A water resource engineer, Sampson Tettey, has advised the public to be careful about the brand of packaged water they consume.
According to him, some of these brands use water directly from the taps without filtering it, although it is unsafe for consumption.
Speaking on JoyNews’ AM Show on September 16, he explained that the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) had stated that they are finding it more challenging to treat that water due to the current level of pollution.
Hence, it is an issue of concern for water quality.
“I remember we did some research many years back so I do not want to refer to it but if we are talking about 2022, that is quite recent work done by KNUST, so we should have some level of measure. We cannot say every sachet water is wholesome,” he said.
Also, the Managing Director of GWCL, Clifford Braimah alleged that some of the water processing companies do not actually treat the water supplied to them by GWCL.
“To your surprise, most of the sachet people fetch our water and bag it. They don’t do anything to [it] but they tell them that what is in the bag is more wholesome than where they fetched it because they fetched it into another container. Maybe the other container is contaminated and they now put it in a bag, close it and sell it to you.”
On the same show, the President of the National Association of Sachet and Packaged Water Producers, Magnus Nunoo, debunked the claims.
He explained that sachet water is safe and urged the public to have complete confidence in the sachet and bottled water on the market.
Mr Nunoo clarified that most water processing companies are registered, meaning they are equipped with reverse osmosis systems, which enable them to remove heavy metals from the water.
“Ghana Water System takes care of the clarity, takes care of pathogens. Sachet water and bottled water go the extra mile, you can check from the FDA [Food and Drugs Authority] to ensure that the water you put out there does not have heavy metals, there is no way, absolutely no way you would get the certification from FDA and Ghana Standards Authority,” Mr Nunoo said.
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