ISLAMABAD, March 30: The Pakistan Council of Research on Water Resources (PCRWR) has launched a campaign against substandard and unlicensed brands of mineral water being sold in the market.

This was stated by the PCRWR chairman, Dr Akram Kahlown, on Sunday while talking to this agency on the issue of quality control of mineral water.

He said the quality of mineral water would be monitored strictly to provide standardized mineral water to people.

He said marketing of unlicensed mineral water was a crime according to Act-1996 of Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority.

He said: “The council has started collecting samples of mineral water being marketed by various companies with the help of magistrates.”

“A report will be issued to press regarding the quality of water after examination reports of mineral water prepared by the council as well as by private laboratories,” he added

He said a manufacturer could market a product including mineral water without obtaining a license from the quality control authority.

According to previous report of the council, only two brands of mineral water were licensed according to rules and regulations chalked out by the control authority.

According to the report all other brands available in the market were not issued license by the authority owing to non- availability of proper facilities including standardized laboratory and purification processing plants to ensure the quality of purified drinking water with a team of experts.

The Pakistan Standards Quality Control Authority which was established under section 3 of the Act-1996 has already issued notices to all unlicensed manufacturers of mineral water to stop production until obtaining proper license from the authority.

The PCRWR conducted a series of tests of 21 brands of mineral water last year and 11 were found contaminated and some of them substandard.

A laboratory analysis carried out by the PCRWR revealed that over 52 per cent of the branded mineral water available in the market was unsafe for human consumption.

A report prepared through random sampling brands of mineral water in the market show that 11 brands were contaminated.

The analysis verified though some of the private laboratories had to be repeated by the minister for science and technology.

However, the subsequent non-withdrawal of unfit products from the markets might render the public service exercise as futile.

The chemical analysis of the water of these brands declared as unfit showed a significant variation from what had been printed on their labels.

According to PCRWR sources, most of the mineral water bottle manufactures are not processing and bottling water according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Bottling Water Association guidelines.—APP