How Safe is Bottled Water You Buy on Train from Vendors? Watch the Video & You’ll Know Why
Mangaluru : This evening a received a video footage on my WhatsApp sent to me by my friend- In an undated video, a young boy can be seen filling mineral water bottles from a tap installed at the platform of a railway station and sealing them to make them look genuine. The boy is seen filling and sealing a bunch of water bottles,and as soon as he hears the horn and the train starts moving, he quickly dumps the water bottles in a gunny bag, and runs to board the train, to sell these bottles.
The video of the incident has gone viral on social media. People buy such fake mineral water bottles from vendors thinking that the bottled water is clean and safe to drink. Water is vital for all known forms of life, even though it provides no calories or organic nutrients. Clean drinking water is more important for the survival of human beings as it can directly affect their health.It’s always to carry water in a bottle or any container from home, to be on the safer side.
Just recently, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) led the ‘Operation Thirst’ special drive to curb the sale of unauthorized packaged drinking water (PDW) in the railway stations and trains in Thiruvananthapuram railway division. As a part of the drive, special teams checked packaged drinking water sold by vendors and catering contractors on July 8 and 9. While checking Train 22643 Ernakulam – Patna Express under the supervision of Assistant Security Commissioner, Ernakulam, four bottles of drinking water of other brands were seized. Similarly, 10 bottles of drinking water of another brand were seized from the pantry car of Train 22639 Chennai Central – Alappuzha Express. They were seized and cases were registered against them under relevant section of Railway Act, a railway release said.
Not only the bottled water that you buy on trains are safe, even the packaged water sold here in Mangaluru in most of the shops are also not safe. Even though a few times the Health Department cracked down on couple of companies manufacturing packaged water for unhygienic conditions, they are back again in business. And also just because there is a ISI mark on the bottle it may not be genuine- anyone can print a label with ISI mark. But once when I had asked which bottled water was safe to drink, and I was told that any bottled water, providing the seal is intact, is safe. The thing is, it isn’t quite that easy. It never is! I mean, how can you be sure that the vendors haven’t glued the seal shut to make it look as if the seal is unbroken? By that point, I had no choice. I had to take a chance and hope for the best because I hadn’t brought any water treatment tablets with me, nor my LifeStraw (a water filter). I could have kicked myself.
A few days in, I saw an advert about bottled water, and it mentioned ISI, which stands for the Indian Standards Institute. Bottled water with that logo certifies the water is safe to drink. So now, Two steps to choosing safe bottled water: Ensure it is ISI certified. Look for the ISI logo, and check it also has a seven-digit licence number. Apparently, there are plenty of fakes out there. Check the seal carefully. Even if it has the ISI logo, with the seven-digit licence number underneath, the vendor could have refilled an empty bottle and sealed the cap with glue. You need to ensure it has the original seal. Best of luck next when you have to buy a bottled water while traveling on a train or elsewhere?