Tastes like coconut water; low on flouride, chloride and nitrate content

Who said water is tasteless? Or water tastes like water. For Aristotle, the Greek philosopher "the natural substance water per se tends to be tasteless," and is merely a "vehicle of flavour".

But people in Nalgonda town know it best - the love, and the taste of water. "I am 55 years now, I remember my grandfather employing carriers to fetch water from Konda Chelma by paying ₹10 per month. That was 1960s," recollects V. Ramulu, a politician from the old town.

Konda Chelma and Akka Chelma are spring water wells at the foot of the town's two hills, Kaapurala Gutta and Latif Saheb Gutta. And the distance between the two hills was all the Nalgonda then.

Konda Chelma, meaning, hillock well, is a spring that originates from the Latif Saheb Gutta in the old town. The spring dates back to hundreds of years; "It is believed that the wells were constructed by Kunduru Cholas during 12th and 13th century, but there is no textual evidence," says Assistant Director, Department of Archaeology and Museums, P. Nagaraju.

"Water carriers used to sit for hours inside the well to collect just a litre of water for the VIPs during summer and the spring never dries up," says Ramulu.

Dusharla Satyanarayana, a water rights activist says, "These age-old water sources offered some relief to the fluoride-affected district." Much like Jadi booti water, where it drips from a plant's roots, the water in the hillock percolates through all the layers and gets collected in the well.

A ten-parameter water quality test conducted by this correspondent at the Zilla Parishad, Nalgonda showed all best figures, declaring it safe. The mg/lit limits for Fluoride (0.42), Chloride (198) and Nitrate (03) in water were found to be much below than the specified IS 10500:2012 standards.

The Bureau of Indian Standards, New Delhi specifies 1.0, 250 and 45 mg/lit for Fluoride, Chloride and Nitrate respectively.

"For us this is a well of coconut water, there is a flavour to the water," say the locals. The belief since ages is also the water's healing properties. According to Md. Shakeel, who sells this water in cans, "It prevents enda soda (sun stroke), dissolves stones in kidneys and maintains a clear urine colour. It does work," he stresses.

Asked if they ever fell ill by drinking the unfiltered Chelma water, they say, "We would fall ill if we stop drinking this water. Absolutely no filter".