SCRUTINISE OPERATIONS OF SATCHET WATER PRODUCERS (PAGE 29)

EVEN THOUGH pervasive sale of satchet water in the Tamale metropolis can be said to be an improvement over the old practice, in which water was sold out to unsuspecting patrons in cups which were shared by many consumers with the associated health hazards, the use of the satchet water also has its own problems.
Apart from the unsightly spectacle of used plastic materials littering every nook and cranny of the metropolis, it has now become clear that water used by some of the satchet water producers is not as pure as the manufacturers want the public to believe.
It is for this reason that most residents have expressed grave concern over the operations of some satchet water producers in the area.
A student of the Institute of Professional Studies (IPS), Sheikh J.B. Fuseini, therefore, cautioned the public ‘‘to be very careful about the type of satchet water they consume, for it is very clear that most of the producers operate under unhygienic conditions’’.
He called on the appropriate monitoring bodies such as the Ghana Standards Board and the Food and Drugs Board to scrutinise the operations of the satchet water producers to protect consumers from any contamination and the possible outbreak of disease.
A student of Tamale Senior High School, Mr Iddrisu Alhassan, claimed that he was lucky to have checked a satchet water he recently bought in town: ‘‘I had to throw it away after detecting some dead insects in the water.’’
Some of his colleagues also alleged that some of the water had unpleasant smell.
Others stressed the need for the authorities of the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly to pass a bye-law, which would compel satchet water producers to put up litre bins at vantage points where patrons could dump the waste product.
They said the responsibility for picking up the used plastic materials should also rest on the shoulders of the producers.
‘‘That way, we can keep this beautiful city clean at all times, instead of the current eyesore the plastic waste is causing us,’’ a national service person, Azara Salifu, suggested.
In a recent interview with the Zonal Officer of the Foods and Drugs Board for the Northern Region, Mr Solomon Agampim, in Tamale, he also advised consumers to always endeavour to check on the quality of products before purchasing them.
He reminded the people that the consumption of unwholesome goods and food items was dangerous to one’s health and, therefore, cautioned them to be wary of such items in the system.
Mr Agampim quoted portions of the FDB Law 1992 that clearly states that ‘‘any person who sells or offers for sale any food that consists in whole or part of any filthy, putrid, rotten, decomposed or diseased substance’’, contravened the law and could, therefore, face sanctions.