Sale of bottled water increases manifold

ISLAMABAD: Shortage of affordable and safe drinking water has led to mushroom growth of bottled water industry in the country but fate of this water is also suspicious and 69 fake brands are being sold in the market.

Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) recently
declared 16 out of 69 brands of bottled water unsafe though a large cross-section of citizens was using bottled water due to poor quality of water.

Out of these 69, 53 were declared safe. In addition to that, the number of chemically safe brands was 55 and number of chemically unsafe brands was 14.

Sources in Pakistan Standard and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA)
mentioned one criticism of bottled water concerns the packaging.

Bottled water commonly is packed in polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which requires a significant amount of energy to produce.

While PET is recyclable, only a fraction of plastic bottles made from PET are actually recycled, which is very disastrous, sources maintained.

Another study found that a high percentage of the bottled water contained in plastic containers was polluted with estrogenic chemicals.

Bottled water may have reduced amounts of copper, lead and other metal contaminants since it does not run through the plumbing pipes where tap water is exposed to metal corrosion, however, this varies by the household and plumbing system.

Anti-bottled-water-campaigns and organizations, such as Corporate
Accountability International, some months back typically argued that bottled water is no better than tap water, adding it is detrimental environmental side effects of disposable plastic bottles.

Due to contaminated water being widespread, people started installing
filtration units in the mid-1990s.

This later developed into companies providing mineral water delivery
services at home. Use of these gallon bottles that could be attached to a dispenser is still widespread.

Sources in PCRWR further revealed that many of the mineral water
companies are selling contaminated water.

Besides this, number of microbiologically safe brands is 67 while number of microbiologically unsafe brands is 2.

According to official data, the brands which being sold in market are 35. Moreover the brands that disappeared from market due to contamination are 16, and the number of brands available in market with new name is 34.

According to officials in PCRWR, drinking water quality is deteriorating continuously due to biological contamination from human waste, chemical pollutants from industries and agricultural inputs.

Piped water also gets contaminated because pipes are laid very
close to sewerage lines or open drains and cause many serious water
borne diseases.

PSQCA officials mentioned that many fake brands are being sold in the
market openly and people must be careful while purchasing bottled water as the names of fake brands were recently disclosed by PCRWR. (APP)