Packaged water has become common placed and it is certainly hard to imagine life without it. Even as questions over the idea of bottling up one of the elements of nature, and fixing a price tag to it, linger we now have oxygenated bottled water!
Dr Balajit B Shetty, project head of Manikchand, tells L Subramani of Deccan Herald that oxygenating water certainly enhances its quality to hydrate the body. “Oxygen,” he says, “is present in fresh water in small quantity (2 to 3 Parts Per Million).
This should not be mistaken for the oxygen molecule that joins with hydrogen to form water; but actually oxygen in gas form is present in dissolved form. Now, using a patented technology, we dissolve oxygen in large quantities to produce ‘oxygenated water’, which is our premium product.”
Apart from the scientists’ claim that human body is incapable of absorbing high level of dissolved oxygen (like fish), he also admits that a few others tried to prove oxygenation is actually a threat to human safety. “This is totally unfounded.
Researches around the world have proved that oxygenation doesn’t cause any threat to human health, but, on the contrary, enhances the water’s ability to energise our body. There can’t be a better evidence than the fact that the government agency (Indian Patent Authority) has given patent for our technology.”
In the plants of Manikchand, where, besides treating and bottling water, emphasis is also given to conserving it.
“In the whole process of mining water, we make sure that the character of the water we sell is not changed and don’t allow a single drop of it to go waste.” As acids and other toxic substances are not used in the treatment process, Dr Shetty says the water the plants let out is unlikely to pollute the ground water source.
“And in all the seven plants, we study the contour of the land and construct the channel in such a way that water drains into the pits. So, apart from the refuse-water we let out, the rainwater also charges the system.” He gives the example of a village well near Manikchand’s Poona plant that used to be dry in summer. But, ever since the plant laid its recharge pits, water lasts beyond winter in the well.
The purification procedure involves UV filtration and reverse osmosis which also keeps the (bottled) water in its natural state. The PET (or Poly Ethanol Tetra Chloride) bottles used to package water, “would eventually decompose and would leave carbon and water, which are less pollutant than PVC, which leaves a huge land waste and is too dangerous to burn.
