Packaged drinking water units to surrender licences

They say over 1,000 units are selling herbal water without licence and quality checks

Quality of packaged drinking water may be doubtful as unit holders plan to surrender licences on September 6

Members of Tamil Nadu Packaged Drinking Water Manufacturers Association plan to surrender ISI licences given by Bureau of Indian Standards on September 6 protesting against the functioning of unlicensed units selling ‘flavoured’ water.

There are nearly 890 packaged drinking water manufacturing units across the State. Of this, nearly 310 are in and around Chennai. Despite the National Green Tribunal’s directive in July restricting the functioning of units that sell ‘herbal’ or ‘flavoured’ water without licences, at least 1,000 such units continue to function across the State, said members of the Association.

V.Murali, patron of the TNPDWA, said that supply of packaged drinking water would continue even after surrendering the licences. But, water would be distributed without the ISI mark and there would not be any authority to check the water quality.

On an average, about five crore litres of water is supplied daily across the State. Of this, nearly 2.5 crore litres of water is distributed per day in Chennai.

“We also recently obtained licence from Food Safety and Standards Authority of India to operate the units. But, those units that sell herbal water without any licences continue to function,” he said.

A.Shakespeare, the association’s general secretary, said nearly 870 units that are part of the association plan to surrender the licences.

These herbal water units are not monitored by any regulatory authority. Unlike packaged drinking water unit holders who have to test samples on daily and monthly basis and also subjected to surprise checks regularly, ‘herbal water’ units do not have any quality checks.

The Association members also complained that the licensed packaged drinking water units are affected by the order to get licence from Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board. However, the Board has not provided licences citing ongoing court cases pertaining to groundwater extraction. The Association’s president K.Rajaram said that they were not a polluting industry and hence licence from the TNPCB was not required.

Though they were prepared, there were obstacles to obtain licences.