Good news for consumers of drinking water in bottles!

Dhaka WASA is coming up with something a lot cheaper, For almost half the price of the popular brands, it will market purified water in similar bottles to compete with some 25 private companies in business.

"A one-litre bottle of WASA-produced pure drinking water may cost Tk 6 or 8 against Tk 15 to 20 being charged by the private companies? said Khan-dakar Azharul Haque. Managing Director of the WASA.

Haque said last week that the Consumers' Cooperative Society of WASA was preparing for the production of purified bottled water.

The Society has already set up an office at Segunbagicha for the project which is likely to start in a few months, sources said adding WASA's laboratory and quality control system will be used for the purpose.

The WASA chief executive said the bottled water available in the market is not mineral water as claimed by the producing companies. Those are only purified water. But their quality or purity is not always maintained."

"WASA produces one of the best quality water in the world in terms of purity. Qur water is 100 per cent pure at the production level but the purity goes down to 70 per cent while it reaches the consumers due to faulty pipelines." he said. Besides. he said, the quality falls further because of reservoirs used by consumers.

In case of bottling drinking water by the WASA. 100 per cent purity will be ensured, the MD said.