Regulating potable water

Law by Parliament to affect 800 companies

The Parliament ratified on Wednesday (March 21) a draft law for regulating companies which offer bottled drinking water, MP Mohamad Kabbani said on Thursday. The law does not include companies which provide bottled mineral water.

The draft law, which was first suggested in 2004, addresses the operations of around 800 companies offering non-mineral bottled potable water, according to Kabbani. When the discussions for preparing the draft law first began, in 2003, around 320 companies were in the business.

According to the Minister of Public Health Ali Hassan Khalil, around 85 percent of companies which offer potable water for consumers are not licensed.

Kabbani said that the sector was not controlled by any regulations or any license requirements. He said that the adopted law includes a set of license provisions and sanitary specifications that are fitting for small-sized enterprises, in terms of cost. According to the law, the water bottles must only be of sizes of 5 liters or 20 liters. The law specifies that the water in the bottles must be consumed after less than one month from their bottling date.

The law also states that companies must deliver the product directly to the consumer, thus they will not be allowed to sell through a third party, such as supermarkets.

by Hanadi Chami