PUNE: Vimannagar resident and activist Qaneez Sukhrani has alleged that her family and she have been affected by coliform contamination through packaged drinking water marketed by reputed brands.
Upon her request, the state Food and Drug Administration(FDA) is investigating the matter.
Sukhrani, the convener of Vimannagar Citizens Forum, said she had sent two bottles of drinking water - one bottle packaged by a multinational soft drink maker, and the other by an Indian company - to the state health services laboratory, after she noticed multiple members of her family falling ill.
"I felt something was wrong with the water. We drink only packaged drinking water as the common perception is that the water supplied by the civic authorities is not clean. So I sent the two samples to the State Public Health Services (SPHS) laboratory in Pune for tests in July," Sukhrani said. She added that she sent the samples to state-run labs for "authenticity".
The SPHS laboratory provided the test reports on July 26 after running them through a microbiological and a chemical test. While the chemical test gave the samples a clean bill of health, the biological report showed that in both the samples, coliform contamination was present at more than 16 units per 100ml of water, rendering the sample non-potable by medical standards.
Medical experts say that coliform ingestion by humans often causes gastroenteric infections and related diseases, normally preceded by vomiting, nausea, or stomach cramps.
Sukhrani added that she had approached the state Food and Drug Administration(FDA) for a more detailed investigation into the safety of packaged drinking water, saying that the larger public must be informed about the safety of the packaged water.
"The state government should take steps to shut down plants and companies that blatantly violate health and safety guidelines regarding drinking water, and ensure that they don't operate under names of other companies, so that unsuspecting people do not fall sick due to their products," she remarked.
The state FDA, which is investigating the issue, explained that they have concurred with the SPHS laboratory's findings after conducting their own tests of the samples provided.
"There is substantial coliform contamination which has been found in both the samples in the microbiological testing," said a senior FDA official.
As for further investigations, FDA officials say that the probe will proceed to the companies involved and may result in prosecution."We have now taken the investigation to the companies and independent samples have been collected from them. If our investigations reveals any negligence on the part of the companies, we will go forward with prosecution," said assistant commissioner of the FDA SP Shinde.
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