Hyderabad 'Water Biz Gets Dirty In Thirsty'

In a waterstarved city, it’s only predictable that the business of water is big and as it turns out, even dirty. Borewells across the city may be drying up, but many local ‘mineral’ water manufacturers are not thirsty. 

Manufacturers have fanned out to the water-rich areas of Hyderabad including Alwal, Bowenpally, A S Rao Nagar, Qutbullapur, Bollarum, Miyapur, Kukatpally, BHEL, Lingampally and Sainikpuri. They have rented spacious residential bungalows, turned them into mineral water plants and are filling up their cans by drawing water from borewells using heavy duty pumps, sapping groundwater of the entire localities. The bigger problem: the mineral water lobby has turned into a mafia of sorts. They are not acted against despite repeated complaints from locales and what they supply as ‘mineral’ water is again a serious concern. 
    
Denizens gulp down close to 50 lakh litres of canned mineral water every day. Apart from the handful of big brand names, most of the supply is from local manufacturers. The city’s yellow pages throw up over 300 manufacturers who collectively supply over 2 lakh cans a day. 
    
Among the local manufacturers are the black sheep who have found a huge business opportunity in the growing demand for mineral water cans given the poor supply of drinking water by the water board. In the last two-three years, the number of such units has grown. While a parallel water mafia is operating for tankers in areas such as Nizampet, for mineral water, the guns are trained in the city limits. 
    
Take Telecom Nagar in Alwal for instance. An unnamed plant has been functioning from a house here for over two years now, despite repeated protests by local residents. They fear that ground water of the area might drop to alarming levels if the business is not stopped immediately. “If the water is drawn at this rate it will deplete soon. Considering that they use powerful pumps to draw the water, the chances of depletion is dangerously high,” said G V Rao, general secretary, Greater Alwal Allied Services Association. He added, “We have complained against such plants to the GHMC several times but no action has been taken yet.” 
    
While there are four such units functioning in Alwal, residents of Lingampally and Ramchandrapuram near BHEL also complain of units working out of residential bungalows. 
    
Residents allege that they have been threatened and told not to interfere in the business by these water dealers. “The dealer had set up a bore pump on barren land. When we objected he threatened us,” Rao said. Incidentally, when INN sought a certification from the plant on Friday, the unit owners refused to divulge information. 
    

A builder on Manjeera road in Madinaguda, for instance, who initially set up a water pump to cater to nearby apartment owners, has now started selling the ground water, allege locals. Complaints registered with the water board have failed to yield any result. “In a day, at least 30 tankers are filled from this water pump. We tried to argue with the builder but he paid no heed to our concern. Also, the constant movement of heavy vehicles has become a nuisance for residents,” said S Ramakrishna, a resident of the area. 
    
There is similar activity on a barren plot on NH-7 in Bowenpally. “The owner of a farm land is now using a water pump to draw ground water to make some quick money. Residents of nearby areas have been complaining about him to the authorities for long now. However, he remains unscathed because of his connections with influential people. Even police complaints have gone unheard,” said a resident here but feared being quoted. 
    
It requires an investment of about Rs 10 lakh, permissions from both Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and Central Water Commission to set up these units. The modest investment has made it a lucrative business and those in the industry say that some manufacturers function without permissions in place. “It’s an unregulated business. There is no control on their activities,” says a mineral water company official. 

Farmers make a splash in water trade
The mineral water business in Hyderabad is being supported by an unlikely section__ that of farmers. With land prices crashing, farmers on the city outskirts who had lost hope of eking out a livelihood from farming have now found a solace in water trade. Realising the acute demand for water, these farmers, big and small, have in large number started venturing into packaged drinking water business in areas where their farmland is endowed with abundant ground water. As most of the land they own already has an agricultural borewell, the initial investment is minimal and conducive for the farmers to get into the water business. Needless to say, all these units are unregulated but do brisk business. 
    
That precious agricultural water is being commercially exploited is not their concern, they say. B Bal Reddy, a paddy farmer from Tellapur village, which is located close to Gachibowli has been a farmer for as long as he remembers but decided to venture into packaged drinking water business about two years ago. With an initial investment of around Rs 1.5 lakh, he set up a mineral water unit on a 100 sq yard piece of land on his three-acre agricultural land. “There is no dearth of ground water in our village and also have a bore pump. Seeing the high demand for water, I had set up this plant for my son who now looks after it,” said Bal Reddy. 
    

Bal Reddy, who has a reverse osmosis plant, sells close to 50 to 60 20-litre cans to the nearby waterstarved localities everyday. However, Reddy’s once lucrative business is now facing stiff competition. “When I had setup this plant, it was the only one in the whole village. Now things have changed as many in the village and nearby areas are into the same business.” 
    
Indeed, various villages that fall on the Gachibowli-Patancheru stretch have taken to this business on a largescale. The villages of Aminpur, Kollur, Nagulapalli and many others now have a thriving small scale industry of the packaged drinking water with each of them boasting of at least three to five such units. 
    
K Srisailam, a 36-year-old peasant from one of these villages had set up Royal Blue mineral water, about six months back. “My family and I have faced many hardships in farming and even suffered losses. That is when I decided to set up this mineral water packaging unit along with my friend since I could see the demand for water. Now I am financially better placed, thanks to this business” he said. 
    
These small-time farmers turned entrepreneurs sell their mineral water cans for anywhere between Rs 20 and Rs 30. There are also those who are making the most of the water crisis to make some quick money. A farmer at a small tract of land in Bolarum has tied up with a tanker operator for selling bore water as well as his open well water. “Since I have not been doing farming since the last two seasons, I have decided to earn through selling water. I sell the open well water to the tankers for household purposes and the groundwater to the mineral water units.” He says that this business is limited only to summer months and he earns close to Rs 1 lakh to 2 lakh in this season. 
    
“The land rates have come down and there are hardly any buyers for our land. What we earn out of farming is also very less and hence, I felt water manufacturing business is the best option to keep us going financially,” said G Ramulu, who now runs a unit on his land located on the LB Nagar highway. 
    
S Govardhan Reddy, president, AP packaged drinking water Manufacturers Association said, “Such is the need for water that many small packaged drinking water units have mushroomed in the city and outskirts. This situation is not just limited to city as even in villages across the state there are many farmers getting into this business.” He however feels that it is not easy for these small units to sustain for longer duration as most of them lack proper manpower and knowledge of the business. 

GHMC clueless about water biz
The estimated worth of packaged drinking water business in Hyderabad is Rs 1,500 crore. But how unregulated this industry is, is best reflected in statistics. There are as many as 2,000 illegal drinking water packaging units in and around the city. And there are just about 150-odd ISI-certified legal ones. This ratio is getting further skewed rapidly as more and more illegal units are coming up in every nook and corner of the city right under the nose of government bodies that are meant to ensure that nothing but pure drinking water is supplied to citizens. 
    

Though the health and sanitation wing of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is responsible for cracking down on this growing menace, the authorities here have not even woken up to the alarming situation. Municipal corporation officials claimed they had little information on how big the water business in the twin cities was and predictably also said they had no plan of action in place to ensure that these units comply with norms. L Vandhan Kumar, additional commissioner, health and sanitation said, “We conducted raids on illegal plants about two weeks ago and will also look out for such plants which do not have ISI certification.” 
    
Industry sources estimate that dozens of these water units are being added every few months but the GHMC officials have managed to crack down on only 15 such units since the beginning of the year when units in Kushaiguda were raided. 
    
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), which is authorized to issue ISI licences, also has a limited role in acting against these illegal plants. “If it is brought to our notice that ISI mark is being used illegally then we take up the enforcement activity. We raid the place and book cases, if material evidence is found against them. However, we are not concerned with the illegal water plants unless they misuse the ISI logo,” a senior official of the BIS said. The BIS in the last one year had raided and booked cases against only 12 such manufacturing units. The police officials on their part say that even if they receive complaint also they cannot do much about the illegal units unless the department concerned asks them to do so. 
    
With the enforcement agencies lax on taking action against these errant water units, it’s the legal packaged drinking water manufacturers who are crying hoarse. The ISI-certified manufacturers rue that after going through a strenuous permission process which includes obtaining no objection certificate from central ground water authority and small scale industry certificate and paying huge amounts for licences they are ending up in losses thanks to the illegal plants. 
    
One such manufacturer happens to be P Srisail Reddy, managing partner, Cirrus marketing services in Langar Houz. “Many of the BIS certified manufacturers like me are on the verge of closure. The illegal units do not have to pay for any permissions nor do they have to adhere to quality. They are selling 20 litre cans at some places for as low as Rs 6 to Rs 10. Now, are forced to slash our prices and suffer losses.” He demands that it is time the government does something about the menace.