LAHORE: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed lawyers of bottled water companies to remove within 10 days deficiencies in their product and water purification system commonly known as reverse osmosis.

Heading a two-judge bench seized with a matter of quality of mineral water being sold by companies, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar regretted that the companies had been befooling the public and earning billions of rupees in the name of mineral water.

The chief justice also ordered closure of Naubahar Bottling Company of Gujranwala, a manufacturer and distributor of Pepsi water, till further order in light of an adverse report submitted by Punjab Food Authority (PFA).

At one point, the chief justice ordered the PFA to lodge a criminal case against the director of the bottling company and get him arrested.

However, the CJP withdrew the order on the request of Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, who was present in the court to represent Nestle Water Company.

During the hearing, Chief Justice Nisar called Nestle’s chief executive officer Ms Freda Yahan Duplan to the rostrum and asked her as to why her company had not retained quality of its water in Pakistan like other countries.

“Being a third party we would not let you exploit Pakistan,” the chief justice told the foreign CEO of the company.

Barrister Ahsan and the counsel for other water companies stated that they were ready to remove their deficiencies pointed out by the government agencies. Pepsi International’s counsel Salman Akram said they had already started complying with the minimum standards in light of the reports.

[Federal] Environmental Protection Agency Director General Farzana Shah told the bench that though arsenic had not been found in all groundwater, the companies did not establish their own laboratories to examine the ingredients of the water being extracted by them. She pointed out that the companies used to send water samples abroad for analysis.

Justice Ijazul Ahsan, other member of the bench, noted that the water polluted with arsenic had been discharged in sewerage by these companies after water purification process/reverse osmosis. “It mean these companies are polluting the aquifer with arsenic,” Chief Justice Nisar added.

Ms Shah of the EPA told the court that the polluted water could be saved from being discharged into sewerage system by establishing underground ponds.

The bench observed that it wanted the water selling companies to sit together with the government agencies and experts to remove their deficiencies within 10 days. Further hearing of the case will be held in Islamabad on Dec 3.

Meanwhile, as per a report filed by environmental scientist Prof Ahsan Siddiqui, the bottled water being sold by Qarshi was up to the mark while Gourmet stood at second with minor shortcomings.

Chief Justice Nisar asked a representative of Qarshi to convey compliments of the court to Mr Iqbal Qarshi, the owner of the company.

PFA Director General retired Capt Muhammad Usman told the bench that over 350 water filtration plants had closed their functions following strict implementation of standards by the authority.

A report filed on behalf of auditor general revealed that a 500ml bottle of water cost Rs2.93 and two litre Rs8.79. The CJP observed that the matter relating to cost of the water would also be taken up soon.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2018