ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) in its quarterly monitoring of bottled/mineral water brands declared eight brands of drinking water bottles unsafe for consumption.
According to April-June report of the council, eight brands included Fresh life, Al-Shalal, Aqua Gen, Vey, Smart Mineral Water, Al-Sahar, Douro and Do Aab Water.
The water of these brands was found to be unsafe due to microbiological contamination which may cause cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis, typhoid, etc, said a news release issued here on Thursday.
Out of those unsafe brands, two brands New Premier and Natural Pure water have comparatively high levels of arsenic ranging from 13-23 ppb than PSQCA’s water quality standard for arsenic (10 ppb).
The excessive level of arsenic can cause various types of skin diseases, diabetes, kidney diseases, hypertension, heart diseases, birth defects, black foot diseases, multiple types of cancers, etc.
Whereas two brands, New Premier and Livon, were found unsafe due to the presence of higher levels of sodium ranging from 61-66 ppm than PSQCA’s water quality standard for sodium (50 ppm).
According to the monitoring report for the quarter from April to June 2017, 77 samples of mineral/bottled water brands have been collected from Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Peshawar, Gilgit, Multan, Lahore, Bahawalpur, Tandojam and Karachi.
Comparison of analytical findings with permissible limits of PSQCA has revealed that 11 brands (i.e. New Premier, Natural Pure water, Livon, Fresh life, Al-Shalal, Aqua Gen, Vey, Smart Mineral Water, Al-Sahar, Douro and Do Aab Water) were found to be unsafe due to chemical and microbiological contaminations.
The poor quality of drinking water has forced a large cross-section of citizens to buy bottled water. As a consequence of this expanding market, a mushroom growth of bottled water industry in the country is witnessed during the last few years.
However, many of the mineral/bottled water companies were found selling contaminated water.
To monitor and improve the quality of bottled water, the government Science and Technology Ministry has designated the task to PCRWR for quarterly monitoring of bottled/mineral water brands and publicise the results.