CHENNAI: Twenty-one-year-old Bharath Swaminathan fell ill. After having rethought every bit of food he had eaten, his suspicion fell on the bottle of mineral water he had glugged down. “I had diarrhoea and it was a very painful experience. I suspected later on that it was because of the mineral water I had consumed, as there was no reason to suspect food poisoning,” he said.
While this might sound a tad weird, given there are thousands of people who consume mineral water on a regular basis, doctors to whom City Express spoke to pointed out that not all mineral water brands and water cans sold at retail outlets were safe for drinking. And all the doctors maintained that boiling was the only way to ensure one doesn’t end up falling prey to a waterborne disease, especially with the onset of summer, which provides a favourable condition for certain strains of bacteria to thrive and multiply. Acute Diarrhoeal Disorder and Cholera are among the biggest spreaders during the summer, affecting hundreds across the city.
“One can’t really vouch for the safety of packaged drinking water given one doesn’t know the processes involved. If you ask me, I will say packaged drinking water is very very unsafe. They have higher levels of contamination. The best way to ensure that the water being consumed is indeed pure, it needs to boiled, then cooled and then consumed” said Homeopathy specialist Dr Ashwin Kumar, who runs a clinic in Velachery.
Dr Arun Pothanraj of Sangeetha Clinic said that the number of people with waterborne diseases went up substantially during the summer months. “This is due to the fact that people end up buying mineral water to quench their thirst without understanding the source of water, Drinking boiled water is the only way to prevent oneself from getting a waterborne disease,” he explained.
Dr Janani Manoharan, added that the reputation of the company did play a role when it came to buying packaged drinking water but cautioned that the process of refilling might end up contaminating the water. “All companies manufacturing water cans don’t follow stringent rules,” she emphasised.
Vishwanath Ganesh, who is a singer, said that he avoided drinking packaged water that didn’t have a brand value. He added that it was important for people to visit the BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) website and get to know as to whether the water consumed by them was indeed safe as per the BIS.
Officials from BIS said that they were cracking down on units manufacturing water cans with fake ISI mark on them.
“The question is of credibility. As soon as we come across a particular instance of a fake manufacturing unit from our sources, we verify it ourselves and once found true, raid the unit and drag the company to the court,” said PM Pantulu, Scientist - F & Head CNBO (FCT), BIS. He also said that the ISI mark was given after intense scrutiny of the unit which included checking whether the unit employs an efficient chemist and microbiologist, the infrastructure, how the RO process is installed, filters and levels of nitrates and fluoride among others.