How do you find the number of pure drinking water units in karnataka or in your state

Let's be clear : Pure by the B.I.S. norms. B.I.S. is the central govt authority which issues ISI license to the "Pure" drinking water units. BIS also has a portal through which one can find out the number of units in his/her state. You can check this video :-

The same method can be used to find out in any state.

Water Sommelier : Is it a fad ?

I have been reading for last almost 3-4 years about this term "Water Sommelier". There is a website which covers many informative articles on bottled water which is not the thirst quenching water of you & me. The website is finewaters dot com. You can visit the same at your time.

They also offer something called as "Water Sommelier" Courses. After learning one understands what water is & what might be the impurities other stuff. What makes me sick is the etiquette thing they have attached to this. Water, agreed is contaminated at many places. However, to me, at the most, where I am not sure, particularly at unknown places, I take Packaged Drinking Water. Otherwise at home I drink the tap water. And what etiquette? Just with a hand funnel also we take & drink water.

To me, it is unnecessarily hyped profession.Look at an article recently published by a lady water sommelier in India :- https://www.vervemagazine.in/people/a-water-sommelier-wants-to-change-the-way-we-consume-this-overlooked-drink

However, your views are welcome.

Bisleri Moves into Sanitizers

It was strange to know this, the big Bisleri is entering into ...what ? ... yes ... Santizers. Though tactically they don't call it Sanitizers; still it is a competition with the sanitizer biggies like dettol, and others. 

Read this article :- https://www.afaqs.com/news/mktg/we-are-aiming-for-the-post-covid-hand-hygiene-space-says-bisleris-anjana-ghosh

Why would it be ? 

• Is the water market getting crowded ? Bisleri shouldn't bother much; as still it holds 60% market share, and performing well over others. 
• Is it that they want to be seen as a diversified player ?
• Or simply the stakeholder's mood ? 

They are saying, they are entering after everyone else using the "last mover advantage" ; however, they pitch themselves as the pioneers in the bottled water market. Sounds funny.

God knows what's the intention; looks really strange. However, Bisleri hasn't done well with its parallel energy drinks as well, just a sidenote. They might claim this, but masses know bisleri for its water, not for any of its energy drinks so far !

Consider Rainwater Harvesting

We take Govt norms sometimes as a kind of those unnecessary things, which the govt makes us follow. This is a wrong assumption. Same is the case with Rainwater Harvesting. How ?

How Rainwater harvesting will help you generate profit ?

The Bottled Water Plants actually extract groundwater & treat that with RO. In this process, it removes the TDS from the groundwater. Usually, the extracted groundwater is stored in Raw Water Tanks before processing at the Water Treatment Plant. If Rainwater, being almost Zero TDS water is mixed in these tanks, it will reduce the total TDS of the water in the Raw Water Tanks. This will result in the following benefits  :-

• Decreased Groundwater Demand
• Increased life of the RO system
• Reduced wastage from RO Plant
• Tax benefit at the municipal level

How to Implement This at the plant ?

While construction, build a proper rainwater collection system on roof tops & elsewhere. Build a sufficient capacity storage tank. It's easy. Your Architect can guide you on this.

Branding helps cross-segmentation

Once you establish your brand, you can take it to anywhere. And if you have a B2C brand, that too, an FMCG product, you have better chances. In addition, if you have an established distributors network, it works like magic. You just need vision.

Kinnera : An example of this

Telangana State Cooperative Oil Seeds Growers Federation Limited (TS- Oilfed) , are already popular in Telangana State where the market their Oil with Vijaya Brand. Having surplus groundwater water, and an established distribution network, they decided to go for a Packaged Drinking Water Plant , way back in 2019. However, now, they are fully ready with the plant & the products will be seen in the market shortly. Original News Here.

Takeaway :-

Once a brand is established , one can even go cross segments, if the ultimate market remains same.

Water ATM's need a self sustaining model !

The Govt funded ATM's don't work

Update : Dec 2022 :-

In Karnatak, recently there was an internal survey conducted it is found once again that the Govt funded model ( though the intentions are noble ) does not work. The sorry condition is : They built the ATMs, they couldn't run them, they demolished !

April 2021 

Look at this latest news from Hyderabad, that the Water ATM's installed in 2017, many of them are in defunct condition, meaning , not functioning at all. Why is it like that ? Clearly , they were funded & not run as someone's business. When it's the responsibility by the Govt, who looks over the deliverables ? From the pics in the video , it looks like some NGO from Sweden has donated some money for the project. It's pure waste of money & effort & just faking the people.

Here is an Opportunity

There is an opportunity for private players to run such Water ATM's, they can install & charge Rs. 2- to Rs. 3 per 500ml or so & still make a good amount of money. Any local NGO fund like a Rotary Club from the local area can fund the entrepreneurs and a mediator agency can be appointed to check whether the business is being run properly. 

Alternate ( Better ) Model

Alternatively , an entrepreneur can establish franchise run Water ATM business as well. With a proper training, the entrepreneurs can be trained to operate & maintain these Water ATMs. this needs to be taken very seriously. This should be run as a Business. The idea should be funded as a loan, not the Setup.

New fssai Order for Packaged Drinking Water & Natural Mineral Water

Recent Order by the fssai dtd 26th March 

With ref to this order the fssai has made it compulsory to get BIS license before getting fssai license for Packaged Drinking Water & Packaged Mineral Water. It further says, that there are many manufacturers found who have fssai license & don't have BIS license.

So, let's finally accept, that there ARE producers of Packaged Drinking water without a BIS license, and the govt has accepted this. Though the BIS has made this under it's mandatory certification list, there are many manufacturers : meaning they have a mfg unit 9or claiming to have. 

A Welcome Move 

Now, before applying/Renewal, fssai will require the BIS valid registration copy to be uploaded on their portal. It says :-

Little More Clarification Needed 

1. fssai says FBO. FBO means food business operators. It consists of producers (manufacturers) as well as the distributors as well. Both require registrations/licenses. I am sure the new order is for those who claim they manufacture PDW or NMW, still it should be made clear as to, in case of a distributor or a co-packer, what should be the pre-condition, as they use someone else's BIS certifications.
2. Secondly, some more clarification needed for other types of water such as Alkaline Water, Flavoured Water, Aerated Water, Tonic Water. They can be registered with fssai without the BIS license. There should be certain clear order on this.

Banning Bottles below 1 Ltr : Is this a correct step towards restricting pollution ?

Recently , The Mokokchung district administration, Nagaland exercised a complete ban on Packaged Drinking Water Bottles below 1 ltr. Many states have experimented this in past or even in present. 

What may be the general strategy ?

The admin must have implemented this to reduce the number of bottles with smaller denomination, indirectly reducing the total plastic. Looks right, at the face of it. Let's verify, whether it really serves the purpose.

• It acts as a breakdown measure, something done to temporarily address the situation, not attacking the cause.
• The cause is the habit of littering. Is something done to educate people on this aspect parallelly ?
• There should be a drive to promote reverse vending machine usage at public places. This educates & rewards people more.
• For recycling, some special "Feel Good" drive should be implemented by the govt. This will encourage citizens to recycle the plastic PET bottles. 
• As it is, almost 90 per cent of PET is recycled. There is no much point to include smaller bottles in the ban. This decreases the convenience of travelers and increases the usage of bigger sized bottles which provokes wastage of water ultimately.

In general, the policy looks good, however, the recycling should be more emphasized in parallel.

Does a Water Bottling Plant Waste 50% Water ?

Well, this is a very loose talk. Even the plant suppliers also sound very loose when they easily claim that 50% of water is only usable, & the rest is thrown, waste. This has to be corrected properly, let's do it :-

It's not 50 % flat

Agreed, the RO system, in a way to filter out even the dissolved solids, reject certain salts, which go with water. However, this depends upon how much quantity of salts or solids are there in it first. There are many minerals, the collective count is called as the TDS. Roughly the count of the TDS will give you how many these salt particals are there in the Raw Water. It's measured in PPM (Particals per million) : How many salt particals are there in 10 Lakh total Water Particals. 

There is a simple device called TDS Meter, which can easily tell you about the same. If the TDS is 200, meaning just 200 particals in total 10 Lakh (1 million) particals. Depending upon the level of impurity it is decided as to how much water can be bottled as pure water. It can be 90% also if the raw water is of very good quality.

It's not waste, It's Reject Water

It is allowable to used in own toilets/sanitary system or trees/plants/gardens to be used which ultimately will flow to the sewage system to get further filtered ultimately. Hence it is NOT waste water, it's reject water.

Can the Reject Water be re-used ?

Technically, yes. Practically : Not advisable for Water Bottling Plants. Why ? You can read a special post here on Zero Liquid Discharge Plants

Process of choosing a supplier ...

While finalizing a vendor for your water plant, you can follow this simple process :-

• Be ready with specifications
• Ask references from peers
• Go to Google , Indiamart & other sites
• Check their reputation
• Shortlist 3 of them
• Insist for an installation visit
• Compare & Appoint
• Be clear with contract terms

Don't go into emotional decisions.

You should take intelligent decision, not emotional. Wait for 48 hours before arriving at decisions. Just finalizing something in a hurry might land into troubles later on. Take Calculated decisions. 

Why Bottles are marked with "With Added Minerals" ?

Little Background

Bottled Water is used to be consumed while travelling mainly, when domestic water tap/supply is not available. This is the basic use of "Bottled" water. Obviously all corresponding points arise like the life of this water, the uniform quality, the validity, and so on. 

BIS : the controller body

Water , being a basic need, and also being a major cause of various illnesses/ deaths is a very sensitive edible substance in a country like India, which diverse & hugely populated. Hence from 2003 water, the bottled water came under the BIS lens. And it was made compulsory to secure a BIS license & hence every bottled water label has an ISI number printed on labels.

Universal treatment definition

The water, which is very good & qualifying to the standards at its raw form, at source itself, is called as Natural Mineral Water & IS13428 is awarded to that. There are 25+ plants in India at this moment. 

The water, which might be very good, however, not meeting the standards at its raw form, at source itself is called as Packaged Drinking Water & IS 14543 is awarded to that. There are 6000+ plants in India at this moment.

The NMW plants don't need to remove any minerals from it. However the PDW plants need to remove all those minerals and add back the necessary ones. This is a standard process. Re-Mineralization. This is the "Added Minerals" This is the added minerals. 

fssai , an additional licensing authority, has also made it compulsory to add certain amount of Calcium & Magnesium as added minerals. We have covered this in an other blogpost.l

You can also watch the video below :-

What does the cost of bottled water include other than the Itself?

 The Cost of Bottled Water

If you observe the Packaged Drinking Water Bottle, you will observe the following visible cost components :-

1. The Water
2. The Bottle 
3. The Cap 
4. The Label
5. The ink which prints the Batch & Price Information

Besides these, there are other components, which are indirectly responsible for the produce of the Bottled Water & even reaching to the citizens like :-

• The Machinery & Equipment Cost, its investment cost (for the banker)
• The legal cost of the whole business as it is strictly regulated by Law.
• The Profit of the Business Owner while producing the water
• The Profit of the distribution Channel which makes you get the water at your doorstep

These all can be called as the Cost Components. A very close look at these factors can serve a great deal for any future plant setup. We do cover this in details inside our training sessions.