Six brands of bottled water declared unsafe for human health

LAHORE - Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA), in its monitoring report for the quarter October-December, 2018 has declared six bottled water brands as unsafe due to chemical and microbiological contamination.

Through comparison of analytical findings within permissible limits, the brands which were found unsafe include i.e. KARAKORUM Flow, Crystal Maya, ALPHA, Aqua Ayolam, PARADISE and Hibba.

Out of those unsafe brands, two brands (i.e. KARAKORUM Flow and Aqua Ayolam) were found to be unsafe due to microbiological contamination which may cause Cholera, Diarrhea, Dysentery, Hepatitis, Typhoid etc.

Whereas three brands (i.e. Crystal Maya, ALPHA and PARADISE) were found unsafe due to the presence of higher level of Sodium ranging from 78-82 ppm and one brand (i.e. Hibba) was found unsafe due to the presence of low level of pH.

The PSQCA bottled water quality standard for sodium is 50 ppm and pH is 6.5-8.5, said a news release issued here.

According to a report, 78 samples of Mineral/Bottled water brands have been collected from Islamabad, Karachi, Multan, Lahore, Bahawalpur, Tandojam and Quetta.

The poor quality of drinking water has forced a large cross-section of citizens to buy bottled water.

As a consequence of this expanding market, the mushroom growth of bottled water industry in the country is witnessed during the last few years. However, many of the mineral/bottled water companies were found selling contaminated water.

To monitor and improve the quality of bottled water, the government of Pakistan through Ministry of Science and Technology has designated the task to PCRWR for quarterly monitoring of bottled/mineral water brands and publicize the results.