NEW DELHI, INDIA, July 25, 2003: Following the hue and cry over presence of pesticides in bottled water, the Centre has finally come out with a changed rule set on packaged water, which the manufacturers have to follow from January 2004. As per the new prevention of food adulteration (PFA) guideline issued on July 18, the individual pesticide residue should not exceed 0.0001 mg per liter and the total pesticide residue should not be more than 0.0005 mg per liter. This will be applicable only to bottled drinking water. Also the post-marketing analysis on water samples, to be conducted by authorities like Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), have to be done following internationally accepted test methods. In fact, soon after the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment had revealed the presence of high amount of pesticides in bottled water, including all the popular Indian brands, Health Minister Sushma Swaraj had admitted in the Parliament that BIS testing methods were outdated.
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