Hubballi/Mangaluru: Thousands of employees of the PepsiCo plant in Dharwad are looking at a bleak future with the company deciding to shift its unit to either Solhapur in Maharashtra or any other place which has water as the drought has hit its production here.
The Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation has cut the plant's water supply owing to the fast depleting storage of the Malaprabha reservoir. People of Dharwad, who are supplied water only once in three or four days, had objected to PepsiCo being supplied two lakh litres of water per day for its operations and even staged a protest. In response the municipal authorities cut the plant's water supply by one lakh litres, leaving it in dire straits as 10 of its 14 borewells have gone dry.
The company, which has provided employment to people of North Karnataka for the last three decades, had bought 20 acres of land in Bagalkot , but has dropped its plan to shift there owing to the lack of underground water in that district as well. Now, its seriously looking at Solhapur as an alternative, according to sources.
"Over a thousand people have been working in plant for the last few decades. We will lose our jobs if the plant is shifted to other cities as we cannot move there with our families. So we are trying to persuade it to remain in Dharwad as rains are expected in June," said the workers union leader, Kamalakar Kuchinad .
But plant manager, Shankar Naik said it is unlikely to give up its plans to move as the present water supply has made production nearly impossible.
Water shortage affects soft drinks industry
The harsh summer is proving too hard for the soft drinks industry in Mangaluru. There is a huge demand for soft drinks because of the searing heat but the water shortage has forced many to cut production.“We have cut our output by about 40 per cent,” Manjunath Shetty of Joy Soft Drinks told Deccan Chronicle. Joy Soft Drinks which has three flavours, Cola, Orange and Lime and also another product named Zafa, enjoys a good market in Mangaluru and surrounding areas. “Our regular production is about 700 to 800 cases (about 16,000 to 19,000 bottles) per day. But now it has come down,” he says. “In addition to the labour problem, we are now facing a water crisis. We cannot use tanker water as we need to make sure our product is hygeinic,” he said explaining why they were facing a water shortage. “We have stopped taking soft drink orders for functions. At present we are providing products only to our regular customers,” he added.
Meanwhile in order to ensure that private water tanker owners do not exploit the crisis and swindle people, the district administration has fixed rates for water tankers. Deputy Commissioner A.B. Ibrahim took the decision on the rates after holding a meeting with the RTO and MCC officials considering the distance covered by the tankers, fuel, water cost and salary of the driver. According to Ibrahim, a tanker with 6,000 litres water can charge Rs 1,000 and for 9,000 litres, the rate is 1,300. Rs 1,500 will be the price for 12,000 litres of tanker water. “If anybody charges more than the specified amount, the public should complain to us along with details of the tanker registration,” Mr Ibrahim stated.
