PESHAWAR, June 19: The mushrooming growth of factories producing substandard beverages, their easy availability in the city markets and unchecked sale is posing a serious danger to the health of people.

The city district government has been limping to stop the production of spurious soft drinks by conducting raids and putting fines on factories. However, it is not sufficient to prevent people from consuming low quality drinks because the owners of such factories caring little for the meager fines restart their business again, officials said.

According to a rough estimate, over 100 soda water factories in the city are producing and selling substandard drinks by misusing brand names of multinational companies.

“We can only fine them. There is no law under which we can stop the people from producing soft drinks after being found guilty,” the officials said.

Currently, when the summer is at its peak, the business of low quality beverages is on the rise, attracting the poor people, particularly the children.

Fake beverage factories have been established in the city and its adjacent rural areas in rented houses to avoid attention of the authorities. One can notice such factories in Faqirabad, Afghan Colony, Ring Road area, Yakka Tooth, Kohat Road, Sheikhabad, Seithi Town, Garhi Atta Mohammad, Hazar Khwani etc.

Knowing well that they are selling unhygienic cold drinks the retailers, being the ultimate big profit earners, also don't care for the people's health. Bottles used for filling these beverages are also hazardous for human health, as the owners of such factories re-use the bottles collected by scavengers, officials in city district government said. Such bottles also cause various diseases among the consumers, they said.

There are no water filtration plants inside these factories and contaminated water is often used in preparation of soft drinks, they said.

Officials in the office of executive district officer, health, told Dawn that since the start of the summer season, 350 samples of various beverages had been collected and sent to the laboratory for test. They said that case had been registered against 73 people, including factory owners and sellers.

Assistant Coordination Officer Zafar Ali Shah, when contacted, said that the district administration was conducting raids on the factories producing substandard beverages. “In the last few weeks we have sealed around 20 factories,” he said.

Mr Shah said that Peshawar DCO Siraj Ahmed Khan had directed all the town municipal officers and magistrates to collect data of soda water and ice cream factories in the city within three days so that illegal business of substandard beverages could be stopped.