Financial Times

Bottled water registration is now mandatory
When Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva was in charge of water in 1989 as Minister of Housing Construction and Public Utilities, he was appalled by the quality of the water that people were drinking.

He found pure drinking water a serious problem. “I found some of the water which runs to some houses in Colombo contaminated,” he said, speaking at the recent launch of the Sri Lanka Bottled Water Association (SLBWA) in Colombo to mark World Water Day.

The registration of bottled water manufacturers with the Food Authority of the Ministry of Health has now become mandatory. It was revealed at this forum that there are about 250 bottled water manufacturers in Sri Lanka now and of this only 41 have obtained the required licence.

Anura Kumarasinghe, Chairman, SLBWA urged the Minister of Health to enforce the law and prosecute all bottled water manufacturers who have failed to obtain the necessary mandatory licence as allowing these unauthorized manufacturers to continue would harm bottled water exports.

Minister de Silva said water resources in this country should be of good quality but due to the environment and lack of proper solid waste management, in many areas water resources have been contaminated. “Whenever we go to other countries it is assured that the tap water is safe for drinking,” he said, adding that there is a good export market for bottled water. He said that to ensure the expansion of this export market stringent quality standards have to be maintained, otherwise there could be problems in the future. “You have to take serious action against those who do not follow these regulations,” he said.

De Silva said it just needs one rogue manufacturer – selling a bad product - to ruin the export market. He said he would assess the progress of obtaining the licenses by May15 and he would review the defaulters (those whose application for a licence has been turned down) on a case by case basis.
He said there could be genuine grievances of these manufacturers, and if so this must not hurt the export market.

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