Water harvesting is the buzzword. Millions of rupees are being sunk to promote water harvesting. And at the same time, licenses are being issued to private companies to not only exploit ground water but to go in for 'water mining'. In the past few years, for instance, the number of golf courses has multiplied in and around the major metros in India and at the same time more and more bottling plants for soft-drinks are being set up. The basic objective being very clear: let the average consumer conserve water for the benefit (and luxury) of the rich and the elite!
In India, as the prestigious fortnightly Down to Earth estimates that the ever-swelling numbers of urban consumers who are hitting the (soft-drink) bottle and the increasing ability of the beverage manufacturers to penetrate the rural market have ensured that sales and revenues head north. According to market sources, the soft-drink industry was estimated at 6.5 billion bottles in the year 2000 and volumes have been increasing at 14-15 per cent per annum since then.
"An international soft drink association put the market size of the soft-drink sector in India at about 1.4 billion litres in 1998. Producing this quantity would require a staggering 5.6 billion litres of water. Most of this is extracted from groundwater resources. Assuming that the per capita consumption of water is 30 litres per day, the water consumed annually by the soft-drink industry is enough to meet the water needs of more then 5 lakh people (say, for the district of Bolangir in Orissa, which is chronically drought hit) for a year."
In Kerala, marketed by the State tourism as God's own country, an NGO "Jananeethi" is waging a lone battle against the excessive extraction of groundwater and the resulting deterioration of water quality caused by Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd -- a local unit of the multinational soft-drink giant. The resulting impact on agriculture in the region has been very well documented.
We present the news report from the latest issue of Down to Earth magazine. The second item is the complete report prepared by Jananeethi, which can be obtained from the address listed.
1. Water battle
Regulations sorely missed as Kerala villagers cross swords with Coke over indiscriminate groundwater use
Kushal P S Yadav & Surendranath C Down to Earth
Even as Coca-Cola draws a generic link with all things cool in its latest ad, the soft-drink giant is feeling the heat of a two-month-long agitation by local villagers against its bottling plant in Palakkad district of Kerala. Their grievance: excessive groundwater extraction by Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Private Limited (hcbl) - the local unit of the multinational company.
"The plant was set up in 1998 on a 15-ha plot in violation of the Kerala Land Utilisation Act of 1967, intended to prevent the use of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes," alleges Velloor Swaminathan, convenor, Coca-Cola Virudha Janakeeya Samara Samithy, a local pressure group. Hcbl officials, however, refute these allegations. In fact, they are said to have justified the unit's functioning by pointing out that there is no law regulating the use of water. And they are not far wrong.
Up in arms
For the past few weeks Plachimada village, located in Palakkad, has been in the thick of controversy. People from about 1,000 households, including 50 women belonging to Eravala and Malasar tribal communities, have been holding demonstrations and staging sit-ins in front of the hcbl factory complex.
Villagers allege that the soft-drink unit is guzzling water through borewells, sucking the groundwater aquifer and their open wells dry. "Earlier my irrigation pump used to run throughout the day but now there is not enough water to operate it for even 15 minutes," says R Krishnaswamy, who owns about three hectares (ha) of land adjacent to the hcbl plant. He has not watered his coconut trees for three months. Consequently though there has been a six-fold drop in the yield of nuts, he can only watch helplessly.
To be sure, Coke cannot be solely blamed for the current row. Because the law of the land allows beverage makers to set up shop anywhere in the country. It is not mandatory for them to undertake an environmental impact assessment. A mere consent from the state pollution control board, apart from furnishing details about the quantity of water to be used, is all that they need to get started.
Free for all
Shocking as it may sound, there are hardly any laws or regulations governing groundwater extraction in India. No mechanisms exist to regulate the amount of water used.
All issues pertaining to groundwater are dealt with by two core bodies - the Central Ground Water Board (cgwb) and the Central Ground Water Authority (cgwa). Both fall under the Union ministry of water resources. While the cgwb is responsible for advising states on matters relating to groundwater, the cgwa was constituted under the Environmental (Protection) Act, 1986, to regulate and control groundwater management. But both these authorities are by and large advisory.
The cgwa has the mandate for banning the extraction of groundwater in areas where the water table is very low or the water quality has deteriorated because of pollution. "If the water level plummets by four metres over a period of 10 years in a particular place, it is designated as a notified area," reveals a cgwa official. Regions where the natural replenishment of water is less than the annual extraction also come under the purview of notified areas. To date, the cgwa has notified only 11 such spots in the country. The few groundwater norms that have been formulated remain restricted to these areas.
Nominal charge
Since there are absolutely no groundwater abstraction controls in the rest of the country, soft-drink makers like Coca-Cola just need to specify how much water will be used in the unit so that they can be charged for that amount. Payment by the user is termed as water cess and is regulated under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Cess Act, 1977. The industry has to pay cess on the water consumed for specific purposes at prescribed rates. "To determine the amount of water used, meters of prescribed standards are installed at stipulated places," says a Central Pollution Control Board official.
Water cess can differ from state to state and on the basis of type of application. In some cases, this amount can be very low. The hcbl spokesperson informed Down To Earth that the company paid this levy to the Kerala Pollution Control Board (kpcb) every six months.
According to him, the cess is paid under three heads: l For cooling, spraying in mines and boiler at the rate of 2.25 paise per kilolitre (kl) l For domestic purposes at the rate of 3.00 paise per kl l For processing at 7.50 paise per kl.
When compared to what the denizens of Delhi pay for domestic consumption of water, the cess paid by hcbl in Palakkad is a pittance. The capital's residents pay 35 paise per kl for consumption up to 10 kl and Rs 1.50 per kl for use above 20 kl. As against this, a charge of 3.00 paise for 1000 litres of water would indeed make the Kerala district a cost-effective proposition. Significantly, who would want to conserve water when such a paltry sum has to be paid?
The complete news story can be viewed at: www.cseindia.org Down to Earth, Aug 15, 2002.
2. Jananeethis report: On the amplitude of environment and human rights ramification. July 2002
Excerpts:
Jananeethi team inspected the public wells and the private wells situated very close to the factory site and collected samples for testing in sterile clean bottles and they were sealed. All the wells had moderate levels of water in them and it looked clear. The samples when drawn from the wells, showed turbidity. A white precipitate formed a sediment when the water sample was kept without movements for some time. High levels of turbidity can protect the microbes from the effects of disinfection and the water can stimulate bacterial growth. (WHO, 1998). The water samples showed precipitates on heating. Disagreeable taste of this well water was also observed at the time of collection though there was no objectionable odour. As such no health-based value is prescribed for drinking water for the colour. . Acceptable pH of drinking water is between 6.5 and 8.5.
Inorganic constituents:
Chloride levels in the water were 540 mg /l. The normal level of Chloride in unpolluted water for Palakkad district is not given. But the standard prescribed for the drinking water is 200 mg/l and the maximum permitted is 600 mg/l. The present value of 540 mg /l of chloride content in the water samples collected is slightly high when the topography of the region is correlated with the water distribution. The presence of sulphates at a level of 250mg/l may alter the taste of the drinking water though it also is in the permitted level. TDS (Total Dissolved solids) has great effect on the taste of drinking. Palatability of drinking water with TDS level less than 600 mg/l is generally considered good.
Hardness of drinking water
The present samples collected showed a very high level of hardness .The taste threshold for the calcium ion is in the range of 100 to 300 mg/l. Taste threshold of magnesium is probably less than that of calcium. Consumers also tolerate more than 500 mg/l. On heating the water it forms deposits of calcium carbonate. The major problem with the well water in the area is the presence of hard water .It may be due to the erection of tube wells, and pumping and drainage of ground water at a very high level. Though the hardness of the well water is not posing any health problems, it has other social and psychological consequences on the lives of these people. More soaps and detergents are to be spent, as lathering of soap will be less in hard water. Heating of hard water precipitates carbonates. There will be more fuel use and loss of efficiency as the people are poor and dependants on firewood as fuel. Heating hard water under pressure can cause explosions. So the hardness of water adversely affects cooking which is the main activity of the women of the area. Washing linen in hard water reduces the life of the fabric and results in economic loss to this community. Hardness of water shortens the life span of pipes and motor fittings used for pumping. Most of the farmers pump water from their wells for agriculture.
General remarks on well water:
The drinking water in the vicinity of the Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt.Ltd is of poor quality. Water having disagreeable taste and turbid appearance is not preferred for domestic use. The high alkalinity, total hardness, chloride content, TDS and MPN value are not conforming to the drinking water standards. The water available is very hard. The dissolved oxygen content is less. Since the MPN value is higher bacterial contamination may be suspected. Hence Jananeethi feels that the water of the wells of this area is polluted and unfit for domestic use.
Chemical Examination of the waste slurry
The samples of waste collected from the farmlands were tested for its manurial value since the factory had impressed peasants that it was good manure. The cream coloured and tar black residue which was spread in the farmlands appeared clay like matter with 28 to 30 % calcium in it and 4 to 5 % phosphorus. There was no nitrogen content in the collected waste, proving that the manurial value of the waste is nil. Too much of calcium in the soil can leach into the wells and ponds as they will be washed by heavy rains and this again may pose severe problems in the area, The presence of excess calcium in the farmland may lead to nutrient imbalance in the soil .The farmlands which are having apparently very good soil structure may in due course get spoiled. Slurry disposal system needs immediate attention from the factory management and selling the slurry waste to farmers, as manure has to be stopped forthwith. Earnest effort has to be taken up to detect the heavy metal residues in this waste as this is spread in all farmlands of the area. The residents are experiencing sever foul odour from the factory especially in the evening and nighttime. It is also reported that the wastewater generated emits a putrid odour when it is used for irrigating the gardens in the factory compound.
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