288 Views Posted on 26-Mar-2011 under Health

The Food and Drugs Board have banned 20 more sachet water producers in addition to the already blacklisted 28 for non-registration and operating under unhygienic conditions, bringing the number of banned 'pure water' producers to 48.
This follows a report released by the Ghana Chemical Society (GCS) which revealed that 85% of the ‘pure’ water produced in the country does not meet required safety standards.
The report has caused a lot of alarm with the country already reeling under a cholera epidemic.
The Communications Director for the Food and Drugs Board (FDB), James Lartey revealed that the number of closed sachet water production houses have shot up from 28 to 48 as at Friday evening.
“majority of the sachet water producers we’ve shut down were also operating without license or permission, which is a worrying situation,” he added.
According to him, though water appears to be a common product, it can easily kill, depending on how it is handled, and revealed that a lot of people are taking advantage of the fact that water production has become a booming business to enrich themselves through foul means.
Mr Lartey further disclosed their inspection revealed that most of the sachet water production houses are at unhygienic environments, with some producing from their car garages and small kiosks.
Some of the blacklisted sachet water companies are Triumphant Filtered Water, Unique Mineral Water, Icon Fresh Drinking Water, Safari Filtered Natural Water, Crystal Snow Drinking Water, Big Star Drinking Water, Rockman Drinking Water, Eye Ewurade Drinking Water, Tak-Top Filtered Drinking Water, and Flori Filtered Water.
The others are; Hollow Filtered Drinking Water, Enyinda Natural Mineral Water, Principles Filtered Drinking Water, Future Drinking Water, NJoy Filtered Drinking Dater, PEP drinking Water, Franklin Filtered Drinking Water, Regco Drinking Water, Clear Taste Natural Mineral Water, Eye Adom Filtered Drinking Water, Ever Clear Drinking Water.

He gave the assurance that names of the rest of the blacklisted ‘pure water’ producers will be released to the public in due course, but urged the general public to be careful with the water they buy, in light of the cholera outbreak.