Government makes sealed caps mandatory

Kathmandu March 14- Packaged drinking water manufactures will now have to mandatorily seal the bottle caps with plastic wraps imprinted with their license numbers. The provision will be implemented from Monday, according to the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control (DFTQC). The department said it will forward an instruction to all the manufacturers of bottled water asking them to strictly abide by the provision.

The department’s move follows growing complaints about the distribution of adulterated and impure water. In the absence of such a mandatory provision, the manufacturers have only been using normal caps, not sealed caps, on water bottles, the department said, adding even retailers have been found refilling the jars themselves with impure water and putting the public health at risk.

There are more than 200 licence bottled water manufacturers in the Kathmandu Valley. “Almost all of them sell sealed jars for first time, but they do not use sealed caps in successive refilling,” said Karna.