Are packaged drinking water cans safe?

The packaged drinking water supplied by bona fide distributors from ISI-registered manufacturers goes through a series of procedures. 

Distributors say a large number of fraudulent suppliers fill up empty cans directly from taps

The expansion of the market for packaged drinking water, particularly in 20-litre cans, in the city is feared to have spawned a large number of fraudulent suppliers, who are sourcing drinking water from unauthorised sources.

A section of the packaged drinking water distributors in Mysuru would have you believe that the water you consume from the 20-litre cans is not processed at ISI-registered manufacturers. A large number of fraudulent suppliers have begun filling up empty cans from the water made available not only at the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC)’s Reverse Osmosis (RO) water plants set up in different wards across the city, but also directly from the taps. Some suppliers are sourcing water from unauthorised drinking water packaging units that do not follow the procedure for processing the water, a distributor, Chandrashekar M., told The Hindu on Tuesday.

“Many have taken to doing business by filling up water cans from the RO water plants set up by the MCC and charitable organizations across the city and on the outskirts”, Mr. Chandrashekar complained. “They just need to pay a small fraction of the amount they collect from the buyers”, he alleged.

Worse, many others are collecting from taps and other sources even in cans bearing ISI mark and supplying them to the gullible public, endangering their health in the process, he said.

The packaged drinking water supplied by bona fide distributors from ISI-registered manufacturers goes through a series of procedures. “Firstly, the water has to be drawn from a borewell and should have a constant TDS (total dissolved salts). Next, it goes through a process of RO, ionisation and UV purification”, said Mr. Chandrashekar. But, in the case of the packaged drinking water supplied by many fraudulent suppliers, this is not the case, he warned.

Hence, Mr. Chandrashekar and many other suppliers in Mysuru and neighbouring Mandya dealing with packaged drinking water processed by ISI-registered manufacturers have come together to form the Sri Chamundeshwari Mysuru-Mandya District Packaged Drinking Water Suppliers Association.

“Our members will be the authorised suppliers of ISI-registered manufacturers approved by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). On demand, they will be furnish their credentials, which will help the consumers distinguish between fraudulent suppliers and bona fide ones”, said Nithin Gowda, Vice-President of the Association, which is scheduled to be inaugurated by Designated FSSAI officers of Mysuru and Mandya Chidambara S. and Balakrishna B.S. respectively in Mysuru on June 21.