The Indian water purification industry is coming together to help raise awareness about water quality and improve product standards. The First Review Meeting of the Indian Task Force of WQA would be held on January 29, 2009 at the 6th EverythingAboutWater Expo in New Delhi. The International Exhibition and Conference on Water and Wastewater Management is being held at Hall No. 18, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi from January 28-30, 2009.
A task force comprising Point of Use/Point of Entry companies has been created in India under the banner of the Water Quality Association to create industry standards and promote training and education. The task force is expected to bring together over 50 leading water purification companies in India for the first time ever. Members of the task force are examining WQA operational methods to determine what elements can be used and modified for India. The session will focus largely on the needs of the consumers, the industry in India and product performance standards.
The product standards issue is being studied by a sub-task force headed by Nimish Shah of Unilever. The education sub-task force is chaired by H. Subramaniam of EA Water and the communication sub-task force by R.S. Rajan of Ion Exchange India. The full task force is chaired by Govind Bommi of Filtrex International with two Vice Chairs comprising Vikram Surendran of Unilever and Marzin Shroff of Eureka Forbes. The Technical Consultant to WQA, Regu P. Regunathan is providing the staff support while Tom Palkon, the Director of Certification at WQA is also playing a leading role in this task force.
Unorganized players form a big chunk in the drinking water purification market. Their growth is primarily attributed to the lack of awareness of quality standards of water purifiers by consumers, for whom price forms the main deciding factor in their buying behaviour. According to H. Subramaniam, Vice President, EA Water, with numerous Chinese brands entering the shores of India available at varying price levels, quality has traditionally not been a concern at all for the domestic consumer. “The general perception is that a RO is the best form of purifier without analyzing its need even though a cheaper alternative in a purifier with a UV disinfection function can serve the purpose in some cases”, he added. Unorganized players offer tempting offers and discounts on their cheap imports and consumers unknowingly buy these products sometimes even without assurance of servicing commitments. With no product options for removing different types of impurities, most of the times a RO purifier is forced upon the ignorant consumer. “We are trying to persuade these players to become members of WQA through a membership drive starting in December this year continuing till mid January next year”, said Subramaniam. Various issues of interest to the sector would be discussed at this meeting, the first-ever of its kind.
The First Review Meeting of the Indian Task Force of WQA would be on January 29, 2009 on the 2nd day of the 6th EverythingAboutWater International Exhibition and Conference on Water and Wastewater Management being held at Hall No. 18, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi from January 28-30, 2009. The exhibition provides a platform to companies and associations specializing in water treatment, wastewater management and all other related industries to showcase and exhibit their products and expertise under one roof. The venue would also host a two day international conference session on water and wastewater, a day long conference on non-chemical disinfection technologies besides training workshops on sea water desalination and water reuse & recycling. The sponsors for this mega event are Pentair Water (Platinum), Triveni Engineering (Diamond), Lanxess (Gold) and Everest Transmission (Silver).
About EA Water Pvt Ltd
EA Water Pvt. Ltd. is India’s only knowledge and marketing solutions provider in Water, Environment and Building sector. In most of its activities, E A Water has been a market leader & innovator with many of the products never ever been attempted earlier anywhere in the world with the start of fresh trends and newer markets. EA Water is India’s 1st ISO 9001: 2000 certified Company in the publication and events sector in India, reflecting its commitment to quality and customer service.
About WQA
The Water Quality Association (WQA) is a not-for-profit international trade association representing the residential, commercial, industrial, and small community water treatment industry. Its mission is to promote throughout the world, the health benefits of improving drinking water with the use of onsite POE and POU water treatment technologies. WQA is a resource and information source, a voice for the industry, an educator for professionals, a laboratory for product testing, and a communicator to the public. Globally, WQA provides Gold Seal certification for products that remove a variety of contaminants based on independently developed testing standards. In India, WQA can help in the promotion of drinking water treatment and provide a forum for competing companies to address industry issues. The Bureau of Indian Standards only certifies packaged drinking water, ISI code IS14543 stipulated for packaged drinking water and IS13428 for mineral water.
For more details, contact:
Manpreet Ahuja Manager-Corporate Communications at manpreet@ewgroup.in or call at +91-9999915477
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