BY MAVIS NISHIMURA PODOKOLO
MINERAL water processed in the country are safe and have met the required standard of water bottling processes, says George Titiulu, Head of Environmental Health Division at the Honiara City Council.
He said this yesterday following an article on Island Sun’s front page yesterday, titled “Dirty Mineral Water”, which called on the Ministry of Health and Medical Services (MHMS) to act on recent findings that reveal some bottled mineral water in Solomon Islands contains contaminants.
“What I want to put out to the public is I want to assure the general public that mineral waters sold in the country is totally safe for drinking,” said Titiulu.
He said their collected records show all water bottling processes in the country fall in the mandatory standard especially on different perimeters.
Titiulu said this means all water bottling companies fall in the permissible range which is within 6.5 – 8.5 PH level.
He said normally when his team finds out water bottling companies fail to comply on the set required standard, they step in to address the matter before it gets any worse.
“There were also some speculation that said the waters are contaminated with E.coli bacteria(a common bacteria normally lives in human intestine)which is misleading as we have our records here that shows mineral waters sold in the country are safe and accepted for drinking.
“Let me clarify here, the source that revealed the waters are contaminated is not reliable, it is misleading and they should be responsible for this matter,” said Titiulu.
According to yesterday’s article, the Leader of Independent Robertson Galokale said this is a public health risk and authorities must ensure that all citizens must be protected against dangerous contaminants and water-borne diseases.
“Galokale calls particularly on the National Public Health Laboratory of the MHMS and the Honiara City Council Health Authority to reveal to the public the status of all the mineral water bottles sold commercially in the country.”
“Galokale acknowledge the findings by media in which out of the five mineral water bottlers; namely Blue Water, Szeba Water, Sasa Water, V-Fresh Water and Enargy Water, only Blue Water and Szeba Water are considered safe for drinking while the others are high in acidic contamination.”
