ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Council for Research on Water Resources (PCRWR) on Thursday issued another list of water bottles that are unsafe for human consumption.

In its statement, PCRWR explained how the poor quality of drinking water had forced a large section of citizens to buy bottled water. As a consequence of this expanding market, a mushroom growth of bottled water industry has been witnessed in the country. However, many of the mineral water companies were found selling contaminated water.

To monitor and improve the quality of bottled water, the government through the 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 October to December 2015, another 100 samples of mineral/bottled water brands were collected from Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, D.I. Khan, Lahore, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Bahawalpur, Sialkot, Multan, Tandojam, Karachi, Quetta and Gujranwala.

“Comparison of analytical findings with permissible limits of Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) showed that 13 brands such as New Nation, Mazan Pure Life, Premier, Al-Haider, Eau Water, Eden Pure Water, Deep Pure Water, Oriel, Jumeirah, Al-Sahar, NG Fresh Water, Aqua National and Water Icon were found to be unsafe due to chemical or microbiological contamination.”

Out of the 13 unsafe brands, New Nation, Premier, Eau Water, Deep Pure Water, Oriel and Aqua National have comparatively high level of arsenic ranging from 18-51 parts per billion than PSQCA water quality standard for arsenic which is 10ppb.

PCRWR explained yet again that 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.

Another three bottled water brands - Eden Pure Water, Al-Sahar and Water Icon - were found to be unsafe due to microbiological contamination. Microbiological contamination, according to the PCRWR, may cause cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, Hepatitis and typhoid etc.

The remaining brands were found unsafe due to the presence of higher levels of sodium and potassium.

The PRCWR recommended that the national quality control/surveillance authorities should take legal action against the companies which were supplying contaminated bottled water to the citizens.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2016