ABSTRACT

Water of good drinking quality is the most important and fundamental condition for human life. Its better-quality is compulsory for human development, good health and well being. Drinking unsafe and unhygienic water leads to many water borne diseases. As preventive measure, demand of purified bottled water has increased across the county due to that growth of bottled water industries in Pakistan have been raised during last few years. There are several units working in this field are producing bottled water with incomplete information and address on the label of the bottled water and selling poor quality of water with various contaminants which can pose serious threat to the human health.

This research work focuses over the quality of drinking bottled water. Hence, in this regard eleven samples of bottled water brands were randomly selected from the various place of local market of the Hyderabad city. To assess the physical, chemical and biological quality of water following parameter were analyzed such as pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solid, sodium, potassium , calcium, magnesium, chloride, fluoride, arsenic and total coli form bacteria.

The test results of sample water were compared with drinking water quality standards given by the Health Organization and Pakistan Standard Quality Control Authority. Examined result reveals that physically seven samples of bottled water were found safe while the remaining brands have maximum concentration of total dissolved solids. However, chemical analysis of shows that six brands were found safe, and five brands contains higher level of arsenic, sodium, calcium and magnesium while the amount of chloride, fluoride, potassium and pH values were found below the permissible limit. Furthermore, the biological analysis of sample water reveals that total coli form bacteria were observed in three brands. The excessive use of such bottled water brands becomes the cause of several water borne diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, gastrointestinal, cancer in liver, stomach pain, weight loss, lack of energy, nervous system toxicity and hypertension. The elevated level of various contaminants in bottled water and their water producing units needs mitigation measures so that their concentration level can be brought to acceptable level and ensure the safe supply of good quality water to the citizens the accessibilty of safe supply of good quality water to the citizens the accessibility of safe and hygienic bottled water would also help to reduce the rate of additional expenditure on the health sector consequently the improvement in overall socioeconomic condition of the country.