PANIC gripped the country’s retail sector yesterday, with
some shops rejecting some bottled water brands deemed as contaminated.
This follows laboratory tests conducted by the
Environmental Management Agency (EMA), which concluded that some bottled water
sold on the market were contaminated and unsuitable for human consumption.
But Dairibord Zimbabwe, bottlers of the Aqualite brand,
came out guns blazing against the report, stating that their water was safe for
consumption and saying their distillation process was up to standard.
Theodora Marimo, an official within the amalgamated group
which has interests in the processing of dairy products and other consumables
and responsible for the water distillation unit, said EMA should have engaged
them before releasing their report as the findings were “false”.
“Our water undergoes rigorous processing that ensures that
it is free of any contaminants and is safe. Further, we carry out tests on
every batch to provide extra assurance to our customers,” Marimo said.
She also said the bottled water was certified by the
Standard Association of Zimbabwe, a State organ responsible for quality
assurance of all products originating in Zimbabwe.
“Aqualite is certified by Standards Association of
Zimbabwe, who also carry out independent verification. EMA has not engaged us
as would have been expected for us to understand where the disparity in their
tests is arising from,” Marimo said.
“We are available and willing to go through testing and
verification with them. We retain samples of our production for verification if
the need arises.”
The report, which was commissioned by government as the
country battled typhoid and cholera outbreaks, confirmed the presence of
harmful coliform bacteria in 26% of the sampled boreholes in both low and
high-density suburbs.
Other distillers mentioned in the report were not
immediately available for comment.
NewsDay Weekender is, however, reliably informed that the
controversial report has caused panic within the market, with some retailers
informing water bottlers to recall their products. Newsday
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