Check where your bottled water is from

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THE South African National Bottled Water Association ( SANBWA) has urged consumers to check the source of their bottled water and to make informed decisions before purchasing the scarce liquid.

This follows the emergence, in recent weeks, of water bottlers who package municipal water and resell it to consumers – thus increasing the demand on the municipal water grid.

The City of Cape Town announced level 6B water restrictions at the beginning of this month, calling for residents to use no more than 50 litres of water per person per day as the city and the province continue to battle water shortages.

According to the SANBWA, consumers should be aware of where their bottled water comes from and have the right to ask to see the necessary certification from the water bottler they are buying from.

“For bottled water, look for an indication of the source and the water category on the label. If they are not there, the bottler is not complying with packaging and labelling legislation,” said SANBWA executive director Charlotte Metcalf.

“Ask to see the certificate of acceptability issued by the local municipality,” she said.

SANBWA is a voluntary standards and representative organisation of some bottling companies in the country.

Water bottled by its members carries a SANBWA logo which is intended to assure consumers the water was sourced in a sustainable way and is safe.

“For water delivered by tankers to urban and rural areas, as well as outlets refilling consumers’ own containers, ask to see the licence granted by the Department of Water and Sanitation,” Metcalf said.

“It is vital that consumers confirm that the water they are buying is labelled as natural water. Water defined by origin, or as prepared water, could be sourced from the municipal water supply. Anyone not prepared to disclose the source is most likely bottling from a tap or an unlicensed source,” she said.

This week, water cooler and bottled water supplier H2O revealed that it had closed some of its walk-in services which were using tap water – to heed the call for level 6B restrictions.

The company’s founder and CEO, Tony Marchesini, said: “We decided to suspend the water refill service when Level 6B restrictions kicked in on February 1, 2018.

“We had no idea that the weekend before that, there would be a run on our stores as panic water-buying set in. As we do not condone stockpiling, we were horrified,” Marchesini said.

noloyiso.mtembu@inl.co.za