BHAKTAPUR, JULY 20

In a case of utter negligence by a drinking water bottling plant, insect larvae and algae have been found in a water jar produced by the plant at a time when cholera outbreak is feared in Kathmandu valley.

Such level of negligence was observed during monitoring of various drinking water bottling plants operated at Jhaukhel, Changunarayan Municipality in Bhaktapur district.

The monitoring was conducted under the leadership of Assistant Chief District Officer Madhav Prasad Sharma.

The monitoring team of the District Administration Office, Bhaktapur destroyed old bottles and jars containing layer of algae in the course of monitoring various drinking water manufacturing companies.

A team comprising representatives of the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control, Consumers Federation, District Cottage Industries Office, Chamber of Commerce and Industry, stakeholder organisations and journalists carried out the monitoring and found negligence on the part of drinking water bottling plants.

The District Administration Office conducted the monitoring after increasing public complaints that worms and algae were found inside various brands of jars containing drinking water.

Assistant Chief District Officer Sharma said old jars numbering in hundreds found in the course of onsite monitoring had been destroyed. He said the water bottling plants committing such negligence had been reprimanded and legal action would be initiated if they repeated their negligence.

A version of this article appears in the print on July 21, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.