Contaminated water supply widens bottled water market

Riding on utility agencies’ failure to supply safe drinking water, the business of bottled drinking water in Bangladesh is increasing by 15 per cent per year.

Changing lifestyles of both urban and rural people and the increasing public awareness about waterborne diseases contributed a lot to the market expansion, said the industry people.

Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA) itself on April 6 requests the city residents to drink water it supplies through pipelines after boiling it as the agency finds it unsafe.

Issuing the warning, Dhaka WASA Managing Director Taqsem A Khan claimed 95 per cent of water supplied by the agency was pure but it becomes contaminated in five to eight per cent areas of the city. “As we don’t know which five per cent water is contaminated, we suggest that everyone boil the supplied water before drinking,” Taqsem said.

According to the Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited, Dhaka residents had burnt gas worth Tk 58 core per day in 2017.

The market size of bottled drinking water is more than Tk 1,000 crore now and the yearly demand for bottled drinking water is nearly 40 to 42 crore litres, said Engineer A Matin Chowdhury, former president of the Association of Bangladesh Mineral and Purified Drinking Water Manufacturers.

A Matin, also the owner of the Aqua Mineral Water, said day by day, bottled drinking water is becoming an essential commodity and thus the market is widening.

The growing health concerns of consumers and changing lifestyles with the economic progress and increased purchase power of the mass people are boosting up the bottled drinking water business, said Md Ashfaqur Rahman, chief marketing officer of Meghna Group of Industries, a leader in bottled water market with its ‘Fresh’ brand.

He said though half-litre bottles of drinking water were the most demanded item in the market their two-litre bottles also have good demand.

Nearly 40-50 per cent of the bottled drinking water is consumed in Dhaka, Narayanganj and Gazipur. The Dhaka-Chattogram Highway and Dhaka-Sylhet Highway are the second largest consumption areas, he added.

Md Alamin, senior brand manager of the Pran-RFL Group, said, “We have nearly 15 per cent market share and have on an average 10-15 per cent progress per year.” Hotels, motels, restaurants, and tourist spots are the hub of the bottled drinking water business, he added.

Moniruzzaman, general manager (commercial), of Mum brand bottled water, the pioneer brand developed by Partex Beverage Limited, said, “Before the pandemic, our yearly growth was nearly 15 per cent, though we could not progress last year caused by the pandemic. We hope our growth will be more than 15 per cent in the current year.”

Currently, there are more than 30 water brands in the country including Mum of Partex Beverage, Fresh of Meghna Group, Pran of Pran-RFL Group, Shanti of Dhaka WASA, Jibon of Citi Group, Acme Premium Drinking Water of Acme Group, Spa of Akij group, Mukta of Maitri Shilpa, Aquafina of PepsiCo and Kinley of Cocacola company.

Future of the bottled drinking water business

The market is gradually widening in line with the increasing population and scarcity of pure drinking water, especially in tourist spots, salinity-prone regions and densely polluted areas, said the market players.

The demand for pure drinking water is gradually increasing riding on the increasing population and changing lifestyle of people, said Moniruzzaman, general manager (commercial) of Mum.

According to the Bangladesh Water Sector Network Study, city-based water suppliers such as Dhaka WASA and Chattogram WASA have been struggling to expand drinking water and urban waste management facilities because of large-scale urbanisation. According to UN estimates, Dhaka’s population is expected to reach 27.4 million by 2030, with a daily demand of 3.425 billion litres of drinking water.

A 2018 study on surface water availability for future water demand for Dhaka city conducted by the BUET has found that every year the demand for fresh water is increasing by 5 per cent approximately and the water demand will be doubled by 2035 compared to 2017.

Md Alamin, senior brand manager of Pran-RFL Group, said, “Though the demand for any other product has gone down, bottled drinking water demand has never gone down because the number of health-conscious people is gradually increased.”

Md Mahabubul Alom, senior assistant general manager (accounts) of Fresh drinking water, said their production capacity doubled in the past five years. “We now have around 35-40 per cent market share,” he said.

According to the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution, as many as 193 companies have the licence to produce and market pure drinking water in jars and bottles. Around 46 companies produce bottled water and the figure is more than double compared to 2010.

The agency in a report submitted to the High Court on testing bottled water of 15 companies it had found five companies’ water sold to consumers in Dhaka and Chattogram was unsafe for drinking.

Market also expands to rural areas

Bottled water has also made room in the rural market as well. In large gatherings, parties or on various social occasions, the guests are served bottled water.

Md Hanif Mia is an auto-rickshaw driver at Bezbagh in Senbag of Noakhali. Recently he married off his only daughter, who has completed the HSC exams, to a marketing officer of a company.

Hanif had to prepare an additional budget for the marriage ceremony to buy the bottled water for the guests.

“It became a social tradition. Guests seem to be offended if offered tap water,” he said.

Nasir Uddin, a marriage register at Bejbagh, said nowadays bottled water is served at most marriage ceremonies.