ISLAMABAD, July 2: Eleven out of 21 mineral water brands, even having been declared unsafe for human consumption, are still being supplied to the country markets.

This was stated by the secretary science and technology division on Tuesday while replying to the queries of the Ad-hoc Public Accounts Committee (PAC) about the public complaints of sub-standard mineral water supply in the country.

The accounts body, with its Chairman H.U.Baig, at the National Assembly committee room was reviewing audit reports of the Ministry of Science and Technology for 1999-00.

The PAC was also told that recently the Pakistan Council of Research on Water Resources (PCRWR) had disclosed that over 52 per cent of the branded mineral water available across the country was unsafe for the human health.

The laboratory, through random sampling of 21 commonly available brands of mineral water in the market, found that 11 of them were contaminated and even unfit for human consumption.

The unfit brands mentioned in the report include Sparklet, Masafi, Coll, Rainbow, Peral, Safa, Zam, Fresh, Musaffa, Wilgreen and Himalaya.

Only two brands— Nestle and Aqua Pure — were found fit according to standard set and issued licences.

The remaining brands including AVA available in the market were denied licence by the Water Research Council (WRC) owing to non-availability of proper facilities of ensuring the quality of purified potable water including laboratories and experts.

AVA was not issued licence to process mineral water so far, and hence it was not put on the list of the SRC.

The PCRWR officials said, most of the mineral water bottled by the companies was not processed in accordance with the guidelines and standards set by the WHO and the International Bottling Water Association.

The PAC directed the officials concerned of the ministry to frame strict laws regarding drinking water in view of its importance as most necessary ingredient for human health.

The manager operations of AVA, however, contested the reported deliberations of the committee on its bottled water and stated: “We have a latest processing plant which commensurate to the latest scientific requirements.”

He, however, failed to reply when asked as to why was his company manufacturing bottled water when it was not issued licence for doing so.