KARACHI, Dec 4: While a large number of spurious brands of bottled water play havoc with the health of unsuspecting consumers, the government shirks its duty by not forming a quality-control body entrusted with the task of monitoring the manufacturers of bottled water and blacklisting those who sell substandard water.

The manufacturers of bottled water allege that “self- appointed helplines claiming to be protecting the interests of consumers” exploit the fact that there is no quality-control government body and “blackmail” even those brands that adhere to all the principles of hygiene.

The chief executive officer of Best Water, Absar Siddiqui, said the Consumer Protection Council had written a letter to him on Sept 27 inviting him to a seminar about standard drinking water.

“The CPC also asked us to send them a banner whose charges would be Rs7,000. The CPC also sent us a brochure asking for donations up to Rs100,000. We did not have all that money and, therefore, we declined to take part in the seminar. That was how the CPC got even with us.”

The director of Peggy Water, Mohammad Sarfaraz, said: “We manufacture bottled water following all the prescribed processes, such as chlorination, reverse osmosis system and mineral injection. The CPC claims to have sent our bottles to the Aga Khan University Hospital. But, the market is flooded with substandard water filled by unscrupulous elements in our bottles. If the CPC had been genuinely interested in exposing spurious brands of bottled water, it should have done two things: catch those who fill substandard water in our bottles and take water samples from our plants.”

Mr Sarfaraz added he had also received the request for donations from the CPC. “I had actually taken part in the seminar because I earnestly wanted to create awareness about drinking water.”

The director sales and marketing of Mineral Plus, Kabir A. Larai, said his company had also received a letter from the CPC asking for charges for banners at the seminar and donations. “The CPC sent us two brochures releases on two occasions.

The first brochure says that AVA is not fit for human consumption. I don’t know what happened behind the scenes but the second brochure says that AVA is fit for drinking.”

The production manager of OSLO, Mohammad Ahmed Khan, said that the CPC had not informed his company about AKU reports. “Before releasing AKU reports to the press, the CPC should have contacted us. If the CPC had taken samples of water from our plant, the reports would have been positive. We do not know if the sample sent to AKU by the CPC was filled with our water or other substandard water filled by dishonest businessmen.”

The chief executive of Minhal, Syed Mohammad Shah, said he had also taken part in the CPC seminar because he had wanted to create awareness about bottled water.

“Instead of these self-appointed helplines, the health ministry should visit our plants, inspect the process and filtration system, and examine our workers for diseases.”

He said: “We have invested a lot of money in our water processing plants. Why would we sell substandard water after such a huge investment?”

The assistant manager of Best Water, Munawar Shizad, pointed out while that one of the brochures sent by the CPC claimed that Masafi was not fit for drinking, the reports issued by the CPC to the press said that Masafi was fit for human consumption.

However, a spokesman for the CPC said that it was no secret that the CPC asked for funding in the form of banner charges from the manufacturers who took part in our seminars. Explaining why the sample of AVA had turned out to be positive on second testing, he said there was nothing extraordinary about it.

When it was pointed out to him that the manufacturers of Mineral Plus, Best Water, Minhal and Peggy Watar also had reports of Aga Khan University Hospital (whose copies are available with Dawn) stating that their brands were fit for human consumption, the spokesman said the CPC had collected the samples of these brands of bottled water from the market.