With water crisis slowly taking on alarming proportions, substandard packaged drinking water, without proper labels and ISO certification and quality checks, are more freely available in the market, raising risks of contracting water-borne diseases.
With the Water Board failing to supply adequate safe drinking water, residents are forced to buy water from private companies. But water bottles or pouches of many companies are sold without proper labels or adequate quality checks, officials said.
The Institute of Preventive Medicine has received several samples of packaged drinking water without the mandatory ISO certification mark, as prescribed by the Bureau of Indian Standards. The GHMC’s food and sanitation wing has, meanwhile, issued showcause notices to 15 packaged drinking water plants for not putting ISO certification on bottles they sell, for operating without licence and packaging substandard water.
GHMC chief medical officer Dr Shalini Devi said only four packaged drinking water plants inspected this month were found to be putting ISO marks on bottles or water pouches. “Notices have been issued to 15 plants within GHMC limits for the defects found. A few days ago 21 packaged water plants were raided in the twin cities and notices served on 150 of these plants.