KMC cracks down on spurious packaged drinking water in city

Kolkata: Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has taken up a drive against spurious packaged drinking water in various parts of the city. Officials of the Health department of KMC visited some shops and restaurants and seized some packaged drinking water which they suspect to be spurious, as they failed to fulfill certain parameters.

A team of the civic body raided restaurants at the Baghajatin and Jadavpur areas on Friday. They seized some packaged drinking water containers from a restaurant in Baghajatin, as there was no permanganate seal on the pack.

While on another container randomly collected from another restaurant, there was no seal of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), though there was an ISI mark on the container. Most of the packaged drinking water containers were made at a factory in South 24-Parganas, Sonarpur.

It may be mentioned that several patients, particularly from wards 101, 102 and 110 in Jadavpur, were admitted to Baghajatin State General Hospital and other health centres with diarrhoea. The KMC officials had, however, initially denied the possibility of water contamination in the area.

Atin Ghosh, Member, Mayor-in-council (Health), said: "We have sent the samples of the packaged drinking water to the state Health department for examination."

Meanwhile, the state Health department on Friday said that coliform bacteria was found in the water samples, which were tested at the School of Tropical Medicine.

The School of Tropical Medicine on Friday sent a report to the state Health department, stating that E Coli was found in the stool samples that were collected from the people in the affected areas. They said that coliform bacteria was also detected in the water.

Director of Health Service, Ajay Chakraborty, confirmed the report submitted by the School of Tropical Medicine.

It may be mentioned that the drive was initiated by KMC after questions were raised over the quality of the packaged drinking water being supplied in the city.

Food safety officers of KMC's Health department will continue to visit the dealers and manufacturers of packaged water and restaurants who stock them, to check whether the containers carry the FSSAI stamp on them.

According to a senior official of KMC, if any irregularity is found, the laboratories of the manufacturers of the packaged drinking water will be seized. Action will be taken as per legal procedures, if there is any contamination found in the water.