The Punjab Food Authority (PFA) has stopped the production of 356 water filtration plants over multiple violations by sharing laboratory results of the first phase of water sampling campaign 2019 with media for the public interest here on Tuesday.
The campaign was kicked off across Punjab under the directions of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The objective behind the lab test was to thoroughly examine the quality of water for which PFA had collected water samples from 1,005 filtration plants.
PFA Director General Captain (R) Muhammad Usman said that out of 1005 samples, 648 samples were found up to the mark, 160 units violating food labelling law and 196 samples found not fit for human consumption in the report. He briefed the statistics about 196 failed samples, said that PFA has stopped the production of 143 plants in Lahore Zone, 19 in Rawalpindi Zone, 24 in Multan Zone and 10 in Muzaffargarh Zone.
DG revealed the fact that PFA would not allow failed water filtration plants to start their production until they do not meet the food standards as defined in law. He further said that water filtration plants are bound to display lab report at a noticeable place of their premises. He said that PFA’s specialized water safety teams are doing work to ensure the provision of clean drinking water. He said that PFA is giving water safety training in PFA Training Schools working across whole Punjab for the guidance of food business operators associated with the water industry. He also informed that PFA will check water filtration plant four times in a year as per annual sampling schedule. He added that PFA is taking indiscriminate action against filtration plants in the light of laboratory report.