While safe drinking water is an effective defence against the infection of water borne diseases, a large
number of populations suffering from these diseases do not have access to safe drinking water due
inadequacy of supply. Private entrepreneurs entered this sector and made bottled drinking water
available by supplying various kinds of bottled water. In this study we found that the bottled drinking
water industry has experienced a spectacular growth over the past two decades and it has a huge
growth potential because of rising demand for safe drinking. High profit margin (217 %) is the main
attraction to the entrepreneur to invest in this industry. Health awareness, lack of safe drinking water
facilities, rising income, urbanization, migration and rising trend in tourism industries are the major
influencing factors of demand for bottled drinking water (BDW). This industry also partially fulfils
the demand for drinking water. More than 2 percent of household’s demands were met by this
industry and many more households (additional 4 percent) coping with BDW during water crisis. Poor
households spend around 4 percent of their total monthly household’s consumption expenditure on
BDW which may have an adverse impact on household because households could have spent this for
purchasing other goods. Like other developed counties, a large section of Indian households are
shifting from their traditional sources of water to BDW. However, there are some concerns about the
quality of BDW. Many cases, BDW contains chemical toxins at more than permissible level that can
be harmful for health. Hence, there is an urgent need for appropriate intervention to regulate price,
reduce potential harm and improve the quality of water provided by this industry.