Illegal Water Firms Flood Hyderabad Markets

[Spartan]

Hyderabad has one of the largest numbers of unauthorised packaged drinking water units in the country. Water packaging units need to be certified by the Indian Standard Institute before they can start operating. Though there are over 2,000 packaged drinking water units in Greater Hyderabad, the contrasting fact is that in the entire Telangana state, there are less than 80 units certified by the Bureau of Indian Standards.

 

Most households in the twin cities depend on packaged drinking water thinking that the water will be safer than that supplied by the Water Board. However, a system to check the non-licenced manufacturers is lacking. 

 

Bureau of Indian Standard issues ISI licenses to companies after assessing the structural setup and hygienic standards of the unit. “Licenses are given to the company after assessing the source of water, infrastructure and hygienic standards of the production. Water treatment plants need to have a laboratory with two experts, including a microbiologist and chemical analyst, who need to check the standard of the drinking water and only then release it in the market,” said Rama Krishna Rao, in-charge (water) BIS, Telangana. 

 

The BIS team checks the standards of packaged drinking water of licensed companies by randomly picking up samples from the market. If the standards are found to have fallen, the license renewal is put under suspension till it is corrected, added the official.

 

However, the non-licensed companies avoid inspections and random checks just by not taking the licence. Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, which should look into the enforcement of the standards of packaged drinking water, hardly ever raids these illegal companies.