Five companies supply unsafe and undrinkable water: BSTI

Bottled waters sold by five companies are 'unhealthy and undrinkable', Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) says in a report. The BSTI report was submitted to the High Court (HC) on Monday.
 
The five brands are Fruits and Flavous Ltd's 'Yummy Yummy', Sinha Bangladesh Trades Limited's 'Aqua Mineral', Crystal Food and Beverage's 'CFB', Orotech Trade and Technology's 'Osma' and Sree Kundeshari Pharmacy Limited's 'SiNMiN'. BSTI, however, found ten companies producing safe water. The brands which are supplying safe water are: Vistal Fresh, Mukta, Aquatin, Mum, Kinley, Oasis, Pran, Sala, Crystal and Disha, according to the test report.

BSTI provided the report after testing water (bottles and jars) from 15 companies as per instruction of the HC. After getting the report, the bench earlier instructed the government's testing agency to inform it by February 24 about the legal steps it has taken against the brands by February 24.

Deputy Attorney General Mokhlesur Rahman, who placed the test report to the HC on behalf of BSTI, told journalists that all necessary ingredients are not there in the water produced by the five companies.
Lawyer Md JR Khan Robin,  who represented Shammi Akhtar, whose petition prompted the HC to order for examining bottled water supplied by different companies, said, "The BSTI report states that it has found five brands' bottled water unsafe for drinking and 10 other brands' water safe."

BSTI collected samples of 22 brands from the market from January 4 to January 17. The report was compiled testing 15 of the samples, he added. "The court said it would announce the steps to be taken against these companies by February 24. The court has also ordered reports for the seven samples still to be tested. The court has also instructed the BSTI to continue to collect and test water from markets every two weeks," Robin said.
Lawyer Shammi Akhtar pressed a petition with the HC in the public interest on May 27 of last year based on a Bangladesh Protidin report about the quality of water, published on May 22, 2018.

On December 3 the court heard the petition and instructed 'illegal and unsafe' jar and bottled water to be removed from stores. The BSTI and law enforcers were tasked with carrying out the order. The court has also instructed the BSTI to submit a report within 15 days to describe the steps it has taken. A rule was also issued by the court asking why the government's negligence in allowing such unsafe water to be sold on the market should not be declared illegal.

Seven, including the Food Secretary, Health Secretary, the Director General of the Health Department and the WASA Managing Director have been instructed to respond to the rule.The court last week ordered a report on the quality of bottled and jar water on the market. The court had instructed the BSTI to deliver the report in a week. It was submitted accordingly on Monday.
According to the report, the BSTI's surveillance team has seized and destroyed 3,979 illegal or unsafe water jars. Twenty-four cases have been prepared against companies for marketing unsafe water.