Five bottled-water brands declared unsafe to drink

Islamabad :Compared with permissible limits of Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA), the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), Ministry of Science and Technology, has declared five brands of bottled water unsafe to drink.

According to the monitoring report of PCRWR for the quarter from July to September, 2019, 101 samples of mineral and bottled water brands have been collected from Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Multan, Lahore, Peshawar, Bahawalpur, Tando Jam and Quetta.

The five brands including TAJ Pure Water, Livon, Sunlay, MM Pure Drinking Water and Jami Water were found to be unsafe due to the presence of higher levels of Sodium ranging from 60-187 ppm than PSQCA water quality standard for sodium (50 ppm). Out of those five brands, TAJ Pure Water also had presence of higher level of Potassium and MM Pure Drinking Water found to have higher level of TDS and Chloride.

Drinking water quality is deteriorating continually due to biological contamination from human waste, chemical pollutants from industries and agricultural inputs. Piped water also gets contaminated because pipes are laid very close to sewerage lines or open drains and cause many serious water borne diseases. It was found that 45 per cent of infant deaths have been attributed to diarrhea and about 60 per cent to overall infectious waterborne diseases in Pakistan. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) 25-30 per cent of the diseases are gastro-intestinal in nature.