Use and Quality of Bottled Water in Bahawalpur City, Pakistan: An Overview

Abstract

As a basic need of human life, the place of safe potable water cannot be ignored elsewhere. Therefore, the main objective of the current study was to take an overview of the main source of water, expenditure on water purchasing and use quality of bottled water in Bahawalpur city. Primary data were gathered through a structured questionnaire during a field survey in selected five residential areas as sample sites i.e. Model town A, Model town B, Shahdrah, Satellite town, and Islami colony, while the secondary data were collected from PCRWR and a few web sources. Data were gathered from 150 respondents (30 from each study site) and analyzed in SPSS 17 software by applying descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) to get a generalized picture regarding the main source of water, use and quality of bottled water in the study area. Findings make it clear that majority of the respondents were fetching water from government filtration plants following the electric pumps. Moreover, various local water companies (e.g. Pineo, Piyas, Aquafina, Kinley, Al-Shiffa, Life Water) were also supplying water in the study area. Particularly, the use and demand for bottled water are increasing day by day as people have serious concerns on quality related issues of water. Bottled water was available in different quantities from 0.5 liters to 19 liters with respective prices that were purchased from various departmental and medical stores or via home delivery service. But the quality of the bottled water was not satisfactory and up to the standards. The PCRWR laboratory analysis of bottled water samples show significant variations and alarmingly different brands i.e. Blue water, Kalash pure water and Pan Pura were found chemically and microbiologically unfit for drinking purposes. So, it is suggested that regular monitoring and quality control steps by local government in the private sector would ensure the effective and secure potable water deliverance.