Drinking water in Delhi isn’t safe, says Paswan

originally posted on April 20, 2016

 

Water supplied by the state-run Delhi Jal Board isn’t safe for drinking, consumer affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan said on Tuesday. He said standards that apply to packaged water aren’t enforceable on municipal supply.Paswan said his ministry would work to change rules to bring uniform drinking water quality norms after reviewing the matter at a meeting of the Central Consumer Protection Council.

Paswan said the council suggested that access to safe water should be a constitutional right and therefore changes were necessary to ensure compliance. “The issue of safe drinking water was discussed in the meeting today. Delhi’s water is not safe for drinking,” Paswan said at a media briefing.

For tapped water supplies, the standards applied to water quality in Delhi are independent of those set by the Food Standards and Safety Authority of India, the country’s food safety regulator.

The Bureau of Indian Standards, the standards body under the consumer affairs ministry, will come out with enforceable quality standards for piped municipal water.

The minister also said both the Delhi High Court and government rules make it mandatory to sell packaged drinking water at label prices and action would be taken against violators.

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