counter to Medha Patkar's call (Oct '05)

letter sent to the press, and posted on 'Hasiru Usiru' web-site:

Municipal water supply, the country over, is in a shambles. In such a scenario, when the bottling industry comes forward to make good quality water available right through the country, and at reasonable prices, it is fulfilling a desperate need. What is there if you have to pay for it? Would you rather pay the doctor's bills? As such, Ms Medha Patkar's call for boycott of bottled water (reported in your columns on the 25th Oct while reporting on the Seminar on Privatisation of water in the Senate Hall, Bangalore) is rather misplaced. I have, however, no serious issue with her call for boycott of the Cola's.

The problem clearly lies with indiscriminate over exploitation of the water resources. It is this activity that needs to be properly regulated, and that's what Ms Patkar should be demanding. That apart, water is too precious a resource for us to afford the inefficiencies of government organisations in its processing and distribution. This activity could very well switch to the private sector.

Ms Patkar has a definite role to play in this world of plunderers. One only wishes she gets her focus right.