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Ground water usage: Cola giants face wrath; regulations need quick review
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Wednesday, 30 March, 2016, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Ashwani Maindola, Pushkar Oak
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fiogf49gjkf0d fiogf49gjkf0d Usage of ground water by beverage companies, especially cola giants, bottled water industries and food processing entities and its devastating repercussions on the ground water conditions in the country have been under tremendous scrutiny for many years.
The issue has come into focus recently, with new ground water norms by Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) coming into vogue, and experts viewing it as the much-needed regulatory clamp to keep a check on an industry that is apprehensive of such restrictions.
Interestingly, while a parliamentary standing committee report on ground water usage states that only 6-8% water is extracted by the beverage industry, people working for communities and non-governmental organisations feel that the impact on local availability of ground water is of grave concern. In fact, due to opposition from these quarters, many of the beverage companies’ operations were closed in Kerala, Uttarakhand, UP and Rajasthan and other parts of the country.
Amit Srivastava of India Resource Center, an organisation working against corporate globalisation, explains the issue, “It is important to understand that ground water issues are local issues. And so if a company like Coca-Cola is extracting ground water in a water-stressed area such as Jaipur, there will be an impact on the other users of ground water in the area. So giving numbers as to how much ground water they use nationally does not mean much, and how much ground water they use locally is much more important.”
Further, Srivastava points out, “There is a need to implement the priority of water usage in India. There is a national water policy in India that does this but since water is a state subject in India, it cannot be implemented until the states adopt the water policy, and most states have not. Drinking water for communities and livestock, irrigation water for farmers, water for essential industries such as power plants, must all receive enough water first before water can be allocated to luxury/non-essential products such as soft drinks, breweries and distilleries.”
Meanwhile in a recently held programme hosted by World Trade Centre Mumbai and Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority, Malini Shankar, additional chief secretary, department of environment, Government of Maharashtra, said, “Coca-Cola has shut its operations due to lack of availability of water in the states of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh recently. This was a result of people's initiative and state government laws which were enacted by the states to regulate on the drawing of the ground water under permissible limits. These plants of Coca-Cola were located in the areas which suffered water scarcity.”
Giving statistics that border on alarming, Shankar states, “As per the studies conducted by National Water Mission (NWM), India uses 230 billion cubic metre (bcm) of ground water, which may now have reached upto 250 bcm.”
However, there have been claims from beverage companies that they recharge more than they extract. Srivastava counters them thus, “Beverage companies do not recharge more ground water than they reuse, and their water recharge claims are more a public relations exercise rather than reality.”
He points out, “We do not know of one single case in India where Coca-Cola has actually measured how much water it has actually recharged. All their numbers are based on “potential” recharge they have created,” and adds, replenishing an aquifer hundreds of miles away from the point of extraction, as Coca-Cola has often done to “balance” their water use, has no bearing on the health of the local aquifer which Coca-Cola depletes through its bottling operations. To suggest otherwise makes a mockery of science.
Bottled Water
Not only cola companies but usage for other industries such as bottled water and food processing have also been under scanner.
Speaking at the recent programme, Manish Kumar, senior institutional development specialist, water and sanitation programme, World Bank, notes, “Yes there have been increased pressure on ground water for drinking purposes and this has led to more drawing of water by industries involved in packaged water, aerated waters. Several bodies in the regions of Rajasthan and Kerala have protested against Coca-Cola operations. So, we need to establish planned usage of water as its a resource and we need to protect it. World Bank will be identifying this issue independently soon.”
Mihir Shah, member, Central Water Commission (CWC), and Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), informs, “Initiatives which were earlier referred to as solution have now turned into acute problems. India depends largely on its ground water footprint which is drawn by the industries to a larger extent, today.”
New norms - old woes
Raising serious concerns on the lowering ground water levels, Shah states, “80% of the ground water is utilised for drinking and other similar purposes like beverages and food processing industries. The root cause for this concern is in the earlier mindset of the people. People still opine to take a stand on the same old British law of land that when the land belongs to one, one can avail ground water by drilling the land which is owned. So to overcome such a situation we are coming up with a legal framework, of which the draft will soon be ready to take views.”
Meanwhile, senior members of Indian Beverage Association do not seem to be happy with regard to the recent CGWA guidelines for ground water extraction, under which, existing industries were required to take NOC for operations. Hence, they have made a representation to the authority on the subject and awaiting the final draft.
On a concluding note, Srivastava states, “In India, we need a major revision of ground water laws, and one of the laws that needs to be changed is the riparian water rights. Currently, if you own the land, you own the rights to ground water under it, and this is no longer sufficient to deal with the modern economies we have today. Coca-Cola and PepsiCo use ground water practically for free in India, and this must be stopped.”
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