FAISALABAD: Locally made electric drinking water coolers are gaining popularity among low-income households; the gadget cools water within 30 minutes and preserves the chill for over an hour.

Water coolers with a capacity of 30 to 200 litres are available in a market on Dijkot Road, but popular sizes are 30 to 80 litres.

A 30-litre cooler costs Rs6,000 and comes with a compressor, condenser, fan and copper tubes placed inside the vessel to cool water.

One of the shopkeepers said he had stopped manufacturing these coolers as someone had told him cooling water through copper was injurious to health.

Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) Managing Director Syed Zahid Aziz said such coolers must only be allowed for sale after proper certification from the Pakistan Council of Scientific Industrial Research rather than leaving such an important factor to the wisdom of a mechanic.

Aslam Ali, a pushcart vendor, talking to Dawn said searching for ice in this sizzling weather was daunting.

“I cannot see my family knocking at the doors of neighbours for ice and begging ice vendors for it,” he added.

He said someone told him that the plastic water coolers were a solution to his issues.

“I collected Rs6,000 and purchased a 30-litre cooler that will provide cold water to my family round the clock.”

When told that water cooled through copper pipes was not fit for consumption, he mentioned availability of ‘adulterated’ food items such as milk, wheat, rice, chili, vegetables and fruits.

He said: “When we have been using adulterated food items daily, copper will not harm us.”

Shopkeepers on Dijkot Road are selling dozens of coolers daily without getting a fitness certificate from a laboratory.

Zafar Husain, a shopkeeper, told Dawn his fellows were selling copper-pipe coolers that could harm people’s health. He said he had been using steel in his coolers that made cold water fit for consumption.

He said no government employee had visited the market to check violation of copper pipe usage to cool water.

Even though copper-fitted coolers were harmful, they were still high in demand; most people did not know about the hazards of copper.

The price of copper and steel was same, but it was the ignorance of customers and shrewdness of shopkeepers who were selling it with impunity, Husain added. He said they had categorically been telling customers about the hazards of copper due to which his neighbouring shopkeepers had turned against him.

He said shopkeepers were unhappy and advising him against telling people about the hazards of copper, but “I cannot shut my eyes for some money”.

The Wasa official said a scientific method must be applied to check whether water in such coolers was fit for consumption or not. He said allowing a mechanic to modify coolers based on his own knowledge was not good.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2016