching an income of Rs 2.5 lakhs though the input costs are very high with sugar cane cultivation. Unfortunately these fortunate farmers in the sugar belt also suffer because of delayed payments by the sugar mill barons under one pretext or the other putting them in great economic hardships frequently. 

One relevant question even a child in this country can ask is when are these farmers going to quit agriculture if the land they own does not bring adequate returns for them to lead a decent life with dignity? With more than 15000 farmers taking the painful route of committing suicide to escape from the harsh future faced by them and their families under the prevailing Indian conditions, what else can wake up the conscience of people and pressurize the government to address the situation on an emergency basis? More than 50% of the arable land in the country depends on rains for agriculture as irrigated water is restricted to only about 82 million hectares! Water scarcity is another challenge India is facing because of low progress in  irrigation projects and rapid drying of ground water resources. This can only aggravate the conditions of farmers in perennially drought hit areas in the country.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

The Water "saga" in India-Lack of restraining policy and inefficiency of use spell future crisis!

Water is the very foundation of life on earth and man's quest in space for habitable planets focus mainly on existence of water. Of course air is also an essential prerequisite for any life to survive and unlike water it is available in plenty in this planet though its quality is questionable in many places adversely affected by uncontrolled pollution caused by man himself. As for water there is no dearth of it as more than 71% of earth's surface area is covered by water. Out of this 96.5 % is found in sea and oceans unfit for use for any human activity. !.7% ground water and another 1.7% in glaciers and ice caps in Antarctica and Greenland are considered pure. However for all practical purpose only 2.5 % of water on earth is considered fresh water fit for human use while 0.3% of earth's fresh water supply comes from lakes and rivers. These figures clearly indicate that water is not an inexhaustible resource and therefore must be conserved as much as possible, avoiding wastage with all the means available to man.

Human body is made of water to the extent of 60-78% depending on the body size and for sustenance body water needs to be replenished at the rate of 1 ml per calorie consumed through the food. On an average a man needs about 3.7 liter water per day taken directly as well as through the food while the corresponding figure for a woman is fixed at 2.7 liters a day. Drinking water or potable water has to conform to certain minimum standards and nature's water has to be cleaned up to remove undesirable and unsafe components, suspended as well as dissolved for which many technologies are available. In acute water scarce countries huge plants are able to convert sea water with 3.5% salt content into potable water with minimum cost. According to estimates by some international agencies more than 50% of the world's population will face water crisis. Even to day it is presumed that almost 1 billion people lack access to safe water while more than 2.5 billion lack access to sanitation due to water scarcity. Imagine the tragedy that is unfolding to day when about 1.4 million children die due to severe diarrhea because of consumption of contaminated water! 

In most developing countries about 90% of fresh water exploited is used by the agriculture sector and there is a fierce competition between potable water sector and irrigation sector for tapping the available water supply. In contrast a developed country like the US uses only 30% of its water resources for agriculture through deployment of modern cultivation and water conservation technologies.  However in India, of the 700 billion cubic meters (BCM) of water consumed annually 88% goes for irrigation while the industry accounts for 8%. According to projections for future India is likely to tap about 833 BCM water by the year 2025 from all sources out of which 81% will go for irrigation while 11% will have to be supplied to the industrial sector. The industrial need will go further up demanding more than 18% of the water available. Household needs which stands at a mere 5% to day may go up to 11.% of the total fresh water available. Thus there is a clashing scenario for water among farmers for irrigation, industry and the house holds for daily use and unless agricultural technologies are upgraded to use less water without harming the productivity expectations, India will be in a dire straight in a few years from now!

It is interesting to see that our thermal power power plants gulp more than 70% of the industrial water which will further increase if the present government's thrust for more power plants, especially nuclear plants materializes after recent agreements with the US government for collaboration in the nuclear energy sector. Industry wise Steel industry consumes about 7-10 cubic meters (CM) of water for every ton of steel produced, paper industry needs 75-100 (CM) per ton of paper produced, power industry's need is 75-100 (CM) per megawatt hour generated while soft drinks industry consumes 3-5 (CM) per cubic meter of products made. As electricity production in the country is massive, total power needs by the power sector become huge while other sectors do not produce even a fraction of the end product output by the power industry, hence their apparently smaller share in the industrial water use..

Generally food processing industry needs huge volumes of water and especially soft drink sector depends heavily on water as its products viz beverages contain almost 100% water by volume. Similarly others like fruit and vegetable canning, bakery industry, dairy sector, breweries and distilleries, sugar factories, poultry farms etc all require water to maintain peak hygiene and sanitation, letting out in the process large volumes of spent water. Pollution from food and beverage industry is considered vey high and in spite of tight fisted laws existing in the statute book most of them go scot free because of lax enforcement by the pollution control agencies working at the state level. If the new government's "make in India' mantra becomes the national strategy, the industrial sector will need much more water than that is predicted.

Conflict between the industry and people for water access may intensify and the recent controversy in Gujarat regarding diversion of water from Narmada meant for irrigation to a giant soft drink manufacturer is still fresh in our minds. Similar incidences of diversion of water intended for irrigation being diverted for sugar and distilleries in Maharashtra are just a preview of such mega conflicts in future. We may recall the shameful incidence in Plachimeda in Kerala where a soft drink giant set up a plant in the beginning of 2000 which had to be abandoned due to local uprising by people because of supposed over exploitation of ground water and alleged pollution of ground water by the effluents let out by the factory into surrounding fields. India is in a Catch 22 situation with such a dilemma faced by the nation to meet the expectations of one and all vis-a-vis water and government must address this problem sooner than later to prevent discontent among its citizens in the coming years.

A national policy on agriculture can draw the necessary road map for water sparing crops and developing varieties that can be grown with sea water. Enormous wastage of water happens through the chain of activity of human beings in their every day life and sooner this tendency is curbed better it will be for the country. The agricultural sector presents a paradoxical picture where a section of farming community gets high share of water while another section has to eke out a dreary existence using drought based agriculture! Water intensive crops like sugarcane and paddy must be taken up to the minimum extent possible while development of varieties that need significantly less water must be a priority for the scientists in ICAR and agri varsities. Similarly it is time a national water policy is evolved to "optimize" use of water, conserve water resources without running the danger of over exploitation, launch intensive waste recycling efforts and massive sea water reclamation as the country has a long coastal area with easy accessibility. A country like Israel which is a willing collaborator of India can teach us lot of lessons in increasing water supply from our precious resources and its optimal use.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com