8 brands of bottled water found unsafe

Islamabad : Eight brands of bottled water were found to be unsafe due to chemical and microbiological contaminations. Names of unsafe bottled water brands that include Edlen Premium, Aqua Fine, Pure Aqua, Livon, Zam, Aqua Gold, Pure 18, and Aab-e-Noor were announced by Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), Ministry of Science and Technology on Tuesday.

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 and bottled water companies were found selling contaminated water.

To monitor and improve the quality of bottled water, the Government through Ministry of Science and Technology has designated the task to PCRWR for quarterly monitoring of bottled/mineral water brands and publicise the results.

According to the monitoring report for the quarter from January to March, 2018, 110 samples of mineral and bottled water brands have been collected from Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Multan, Lahore, Bahawalpur, Tandojam, Quetta and Karachi. Comparison of analytical findings with permissible limits of Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) has revealed that eight brands were found to be unsafe.

Out of those unsafe brands, one brand (i.e. Aqua Fine) has comparatively high levels of Arsenic i.e. 20 ppb than PSQCA 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 and multiple types of cancers etc. The four brands (i.e. Zam, Aqua Gold, Pure 18, and Aab-e-Noor) were found to be unsafe due to microbiological contamination which may cause Cholera, Diarrhoea, Dysentery, Hepatitis, Typhoid etc. Whereas three brands (i.e. Edlen Premium, Pure Aqua and Livon) were found unsafe due to the presence of higher levels of Sodium ranging from 57-60 ppm than PSQCA water quality standard for sodium (50 ppm).