ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Council for Research and Water Resources (PCRWR) warned consumers against 100 brands of bottled water which were found unsafe.

In the quarterly report April-June 2015 issued on Thursday, the PCRWR notes that the poor quality of tap water has increased the demand for bottled water, leading to a mushroom growth of new brands of bottled water.

The government, through the ministry of science and technology, has given the PCRWR the task of monitoring the quality of bottled water available in the market. The PCRWR prints a monitoring report each quarter, to warn consumers against brands selling unsafe bottled water.

For the monitoring report of April-June 2015, 107 samples of mineral and bottled water were collected from various cities including Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Bahawalpur, Quetta, Peshawar, Sargodha, Sialkot, Faisalabad, Tando Jam, Sahiwal and Karachi. It was revealed that 17 brands including Al -Khair, Pineo, Sky Star, Niamat, Aqua National, Zindagi Plus, Days Pure, Nation, NG Fresh Water, Mazan Pure Life, Al-Haider Pure, Blu, Super Natural, Isberg, Jumeirah, Paradise and Afra were found to be unsafe due to chemical or microbiological contamination.

Unsafe bottled water contains high levels of arsenic, sodium, potassium and microbiological contamination.

Out of these 17 brands, seven including Al -Khair, Pineo, Days Pure, Sky Star, Niamat, Aqua National and Nation, were found to have very high levels of arsenic ranging from 16-69 parts per billion (ppb) than Pakistan Standard Quality Control Authority’s (PSQCA) allowed levels of arsenic in water which is 10 ppb.

PCRWR warned that excessive levels of arsenic can cause various types of skin diseases, diabetes, kidney disease, hypertension, heart disease, birth defects, black foot disease and multiple types of cancers etc.

According to the report, six of these 17 brands including Blu, Super Natural, Isberg, Jumeirah, Paradise and Afra were found to be unsafe due to microbiological contamination, which could cause cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis and typhoid.

The other brands of bottled water were declared unsafe because of high levels of sodium and potassium.

The report called upon other surveillance authorities to take legal action against the companies selling contaminated, unsafe bottled water to people and putting their lives at risk.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2015

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