Three bottled water companied have been stripped of their licence for marketing below the standard drinking water, says a Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) report filed with the High Court.
It also said that the licences of seven more companies have been suspended.
The report was lodged with the bench of justices Sheikh Hassan Arif and Razik-Al-Jalil on Tuesday (Feb 26).
The licences of Best Drinking Water who produce jarred water Best One, Ananda Food and Beverage who produce jarred water Aananda Plus and Real Food and Beverage who produce jarred water Real First have been cancelled.
Meanwhile, the licences of those that have been cancelled are: AST Beverage Limited who produce bottled water Alma, Fruits and Flavours Limited who produced bottled water Yummy Yummy, Safe International who produce jarred water Cany, Sinha Bangladesh Trade Ltd who produce bottled water Aqua Mineral, Crystal Food and Beverage who produce jarred water CFB , Urotech Trade and Technology who produce jarred water Osma, Unity Agro Beverage who produced jarred water Apic have been suspended.
On May of 2018, a national daily published an article questioning the quality of bottled drinking water.
Later a petition was filed with the HC by lawyer Shammi Akhter on May 27 of that year.
Deputy Attorney General Md Mokhlesur Rahman moved for the state and Md JR Khan Robin represented the petitioner. Bangladesh Food Safety Authority was represented by Barrister Muhammad Faridul Islam.
After the report was filed, the court instructed the food safety authority to submit a report on what actions they have taken regarding drinking water safety.
The BSTI report read that they operated 69 surveillance teams who seized 3,575 bottles/jars of water and started 65 cases.
“A total of 28 samples were collected from the market. Among them 12 were up to the mark and 10 were below the standard,” the report said.
It added that three companies had their licences scrapped as they failed to reply to the show cause notice that they were served with.
On the other hand, the seven companies in their show cause letters asked for more time to improve quality and hence their licences were suspended.
In addition to that BSTI has also barred production of 36 factories for not having licence.