DHAKA: Dhaka WASA has been marketing its bottled water `Shanti’ with date-expired license for last five years. The autonomous organization of the LGRD Ministry did not pay heed to the repeated reminder of BSTI, the quality control body of the government, official sources said.
The Dhaka WASA (Water Supply and Sewerage Authority) in 2006 had taken license from BSTI (Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution) for marketing its `pure drinking’ bottled water ‘Shanti’ and the tenure of the license expired on June 30, 2009.
As per rule, application has to be made for renewal of the license three months prior to the expiry. But, the Dhaka WASA did not make any application before February this year to renew the license for marketing ‘Shanti’.
However, the license is yet to be issued due to non-fulfillment of terms and conditions.
Despite repeated attempts, none of the WASA talked on the matter, but the nutritionists and health professionals expressed serious health concern over marketing of bottled water without BSTI license by an autonomous institution of the government.
“No food and drink item is safe to have it without having the BSTI permission. It does not assure the health safety aspects,” said Prof Dr Golam Mowla of Dhaka University’s Institute of Nutrition and Food Science.
Official sources said that the BSTI about two years after expiry of ‘Shanti’ license realized that the WASA has been marketing its bottled water without Standards and Testing Institution’s certificate. It on March 15, 2011 issued a letter to the WASA to renew the license after infrastructural development of the plant according to ISO-IEC guideline 65 in producing pure drinking water.
But, the WASA took another three years to make an application and submitted a letter along with some papers on February 19, 2014. But, the BSTI did not renew the license due to incomplete papers and documents, said the official sources.
However, the BSTI and its surveillance teams as well as mobile courts could not take any action against marketing of ‘Shanti’ water of WASA in last five years despite its selling without mandatory license of the BSTI.
Asked about the matter, BSTI Director General Ikram Hossain informed that Dhaka WASA applied for renewal of the license for its bottled water. “But we returned it back due to some faults in the papers,” he said.
“If they submit all the required papers and documents, we will examine those again... They will be given a renewed license if they can maintain the BSTI standard,” said the DG of the BSTI.
While other WASA officials declined to respond queries on the matter, WASA Managing Director Taksim A Khan did not even receive phone calls despite repeated attempts.
BDST: 1003 HRS, MAY 19, 2014
