Visiting the drinking water department of the Sharjah government
PET bottle filling from the wells of Hamda region in Sharjah
Zulal was founded in the village of Hamda, part of the Emirate of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Dr Sultan Bin Mohammed Al-Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Court and Ruler of Sharjah. His vision was to provide clean, pure drinking water from the Hamda wells for the general public of Sharjah and other emirates of the United Arab Emirates.
December 12, 2023: Interview with Sharjah Electricity, Water and Gas Authority, Zulal Water Department (SEWA)
We met:
Mr Padubidri Shridar Niranjan, Production Manager
Ms Hamda Bukhatir, Chemical Engineer
Zulal Water Factory was established in 1995 as a government organisation under the Sharjah Electricity and Water Gas Authority (Sewa). Our interviewee Mr Padubidri Shridar Niranjan, the Production Manager in charge, is relatively new to the factory and has many years of professional experience in the FMCG industry, having managed various projects throughout his career. His colleague Hamda Bukhatir, Chemical Engineer, also took part in the interview.
Sewa (Zulal) sits on a number of wells in and around the Hamda region, at an average depth of 150 to 350 metres, from which it extracts water, treats it with modern technology and bottles it in various PET bottle sizes. We sat on a comfortable couch opposite the man who has worked in every branch of the FMCG industry for 37 years and can look back on a remarkable wealth of experience. Mr Niranjan, originally from Bangalore, India, has a mechanical engineering background and has been passionately dedicated to the Authority and Hamda water since Q3 2022, having previously worked in various industries and packaging sectors such as can, PET, HDPE, or glass filling for beverages. His professional experience includes stints at tin can manufacturer Sapin in Saudi Arabia, the edible oil manufacturer Savola in Bharain, the German plant manufacturer Krones, the water bottler Masafi, which is around 50 km away from here, and the water bottler Mai Dubai. He also worked as a freelance consultant for a preform project.
Now he is part of Zulal, where he reports directly to Mr Majid Abdulaziz Alowais, Director of the Zulal Water Factory. Zulal is headed by His Excellency Abdalla Abdelrahman Al Shamsi, Director General of Sewa. As we learnt, Zulal is said to be the purity of the natural beauty of the Emirates from the Hamda wells. The water is characterised in particular by its low sodium content and pH value of 7.5. “Zulal Water,” explained Mr Niranjan, “switched completely to PET from 2004 onwards. Our current setup is fully automated across the board, from pumping the water from the numerous wells to the finished bottle. We are talking about a purely natural sourced product from the Hamda wells.”
The plant covers nearly 11,150 m2 and is currently running at around 70% capacity. The company is using a complete Sidel line with 45,000 bph capacity for 0.2 l, 0.33 l, 0.5 l and 1.5 l, all with standardised 29/25 neck finish. Two Bosch packaging systems, each with 16,000 bph, produce small-format drop bottles. 18.9 l containers are produced on a Bardi machine and small thermoforming cups on Novopack equipment.
The preforms and closures are sourced locally. “We attach great importance to high-quality packaging, which is why the preforms and closures come from Husky, Netstal, Sacmi and Engel machines”, said Mr Niranjan.
