Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) under the direction of Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen will be enforcing plastic mineral water bottling standards from September 1.

The SLSI requirement was gazetted in 2015 Gazette Extraordinary 1918/18 dated June 11, 2015 but are yet to be enforced strictly.

“The CAA has detected that a number of brands are using low quality Polymer/ Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) bottles. They affect the quality of drinking water in them. In 2014 and 2015, CAA detected a total of 26 brands with questionable bottle quality”, Bathiudeen said and gave the CAA the go-ahead to enforce the Gazetted standards at the earliest possible instance.

The Gazette stipulated that acting under the powers vested in it by Section 12 (2) of the Consumer Affairs Authority Act, No. 09 of 2003 CAA has by an order, directed all producers, distributors and traders of Bottled Drinking Water that they shall not produce, distribute, transport, store, sell or display for sale, expose for sale or offer for sale, wholesale or retail any packaged drinking water in containers made of Polymer Materials unless such containers/bottles bear the SLS product certification mark issued by the Sri Lanka Standards Institution, based on the SLS 1336 : 2008 Sri Lanka Standard Specification for Containers made of Polymer Materials for Packaging of Drinking Water.

CAA does not pursue about the quality of water in Pet bottles since their water quality is certified by the Health Ministry.