Where is water from Izvor - Construction of Wode's EUR 14 million water bottling plant near Paracin (un)certain

(future look of the factory Wode)

Despite the fact that it supplies the entire municipality of Paracin with water, the village of Izvor uses only a small portion of the treasure it obtained from the nature. It is also rich in high-quality mineralized water that has not been utilized for years. This is why the company Wode's announcement that it wants to build a mineral water bottling plant in this area is a more than good news.

A water bottling plant worth EUR 14 million, jobs for more than a hundred people, exports across Europe - this is how the announcement by Belgrade-based Wode d.o.o., an affiliate of the Swiss company Wode AG, looked like.

It was announced that the plant would be finished and that the production would kick off by the end of 2011, but the construction has not even started yet. Will Sveta Petka (Saint Petka) bottled water really hit stores or this factory is just a jive, the citizens of Paracin wonder. What is happening with the investment that seemed as a good opportunity to launch economic development of this whole area?

eKapija has tried to find answers to these questions at Wode's branch office in Belgrade.

- We've prepared all town planning documentation, obtained a location permit and completed all preliminary designs – Miodrag Pavlovic, deputy director of Wode, says to our web portal.

According to his words, the main obstacle is - finance.

- We are waiting for our foreign partners, that is, our company's headquarters, to finalize the financial part of the project. That should be done by September, when we will have all the information about the factory. In spite of being late, I believe we will manage to implement this investment.

As Pavlovic explains, the company has already completed a preliminary competition for the recruitment of new workers and formed an environment-friendly production zone on an area of 16 hectares, so that everything is ready to start the construction. For that reason, it should not take long to finish it.

- It will take only about eight month to build the factory and put it in operation – Pavlovic claims.

Wode started researching the spring Sveta Petka back in 2003. It took five years to complete geophysical researches, design of necessary studies and the procurement of a land lot for the factory.

A zoning plan for the environment-friendly production zone Izvor, designed by PLAN Urban and Forma Antika from Nis, was adopted last year by the Town Hall of Paracin. After that, Wode obtained necessary permits. There is (only) one issue yet to be resolved - money. However, a good news is that the investors are optimists.

The factory will be built at the entrance to the village of Izvor, next to the Paracin-Zajecar main route, some 12 kilometers away from Paracin. The maximum planned capacity of the factory amounts to 21,000 square meters, while the whole complex will span four hectares. The production facility's starting capacity amounts to 7,000 square meters.

The capacity of the factory with two production lines is two times 20,000 bottles of 1.5 liters per hour. At first, only one line should be in operation. The plan is to reach the production of 250m liters of bottled water per year.

- We plan to sell a small portion of production in Serbia, whereas about 95% of bottled water will be exported, primarily to neighboring countries and Russia. I believe that Sveta Petka water will be well accepted in Serbia because it is of excellent quality and its price will be quite affordable – Pavlovic explains to eKapija.

According to the plan, water will be available in 0.5-, 1.5- and 2-liter bottles. With the use of an additional equipment, it will be possible to add some fruit flavors to this water, such as lemon, orange, blackberry, raspberry... Besides, people at Wode believe that it will also be possible to launch the production of fruit juices in the future, given that there is a number of plantations in the factory's surrounding.

Healthy water

A well on Sveta Petka site was built in 2004 to serve the needs of the future mineral drinking water bottling plant and is 211 meters deep.

Water from the Sveta Petka spring belongs to the group of hydrocarbonates and calciums and is classified as a natural low-mineralized water, people at PLAN Urban explain to eKapija.

- Based on physical characteristics and chemical content, the water Sveta Petka-Izvorska belongs to the category of low-mineralized hydrocarbonated calcium-magnesium cold subterranean waters. It is a medium hard, low-alkaline water. Its features make it an ideal water for everyday use by people of all ages, regardless of their health or physical fitness - people at PLAN Urban point out.

Water samples were collected on several occasions over the period of six years. Tests were done by three acknowledged institutions - the City Institute of Public Health in Belgrade, Institute of Public Health in Nis and the Vinca Institute of Nuclear Science.

Spring must not be endangered

Representatives of the investor say that the production will be completely environment friendly, so that there is no reason to fear that it might cause pollution.

Milica Stevuljevic