Drinking water suppliers facing rough ride
Yasir Wardad | Saturday, 5 March 2011
Yasir Wardad
Companies that sell pure drinking water are passing through a tough time amid stoppage of renewal of their licence. Taking this opportunity, hundreds of unscrupulous businessmen are marketing contaminated water in the name of pure drinking water. The fake companies are selling water at cheap rates. This is forcing the genuine companies to stop their business, insiders in related business circles alleged. Under the circumstances, genuine companies had to degrade the quality of their water or stop their business, a good number of members of Pure Drinking Water Manufacturers Association of Bangladesh and Association of Bangladesh Mineral and Purified Drinking Water Manufacturers told the FE. They said that 350 companies had so far been given licences from the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) for selling drinking water in the country since 1998. Besides, some 200 fake companies are running their business. Over 150 of them are carrying on their business outside Dhaka. But the authority stopped renewing the licences in 2008, following the National Water Policy 1999 that aimed to facilitate access of all citizens to basic level of services in water supply and Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) banned marketing of water without its permission in its area. The business is still running for the failure of DWASA in supplying adequate fresh and pure water and most of the business have gone to the unscrupulous businessmen who are the major operators in the market," the owner of a renowned water supplier company said. He said, "It costs us more than Tk 35 for a 19-litre container, but the fake companies are providing it at Tk 30. This is forcing us to degrade our product's quality." He informed the FE that most of the companies fixed their rate at Tk 43.70 inclusive of VAT at 15 per cent, but the fake companies, violating the common rate, set it at only Tk 30 to 35 as they had low costs involved in their operations. The businessmen at a press conference on February 27 in the city urged Industries Minister Dilip Barua to withdraw the decision about withholding the renewal of licences to save the Tk 5.0 billion industry, where 15,000 people were involved in one way or other. "The government is being deprived of a large amount of revenue from this sector because of the operations of the fake companies," they said. They said that it would encourage the genuine businessman to give the best quality water and would discourage the fake businesses, if the authority began issuing licences again. According to the association leaders, more than 350 (200 with licences) companies are supplying over 3.32 million litres of water in 17,500 containers per day in Dhaka. The leaders admitted that only 100 companies among them supplied pure water.Taking the figures of the businessmen into account, it is estimated that more than 2.37 million litres of contaminated water are marketed daily in the capital through containers.
Companies that sell pure drinking water are passing through a tough time amid stoppage of renewal of their licence. Taking this opportunity, hundreds of unscrupulous businessmen are marketing contaminated water in the name of pure drinking water. The fake companies are selling water at cheap rates. This is forcing the genuine companies to stop their business, insiders in related business circles alleged. Under the circumstances, genuine companies had to degrade the quality of their water or stop their business, a good number of members of Pure Drinking Water Manufacturers Association of Bangladesh and Association of Bangladesh Mineral and Purified Drinking Water Manufacturers told the FE. They said that 350 companies had so far been given licences from the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) for selling drinking water in the country since 1998. Besides, some 200 fake companies are running their business. Over 150 of them are carrying on their business outside Dhaka. But the authority stopped renewing the licences in 2008, following the National Water Policy 1999 that aimed to facilitate access of all citizens to basic level of services in water supply and Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) banned marketing of water without its permission in its area. The business is still running for the failure of DWASA in supplying adequate fresh and pure water and most of the business have gone to the unscrupulous businessmen who are the major operators in the market," the owner of a renowned water supplier company said. He said, "It costs us more than Tk 35 for a 19-litre container, but the fake companies are providing it at Tk 30. This is forcing us to degrade our product's quality." He informed the FE that most of the companies fixed their rate at Tk 43.70 inclusive of VAT at 15 per cent, but the fake companies, violating the common rate, set it at only Tk 30 to 35 as they had low costs involved in their operations. The businessmen at a press conference on February 27 in the city urged Industries Minister Dilip Barua to withdraw the decision about withholding the renewal of licences to save the Tk 5.0 billion industry, where 15,000 people were involved in one way or other. "The government is being deprived of a large amount of revenue from this sector because of the operations of the fake companies," they said. They said that it would encourage the genuine businessman to give the best quality water and would discourage the fake businesses, if the authority began issuing licences again. According to the association leaders, more than 350 (200 with licences) companies are supplying over 3.32 million litres of water in 17,500 containers per day in Dhaka. The leaders admitted that only 100 companies among them supplied pure water.Taking the figures of the businessmen into account, it is estimated that more than 2.37 million litres of contaminated water are marketed daily in the capital through containers.