Ranchi Bottled Water Crisis: Unlicensed Plants Pose Health Risks Amidst Municipal Water Woes

Ranchi: As the city’s water pipeline system continues to pose serious health risks, a large section of Ranchi’s population has become increasingly dependent on bottled water for daily consumption. The dependence has become more severe after the Indore incident, where at least 10 people have died, and hundreds were hospitalised. However, most of these mushrooming water bottling plants in the city are unlicensed and could pose a serious health risk to the consumers.From household use to food carts on roadsides across the city, bottled water has become the preferred option for many residents who fear contamination of the water from the municipal supply. This demand has encouraged hundreds of water purification and bottling plants to set up operations in different parts of the city, often catering to localities on a door-to-door basis.The unchecked growth of these units, however, has raised concerns over the quality and safety of the water being sold. Residents have pointed out that while these plants project themselves as providers of “pure” or “RO-treated” water, there is little clarity on whether they adhere to prescribed standards or undergo regular quality checks by authorities.In the absence of a regulation or a clear guideline to govern these mushrooming water-treating and bottling plants, many run these plants disregarding safety standards.Acknowledging the growing concern, Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) additional administrator Sanjay Kumar, said, “It is true that a large chunk of these bottling plants are running without undergoing the necessary licensing process of the municipal corporation. Their claim of providing pure water is also doubtful. RMC will soon formulate guidelines for these units and launch a crackdown against the illegal ones.”Ranchi has around 3,000 small and big bottling plants operating in 53 wards of the RMC area.Despite the potential health risks associated with water supplied by these plants, many city residents said they have little choice but to rely on them. “We cannot drink the contaminated municipal water. Even the water we buy from these plants sometimes develops a foul smell if stored for more than a week, but we have no alternative,” said Arvind Kumar, a resident of Kokar.