As the blazing Sun turns once a plush green city into an arid zone making groundwater table recede deep down mother earth, watermen and companies into business of mineral water help Ranchiites stay afloat till respite comes down from heaven with first spell of rain. Water trade booms during the season amid complexities of the market and ambiguous regulations to filter out dubious players. Demand of packaged drinking water and mineral water goes up during summer as people fall back to commercial suppliers of 20-litre containers, courtesy absolute failure of a proper water supply system and receding water table, to meet the requirement of water in the season. Residential high-rises bear the brunt of water shortage more than any other building and thus they increase the overall demand of mineral water supplied in the city.
“It is difficult to push even 20 to 30 containers in winter but during summer demand reaches about 50 to 60 containers per day and it becomes very difficult to meet the demands completely. The demand mostly comes from households and from areas where water source goes dry,” said a waterman of Pure Aqua, a company in the mineral water business. The demand registers a jump of around 50 per cent from entities other than households like banks, retail outlets, hotels, small eateries among others. According to a rough estimate, mineral water companies see a quantum jump in the demand of water between May and July (50 per cent) over the level of sales made in the month of November however the trend becomes clear in March-April when the demand increases by 25 per cent over the level of November.
Although water becomes a scarce commodity for three to four months and the heat is also felt to a great extent by water supplying companies which incidentally depend on underground water, prices don’t experience a northward march as the demand from different entities because of several unregulated players in the emerging market of water trade. The unregulated players offset the benefits that would result in astronomical profits to regulated companies.
“There are regular customers to whom we supply at the same prices and even for new connections we can’t charge a higher price for several small players who sell water at competitive prices. So, we don’t charge higher prices,” said an Executive of Nirmal Jal, Sushil Jain. But regulation of the market which is open for all to mint money by encashing people’s necessity is a difficult task. Even as licensed companies claim to practice the highest degree of safety standards, uncertified companies are the loose cannons in the market. Even the food safety officials appear to work with their hands tied as they can raid premises that produce packaged drinking water and not those who just fill the container, put a loose cap and deliver at places where they receive orders from. Nonetheless, food safety officers claim that they do make surprise visits to collect samples of water from licensed companies but they acknowledge their inability in controlling small players that operate without licenses.
“We issue licenses to companies that possess a certificate from Indian Standards Institute and we regularly collect samples and have tested at our laboratory. For those working without permit we also take action when we receive complains. But that is illegal business and there are government agencies who take care of that,” said Food Safety Officer, Sanjay Kumar. As the city’s need is getting fulfilled people don’t mind quality and trust their own method of disinfecting and purifying water.