The Ministry of Public Health must monitor all bottled water suppliers to ensure safe water standards. A Killid investigation.
A random study of the market reveals there are some 45 different companies selling water in Kabul.
The Ministry of Public Health must monitor all bottled water suppliers to ensure safe water standards. A Killid investigation.
A random study of the market reveals there are some 45 different companies selling water in Kabul. AISA or the Afghanistan Investment Support Agency has issued permits to some 75 companies across the country to produce non-alcoholic beverages since 2006. The Ministry of Public Health admits it is monitoring only 12.
Engineer Mohammad Ali Akbari, the head of water and hygiene in the ministry says, “Only 12 factories of mineral water production are under monitoring. The rest of the factories have not registered with the ministry and are working unobserved and in secret locations.”
Authorities reckon that at least 85 percent of these fly-by-night operations have no equipment to filter water but simply extract it from deep wells and bottle the water as “mineral water”.
Under the rules, water-bottling plants must maintain high standards of hygiene including of equipment while staff must be trained and also provided with uniforms and emergency first aid. Every factory or industrial unit must display its name, address and other details prominently.
But that is on paper. According to Akbari from the Ministry of Public Health, operators mix chlorine in raw water and pour it into plastic bottles before ensuring the microbes are dead. Some dishonest bottlers buy discarded plastic water bottles from waste-pickers and simply refill those with water instead of hygienically washing and drying the bottles before reuse. Engineer Akbari did not divulge names or locations of such operations. He also put the onus of registering on the bottled water suppliers.
Abdul Muqim owns Ab e Saf (clean water) factory in the Serahi Alauddin area of Kabul. He says no government official has visited his factory which produces 800 gallons of mineral water daily. “I have an activity permit from AISA but due to my business preoccupation I have not been able to get the permit from the Ministry of Public Health.”
Ahmad Zamir works in Fresh Cool mineral water suppliers. Talking to Killid at the factory premises, he says, “I processed all the documents of the factory one year ago but the Ministry of Public Health has not bothered to come and either test or monitor the water.”
Location unknown
Akbari claims the ministry has no way of locating water bottling operations since most are in residential areas, and nobody knows of their activities. “It is impossible to monitor simultaneously all factories and beyond our department (abilities),” he told Killid.
Officials in AISA say some 75 factories that have got permits under the non-alcoholic beverages have invested 300 million dollars. Mohammad Ibrahim Shams, deputy director, says documents of all permit holders have been sent to the Afghan National Standards Authority (ANSA), Ministry of Public Health and National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA). Killid tried repeatedly to get information on the environmental impact of bottled water supply, but Dr Kaneshka Turkistani, the head of environmental health in the Ministry of Public Health was not willing to be interviewed.
Some mineral water producers complain of an unfair playing field since the majority of suppliers are not conforming to quality standards. Abdul Karim Arefi from Tabiat (nature) bottled water manufactures calls competition from the unregulated market “one of the biggest challenges” that investors in the business face. In his opinion, there are some 18 active factories for mineral water in the country. Each has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, there are many more – with permits from AISA – that have barely invested 2,000 USD and produce hundreds of litres of water for bottling daily. He estimates the size of the unregulated market is to the tune of 800,000 litres, which is sold at prices that sharply undercut those of bottlers who follow the rules.
Regulations or regulator
Many in the business rue the government’s failure to lay down and enforce standards for production and bottling of mineral water. Mohammad Amin Wahidi who is the chief technical officer at Asr-e jadeed says, “The standards are not respected in the production of mineral water because the institution that should set standards has not been created.”
Authorities in the Ministry of Public Health acknowledge the absence of standards but insist that following the rules on hygiene laid down by the ministry was sufficient to ensure that all bottled water would be potable.
Abdul Qayoom Pazhwak who heads ANSA dismisses the complaints of water factories and accuses the Ministry of Public Health of not being conversant with the standards. “ANSA set up three types of standards for producing mineral water for drinking, used in bottles, and underground water, two years back and gave it to the Ministry of Public Health,” he says. Pazhwak is categorical that monitoring is the responsibility of the ministry.
Abdul Baseer Azimi, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Water and Energy is quick to shrug off responsibility of monitoring deep wells that are fast lowering groundwater levels. He claims these wells are drilled by factories and “none of them have informed the Ministry of Water and Energy”.
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