The business of unsafe jar water has boomed in the capital taking on the advantage of the water supplied by Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) which is not safe for drinking, putting public health at risk.

Unscrupulous traders are supplying WASA water in jars in the name of filtered or purified water. People are getting infected with various waterborne diseases after drinking such unsafe water.
Jar water has emerged as a serious threat for public health as the water is served to different residences, shops and offices without proper purification process.

City residents have long been avoiding tap water supplied by Dhaka WASA as it not safe for drinking.

Taking the advantage of the market demand, different companies have started supplying bottled water after levelling it as safe water. The WASA itself also started producing its own brand of mineral water.

The demand for jar water in the capital has been growing significantly driven by a booming population and proliferation of business centres, hotels and restaurants.

A company needs to have a licence from Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI), WASA, commerce, environment and labour ministries, and the city corporation to produce and sell drinking water.

But to meet the high demand, a section of unscrupulous businessmen have installed home-based water-purifying units in densely-populated areas like Jatrabari, Demra, Shanir Akhra, Sayedabad, Rampura, Badda, Khilgaon, Pallabi, Mirpur, Tejgaon, Gulistan and parts of Old Dhaka without the approval from the authorities concerned.                The water is being sold under the name of mineral water by filling it in plastic containers.
Unscrupulous traders are always filling WASA water in jars. As a result, even though the name is filtered or purified water, this water contains different types of germs in reality.

There are about 400-500 anonymous, registered and unregistered drinking water factories in the capital. Jar water from these factories is being supplied to houses, shops, hotels, and government and private offices of the city.

The city dwellers are buying this water and drinking it without any question. They do not know whether any standard set by BSTI is being maintained in the production of the water.

Shariful Islam, a hotel owner in Mirpur area, said, “We order jar water according to our everyday need. But we don’t know where and how the water is made.”

Meanwhile, the authorities concerned have carried out anti-adulteration drives against the unscrupulous traders of contaminated water. But business is not going to stop even after punishment and fines.

BSTI oversees the drinking factories for the control and distribution of pure water for the city dwellers. It has 30 types of testing methods as a condition for verifying the quality of drinking water production and marketing.

Once these methods are confirmed, the state-owned company allows water marketing. Besides, after approval of pure water marketing, the factory should have chemist, health certificate and lab.

Zishan Ahmed Talukder, assistant director (CM) of BSTI, said, “BSTI accredits drinking factories to supply pure water in the capital. But some dishonest traders are selling contaminated water in the name of pure water in many adulterated factories.”

“To catch them, we carry out anti-tampering drives from time to time. As soon as the drive is over, they start secretly selling adulterated water by setting up new factories under different names. BSTI will continue such operations to eradicate them,” he said.

On April 5, a mobile court of BSTI sealed off a factory for marketing WASA water in jars without BSTI approval and maintaining proper standards.

BSTI officials said there was no chemical or technical support to disinfect the water. Besides, the organisation did not have any approval or valid documents.

Over 100 water jars were destroyed during the operation. The mobile court also smashed the company's water purification machine. It was sealed off for the second time.