originally posted on April 7, 2016

A report of the Pakistan Standards & Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) has revealed that 22 brands supplying water were found to be unsafe due to chemical or microbiological contamination.

According to press release issued on Wednesday, the 22 brands supplying contaminated water include ECO, Coral Water, HI-Fresh, New Nation, Pak Aqua, HFC, Total, NG Fresh Water, Al-Habib, Silver, ORION, Aqua Arabia, Well Care, Desert Dew, New Deep, Lite Aqua, Aqua Smart, Avalon Pure Water, New Smart Aqua, Mazan Pure, Royal Blue and Aqua National.

Of these unsafe brands, 12 have higher level of Arsenic ranging from 12-85 ppb than the PSQCA water quality standard for arsenic (10 ppb). These brands include New Nation, HFC, Total, Well Care, Desert Dew, New Deep, Lite Aqua, Aqua Smart, New Smart Aqua, Mazan Pure, Royal Blue, Aqua National.

The excessive 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. As many as three brands – ECO, Coral Water and HI-Fresh – were found to be unsafe due to microbiological contamination which may cause cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis and typhoid etc. The remaining brands were found unsafe due to the presence of higher levels of Sodium and Potassium.

The poor quality of drinking water has forced a large cross-section of citizens to buy bottled water.

According to the report, from January to March, 111 samples of bottled water brands were collected from Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Tando Jam, Bahawalpur, Sargodha, Sialkot, Faisalabad, Sahiwal, Multan, Gujranwala, Karachi, Quetta, Muzaffarabad and Peshawar.