Zimbabwe bans 40 water bottling firms

The Zimbabwe government has announced a ban on 40 water bottling firms for failing to meet safety and quality standards.

Davis Dhlakama, Acting Secretary for Health and Child Welfare, said the firms’ water was not suitable for bottling for various reasons including unsuitable packaging, wrong labelling and contamination.

Most of the suppliers showed mineral element content on labels, but failed to display information pertaining to microbiological safety of the water.

The government said that some of the companies do not even meet the required minimum basic hygienic standards and others are not bottling their water at the source of the water as required.

After independent surveillance, the Standards Association of Zimbabwe (SAZ) has named 12 water bottling firms certified with the national body.

The SAZ-certified companies include Schweppes Zimbabwe, Tanganda Tea Company, Century Ice, ZLG, Brackenridge T/A Kanyerere Investment, Reichmark, Aqua Crystal, Chromopak Investments, Somerby, Chilruff T/A Springvale, Mukati Investments and Blester Marketing.