Bisleri packaged water sales have slumped 10-15 per cent over the past one week after the Centre for Science and Environment released a report saying the pesticide content in leading packaged water brands was much more than the prescribed norms.

Confirming the drop in sales, Bisleri chairman Ramesh Chauhan insisted there was no pesticide residue in Bisleri.

"Bacteria of any kind is at least 200 times bigger than our filter and there is no chance by which either pesticide or any bacteria could have escaped inside the filtered water. We conform to standards set by the World Health Organisation as well as Codex," Chauhan said.

Bisleri would launch an advertising campaign to check the drop in sales, Chauhan added.

However, other popular brands like Coca-Cola's Kinley, Pepsi's Aquafina and Nestle's Pure Life have not reported any drop in sales.

A Coca-Cola spokesperson said the company was prompt to issue advertisements about the purity of its packaged water and, as a result, there was no impact on sales. A Nestle spokesperson said the company had sent its packaged water samples for retesting so that there was no room for doubt.

Several traders also said while Bisleri sales had fallen 15-20 per cent, there had been a pick up in sales of other brands like Himalaya and Catch.

Meanwhile, brands that were found conforming to the prescribed European Economic Community norms, have reported a significant jump in sale volumes in the past one week.

A spokesperson at Mount Everest Mineral Water Ltd, the company which owns the Himalaya brand, said: "Sales have grown nearly 25 per cent since the report came out."

Without releasing the figures for rise in sales, sources in DS Foods, which makes the Catch brand, said the company's plant in Kullu was functioning at full capacity as against 60 per cent capacity a week ago.

Also, while the company was operating two shifts till the CSE report came out, it is now operating three shifts round the clock.