Unsafe bottled water gluts State market

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: How safe is an intake of packaged (bottled) water that has glutted the market in Assam, especially in Guwahati? A burning question!

As if taking the advantage of lack of any stringent laws, a section of companies doing the business of bottled or packaged water in the State has adopted some unscrupulous practices that pose a threat to consumers’ health. Laboratory tests conducted by the Food Safety Wing of the State Health and Family Welfare Department have found bottled water either misbranded or sub-standard or not safe for human intake. Since there is no stringent law to deal with such unscrupulous companies, the actions being taken against them are limited to issuing notices, warnings, and ban on their business for a few days. The companies that are warned or issued notices or banned for doing business for a few days opt not to adopt any foul play for a certain period, only to spring back to their usual unscrupulous selves when the situation becomes normal.

The Food Safety Wing of the State Health and Family Welfare Department tested 14 samples of bottled water in 2016-17. While the wing found two samples as misbranded and as many sub-standard ones, five were not safe for human intake. In fiscal 2017-18, the wing tested 19 samples and found two samples as misbranded, one as sub-standard and nine as unsafe for human intake.

The companies that sell over two metric tonnes of packaged water per day have to get their licenses from the food safety agency of the Government of Indian and those selling less than two metric tonnes per day have to get such licenses from the Food Safety Wing of the State.

According to official sources, various brands of bottled water are sold in Assam with Central or State licenses. The labels of such bottles read either packaged drinking water or mineral added to water or purified water. For purified water, a number of tests have to be carried out to ascertain its purity.

Sources further say that a large number of bottles of packaged water of diverse brands are sold daily in Assam. It is not possible to check each and every bottle of all the brands, and as such food safety officials have to go for random checking. The cases of misbranded and sub-standard water bottles are disposed of at the ADC (additional deputy commissioner)-level either by charging fines or issuing notices or warning, but the cases of water bottles which are not safe for human intake are sent to the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court for judgment.

An official said: “We take action as and when we receive complaints from the public. We’re going to take stringent action against three companies. We’ve received complaints against the three companies and their packaged water bottles have also failed our tests.”

The people of the State largely depend on packaged water as piped water being supplied is not free from impurities. In such a situation, it is imperative on the part of the department concerned to take some stringent measures to get rid of the health menace. Regular inspection of drinking water bottling factories in the State is one way to solve the problem.