IMPORTANT POINT
Packaged drinking water cannot be sold without BIS Mark.

ORDER

Aravind Kumar J— “Water, Water Everywhere, but not a drop to drink” are the words of celebrated English Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

Preface

In these petitions, an important issue touching the lives of human beings has come up for consideration namely, water which is one of the basic necessities for human existence. Several debates, discussions, deliberations, seminars across the world is being held or conducted on this vital subject since it has effects on the very existence of the human race.

2. Water is considered a purifier in most religions. Major faiths that incorporate ritual washing (ablution) include Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Rastafari movement, Shinto, Taoism, and Wicca. Immersion (or aspersion or affusion) of a person in water is a central sacrament of Christianity (where it is called baptism); it is also a part of the practice of other religions, including Islam (Ghusl), Judaism (mikvah) and Sikhism (Amrit Sanskar).

3. Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. Water covers 70.9% of the Earth’s surface, and is vital for all known forms of life. On Earth, 96.3% of the planet’s water is found is oceans, 1.7% in groundwater, 1. 7% in Glaciers and the ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland, a small fraction in other large water bodies and 0.001% in the air as vapour, clouds (formed of solid and liquid water particles suspended in air), and precipitation. Only 2.5% of the Earth’s water is freshwater and 98.8% of that water is in ice and groundwater. Less than 0.3% of all freshwater is in rivers, lakes, and the atmosphere, and an even smaller amount of the Earth’s freshwater (0.003%) is contained within biological bodies and manufactured products.

4. Safe drinking water is essential to humans and other life forms. Access to safe drinking water has improved over the last decades in almost every part of the world, but approximately one billion people still lack access to safe water. However, some observers have estimated that by 2025 A.D. more than half of the world population will be facing water-based vulnerability. A recent report by World Health Organisation (November 2009) suggests that by 2030, in some developing regions of the world, water demand will exceed supply by 50% and thereby water plays an important role in the world economy.

5. This natural resource is becoming scarcer in certain places, and its availability is a major social and economic concern. Currently, about a billion people around the world routinely drink unhealthy water. Most countries accepted the goal of halving by 2015 the number of people worldwide who do not have access to safe water. Even if this difficult goal is met, it will still leave more than an estimated half a billion people without access to safe drinking water. The World Health Organization estimates that safe water could prevent 1.4 million child deaths from diarrhea each year. Water, however, is not a finite resource, but rather re-circulated as potable water in precipitation in quantities many degrees of magnitude higher than human consumption. Therefore, it is the relatively small quantity of water in reserve in the earth (about 1% of our drinking water supply, which is replenished in aquifers around every 1 to 10 years), that is a non-renewable resource, and it is, rather, the distribution of potable and irrigation water which is scarce, rather than the actual amount of it that exists on the earth.

6. Water being an integral part of living creatures is an inseparable part of human beings. On the one hand, the population of the country is increasing in manifold numbers and on the other hand, the water resources to cater to the needs of these populace is dwindling day-by-day and thus a balancing act is required to be maintained.

7. The Constitution of India gives every citizen of the country a fundamental right under Part-III, Article 21 protection of life and person, liberty which envisages that no citizen shall be deprived of his