TRADING in ‘unsafe’ drinking water, especially bottled water continues unabated in the country mainly due to lax monitoring and supervision by the authorities concerned, a report published in a national daily on Tuesday said of adding that drinking contaminated and substandard water is causing many waterborne diseases and posing great risks to public health. What is terribly alarming is that over a thousand unregistered firms illegally sell substandard drinking water in the capital alone and all over the country without properly filtering such water.
Findings of a recent study report by Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) showed coliform bacteria in 97 per cent of so-called filtered water supplied in jars to households, shops and offices. The water quality didn’t improve as the authorities concerned took no effective measures in this regard. The study has traced harmful microbes in drinking water and wastewater leaking from sewer lines to the water supply lines. Its samples found a higher level of harmful bacteria in bottled water.
The contaminated water causes diseases like long-term diarrhea, headache, nausea, stomachache, fever and cold, as well as weakening of the immune system. Younger and older people suffer the worst as contaminated water affects blood vessels and organs including kidneys. The fatality among children is higher. It needs no mention that powerful people are behind the water supply chain and we would say that there should not be any hesitation in finding remedial measures.
We would say market regulatory bodies such as Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) have miserably failed to rein in the situation. It is quite scandalous to see most bottled water companies are not properly monitored. They are bottling contaminated water and selling the same using popular brand names cheating people and making hefty profit. It appears people in most offices and many households now use bottled water.
People buy bottled water as they cannot trust water supplied by WASA as safe. The regulatory authorities including BSTI and the Department of Environment must fulfil their obligations of seeing to it that water supplied to the people for drinking are safe.
