The quality of bottled water has become a source of concern and contention. Reem Leila sees what's not fit to drink Six locally produced brands of bottled water, including Schweppes, have been deemed unfit for human consumption. At a press conference on 26 December, Chairman of the Consumer Protection Authority (CPA) Said El-Alfi said a study funded by the CPA and Health and Population Ministry and conducted over the past two months by the Central Egyptian Society for Consumer Protection (CESCP) had discovered bacteria in six out of 21 samples of bottled water brands. The study said the contaminated samples are the 1.5-litre bottles of Schweppes and El-Nada and the 19- litre bottles of Nahl, Aquastone, Aquamena and Hayat. The study also found six other brands fraudulently labelled, meaning that the ingredients on labels did not match what was in the water, but were still fit for consumption. Those include the 1.5-litre bottles of Baraka, El-Manar, Delta, Hayat, Aquamena and Nahl. Moreover, the study found that bottled water in the Egyptian market is not mineral, and that the source of all bottled water is natural wells. Some companies apparently get their water from wells that are not the right depth nor are they located in the appropriate environment to guarantee the purity of water. According to a press release issued by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), Minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid formed a special committee of members from the police and industrial authorities along with representatives from the CPA to pay water plants unannounced inspection visits. According to a press release, Rachid said companies found to be non-compliant with set national and international standards will be fined LE50 million or 10 per cent of the product's total value, up from the previous high of LE10 million. Moreover, people who take part in such practices can face criminal charges, while employees of companies that violate these standards are encouraged to come forward and provide the government with information without being penalised. The government is monitoring the market more closely to better uncover agreements or contracts that could lead to anti- competitive market behaviour. The stricter regulations and higher fines are in line with the ministry's efforts to prevent any infringements in order to create a more balanced economy, said the minister. According to Anan Helal, vice head of CPA and executive manager of CESCP, said that as a result of these surprise visits, several bottled water factories had been shut down since they neither met the national nor international quality standards of hygiene levels. "Bad water sanitation and management can result in a few unpleasant illnesses, among them troubles in the digestive system," Helal, the study's author, said. Inorganic constituents and trihalomethanes were analysed in these major brands of commercial bottled water currently used by much of the public. All water samples except for the six brands previously mentioned had a concentration level approaching the maximum allowed for most of the chemical constituents. The six also contained the highest total dissolved solids but were within the acceptable levels of the World Health Organisation guidelines and were lower than maximum contaminant levels established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Most Egyptians believe tap water is contaminated and unhealthy. Egypt has the highest kidney failure rate in the world, mainly because of the lack of a reliable source of clean drinkable water. The relative stability of unit prices over the review period contributed to positive growth. Bottled water sales in Egypt maintained positive volume growth in 2003, with sales reaching 370.5 million litres, making it the second largest sector by volume in the Egyptian soft drinks market. High-ranking officials concerned have often given sworn testimony as to the safety of tap water, preferring it over bottled water. Mohamed El-Abagi, former head of the water pollution control laboratory at the National Research Centre, says tap water is perfectly safe, a view shared by both Hassan Yassin, senior doctor at Homiat (Fevers) Al-Abbasiya Hospital, and Mahmoud El-Beih, director of the Tahrir General Hospital, the biggest hospital in Imbaba. Bottled water may seem healthy enough, but according to El-Abagi, bottled water means storage, "thus leading to a possible increase in bacteria in the bottles we drink from." Another option, of course, is home filtering. Again, El-Abagi warns that there is a danger of corruption. He argues that filters act as a bacterial medium more than anything else. "The water passes through the same place where the impurities have been stored, turning the filter into the perfect place for harmful bacteria to grow." Helal said chlorine has been increased in tap water to more than five milligrammes per litre (the WHO-recommended limit), which can result in what is referred to as "summer diarrhea". The increase in the percentage of chlorine in drinking water leads to troubles in the digestive system and irritation. "But these ailments are better than the risk of cholera," insisted El-Abagi who added that debris such as small sand particles in drinking water is harmless, saying the particles are probably part of the filtration process prior to chlorification. Consumers will most likely continue buying bottled water because they believe it is fundamentally safer and less likely than tap water to become contaminated. Helal believes that the number of people purchasing bottled water will not be greatly affected since the number of contaminated brands is limited in a vast market full of many alternatives. Also, many consumers might suspect, perhaps correctly, that there is a "last mile" problem with tap water. It may be pure as snow when it is tested at the plant, but is it still so virginal once it has passed through old pipes
