Earth, water, fire and controversy

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: She’s petite, but she does pack quite a punch. Some say Sunita Narain makes too much of a noise, others call her gutsy. But everyone agrees she can grab their attention. Whether it is waking up the Delhi government to the usefulness of CNG in buses, whether it is checking out what, besides water, is packed in that bottle of mineral water you drink, or, whether it is whipping up a storm over the hard facts behind that soft drink you guzzle. She can move and shake—systems.

“You have to be driven to bring about change—like a dog with a bone,” Sunita says earnestly. Perhaps it is a tribute to her persistence that India Today recently voted her one of its 50 powerful people.

She goes into overdrive talking about the cola controversy: “We initially started with mineral water. When we took a sample of the raw water that is used by these companies, we found huge amounts of pesticides in it. When we then took a sample of the so-called treated water, we found pretty much the same pesticide content. Around that time, someone told us to look into soft drinks too. That’s how this controversy began. Any case, now the cola episode is behind us and we are on to other things.”

Sunita Narain