From a study by the prestigious US-based non-profit, National Academy of Sciences (NAS), it has been revealed that just a litre of bottled water contains hundreds of thousands of microscopic fragments of plastic particles, microplastics, of sizes below one micrometre or one billionth of a metre. And the bottled water tested for the NAS study was from well-known global brands. The test was done using a recently invented technique called, Simulated Raman Scattering (SRS) microscopy. Interestingly, the inventor of the technique was one of the research paper's coauthors who conducted the study in question. Actually, upon counting, scientists found, on average, 240,000 extremely small fragments of plastic particles in each litre of water (of the popular brands of the USA). And, thanks to the new study technique, nanoplastic population in bottled water has exploded to 10 to 100 times the number that was found in earlier counting. The findings stunned researchers so much so that a coauthor of the research paper, Dr. Beizhan Yan, associate professor of geochemistry at Columbia University, said that those concerned about nanoplastics in bottled water may reasonably consider alternatives like tap water.
In Bangladesh, there is no recent report of any such rigorous scientific research done on microplastics in bottled water to comment on. However, the issue of microplastics in the environment has come under discussion and concerns have been expressed by different quarters. However, about tap water, one may recall what Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) once told the city residents. On April 6, 2022, WASA requested its consumers to boil the water it supplies through pipelines before drinking as direct use of the piped water for drinking was not safe. Undoubtedly, it was honest on WASA authority's part to admit the truth. But the issue of bottled water is yet to come under serious scrutiny. Reports say that Bangladesh has a booming market for bottled drinking water. Bottled water from some three dozen or so local brands have flooded the market from cities to remote villages. In the semi-urban and rural areas potable water is a big issue since the only source of safe water there, the tube wells, are not safe as arsenic contamination of tube-well water is now a major public health concern. So, bottled water is invading rural markets, too. Moreover, bottled drinking water is now fashionable at social and public events. So, how safe is the bottled water supplied by dozens of local companies in Bangladesh? From time to time, stray cases of detection of hazardous contents including different strains of Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria in some bottled water have been reported in the media. But there is no sustained effort to study the safety of bottled water of numerous brands circulating in the market. It is said that the present worth of the bottled water market is over Tk. 10 billion and the market is growing as the demand for bottled water is around 400 million to 420 litres a year. The Bangladesh Standard and Testing Institution (BSTI) provides licence to these companies and it also conducts quality tests for products it certifies. But BSTI's hands are full with too many tasks to look after any particular product. Safety of drinking water being a matter of urgent concern, a separate dedicated body equipped with the required knowhow, funds and manpower should be at work to check quality of bottled drinking water marketed across Bangladesh.
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