Sachet water producers have challenged survey report by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) that suggests these packaged water products are contaminated with faecal matter.
They contend the report is a malicious attempt to hack down another thriving and sensitive industry by causing fear and panic.
The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the National Sachet and Packaged Water Producers (NASPAWAP) in a rejoinder raised some objections against the survey report, which it said was conducted five years ago in 2017.
“Considering the growth in consumption of sachet water, which has quadrupled over a decade per the GSS own report, then the silence over the past five years could have led to 72% of the population that depend on sachet water suffering dire health consequences.”
The NEC argued the report focuses on sachet water alone, despite the fact that bottled water producers also use the same ‘contaminated sources’ (i.e.. borehole, Ghana water or natural spring), which signals sachet water producers are being targeted for victimization.
It argued that contrary to the GSS insinuation, these companies do not package the sourced water without vigorous treatment processes including reverse osmosis and filtration using state-of-the-art systems to remove deadly bacteria and viruses from the raw water.
The NEC argued that if the report were true, it will be a very damming indictment on the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), which is mandated by law to regulate the industry.
“Every packaged water on the Ghanaian market registered by the FDA has an ID number printed on the packaged product which is unique to each SKU.”
“Companies are mandated to renew their facility licenses yearly. By inference, every brand goes through a rigorous renewal process that ensures products that are challenged are corrected or recalled.”
The sachet producers challenged the GSS to also provide correlating data on water and sanitation-related diseases like cholera, guinea worm and river blindness over the same period and show how the health barometer relates to the finding.
They argued conclusion that sachet water is contaminated has no basis because the industry does not distribute and sell sourced raw water but rather treated water that goes through various protocols of production under the supervision of the mandated agencies.
