As part of efforts to sanitise the water sector, Rivers State Government has announced plans to ban the distribution of water between the hours of 7:00pm to 6:00am daily.
Speaking at a one day stakeholders engagement on Water Quality Standards and Regulations in Port- Harcourt, Commissioner for Water Resources and Rural Development, Dr Tamunosisi Gogo Jaja, explained that the move is to protect the lives of residents and investment of those genuinely in business in the sector, urging quacks to stop their nefarious and unpatriotic activities.
He noted that quacks uses the night period to distribute their waters to avoid being tracked.
The Commissioner enjoined water producers in the state to use the prescribed standard micron for the bottling and packaging of water for consumption and harped on the dangers of using substandard micron; saying that ,exposure of the water to sun rays causes illicit chemical reactions that are injurious to human organs.
”The prescribed micron is 38 and above. We discovered that some people use less than that while other who don’t have known business addresses, produce and sell contaminated and unhealthy water to members of the public, he added”.
Gogo-Jaja equally stressed the need for water producers to cover their water or products while distributing them and directed that all water distributors should brand their vans, with their name, telephone number and address for easy identification of their products.
He called on members of the public to report companies who distribute their water uncovered and those with unbranded.
In their responses, President of Water Producers Association of Nigeria, WAPAN, Mr Egberi Markson and his counterpart, Association of Table Water Producers of Nigeria, ATWAP, Pastor Agape Onuh thanked the Commissioner and his team for putting together the programme and pledged to work with the ministry to improve surveillance in a bid to eliminating quacks in the sector.
They further expressed confidence that once quackery in the water sector is handled, the issue of having a unified price in the industry will be a thing of the past.
