Producers of satchet water in Bayelsa State are angry. They are crying over low patronage of their product popularly referred to as pure water by the residents of the state.
The indigeneous companies under the aegis of the Association of Table Water Producers of Nigeria (ATWAP) are in dilemma over the preference of water produced outside the state by the residents to their products.
Niger Delta Report investigations found that sachet or table water produced outside the state is the toast of residents and visitors. Such water is more visible in stores, supermarkets and distributed on the streets by hawkers. It is so domineering that it dwarfs water manufactured by companies existing in the state.
In fact, most people are oblivious of the fact that there are indigeneous companies producing water in the state. Processed water from Rivers, Delta and Imo states saturates Bayelsa market.
There is a network of distributors who bring in the products and circulates them across the state. The products are brought into the state without any form of regulation.
Niger Delta Report also found that the development has driven many indigenous producers of table water out of the market. Many of the companies have closed down with many of their employers losing their jobs.
Few of the companies still operating are battling to break even. Among the indigenously produced sachet water striving to survive in the state are Kumo, ET, Esbel, Foutain, Ezewode and Yemeb. Kumo is the longest surviving water. Others that came up the same period with it such as Bosy and Regal had since gone under.
The surviving companies are lamenting that while they are paying taxes to the government despite the harsh economic environment, companies producing water outside the state are not.
But ATWAP has drawn the battle line. The association in conjunction with the Distributors Association of Yenagoa (DAY) have declared war against water produced outside the state and its network of distributors. It gave an ultimatum for every company producing water outside the state to register with it.
Niger Delta Report found a letter written to companies producing water outside the state by ATWAP. Members of the union wrote the letter after rising from their meeting on September 30th. They gave such companies up until October 31st to register with ATWAP.
ATWAP, in the letter signed by its state Chairman, Capt. Cletus Emiemokumo (retd.) and Secretary, Mr. Mike Eyedoudegha, said the objective of the association was to cooperate with the National Agency for Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in ensuring that water produced and distributed in the state by companies comply with high manufacturing standard.
“It will also assist the public and regulating authorities in identifying and exposing charlatans and pirated whose activities are capable of bringing the industry into disrepute.
“As the major stakeholders of the industry in the state, ATWAP in collaboration with the Distributors Association of Yenagoa (DAY) can no longer fold it’s arms and watch the unabated and unbridled influx of all sorts of packaged water not the state even from questionable sources to the detriment of the populace and the indigenous producers in particular.”
The association further warned all the producers of the product against loading any vehicle that has not registered with it. It said only vehicles that could load 1000 bags and above would be allowed to be registered. According to the group, defaulters would be visited with “unpleasant consequences”.
Copies of the letter were sent to 11 major non-indigenous producers and distributors of water such as PA, POC, ZINO, River Mile Daily, EFAC, Delight and Director. Others are Jami, OHIS, Ovisco and GB Premium.
Niger Delta Report also observed that ATWAP lodged a complaint to the Director-General, Yenagoa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (YCCI). In a protest letter dated October 21, the group decried domination and control of the industry by non-Bayelsans.
It lamented that the non-indigenous producers had no stake in the economy of the state observing that their interest was simply to maximise profit. The group complained that the industry had been infiltrated by charlatans and pirates.
“These people have, therefore, flooded and saturated the state with pure water from everywhere and even from unhygienic and questionable sources without regard to the rules and regulation guiding packaged water distribution.
“Thus many packaged water factories and companies set up by eminent Bayelsans with millions of Naira have been forced to shut down due to lack of patronage. The economic and social consequences are too numerous to mention.
“The people are getting poorer by the day and the youths who are supposed to have been gainfully employed in our factories and companies are now roaming aimlessly about the streets”, it said.
The association, therefore, appealed to YCCI, to help in protecting the industry and saving it from imminent collapse. ATWAP said such intervention would also assist in saving the state and the people from economic strangulation.
The union did not stop at that. It went further to write to the state government requesting it to to establish a special task force to check vehicles conveying packaged water into the state.
The letter which was addressed to the Chairman, Environmental Sanitation Authority, was signed by Emiemokumo and Eyedondegha. ATWAP in the letter dated October 31 reminded the government that “any sector of the economy that is not subjected to strict control is usually abused”.
“The task force is required to ensure that vehicles bringing packaged water to the state are duly registered with the Distributors Association of Yenagoa. It is believed that there will be some control on the indiscriminate influx of packaged water from everywhere, thus making Bayelsa State a dumping ground”, ATWAP said.
Emiemokumo, who is also the owner of Kumo Water, told Niger Delta Report that most of the sachet water distributors were non-indigenes. These intruders out of greed had slyly and mischievously entered into dubious clandestine business treaties with some unwary indigent Bayelsa men and women not to patronise our own Bayelsa packaged water produced by indigenous companies”, he alleged.
He added: “Worse still, these non-Bayelsa distributors and collaborators go to the extent of labeling our indigenous NAFDAC-approved table water as not fit for drinking, poisonous.
“But these mischievous calumnies and insinuations about our products are fallacies intended only to blackmail our fledgling industry and stunt the growth of our industry. Our products are safe and prepared in the most hygienic environment in accordance with the standard established by NAFDAC.
“We want the backing of the government and the people of Bayelsa. What we are doing is what is being done in other states. If they are able to enforce it in other states, we can enforce it in Bayelsa.
“Those companies from neighbouring states flooding the state with packaged water must register with us. Their registration will enable us to fish out people adulterating water in the state as well as ensure proper regulation. Any of them that refuses to register with us is not ready to do business in the state”.
In his comment, Managing Director, ET Water Company Limited, Capt. John Odele (retd.) expressed concern that most packaged water flooding Bayelsa market sell at a ridiculous rate.
“People should consider the health implication of the water they drink. Some producers from other states sell at a ridiculous price that you begin to wonder if they are actually producing the right thing. All these are what we set out to correct through this registration.
“We also want to let people of the state know that sachet and bottled water produced in the state are not substandard in any way.”
