THE National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, has expressed concern that over 95 percent of packaged water producers in the country lacked mini water laboratories to check the quality of their products.

This was made known yesterday by NAFDAC’s Principal Consultant and Head of Emani Global Network, Mr. Emmanuel Osiegbu, at the flag off of the agency’s Annual Water Monitoring Exercise, held in Makurdi, Benue state capital.

Osiegbu said, “it was for this reason that the NAFDAC has taken it upon itself to embark on a routine on the spot laboratory analysis and evaluation of the quality of water being packaged for sale across the country to ensure compliance with the World Health Organization, WHO, safety standards.

“Hence with our mobile testing kits, we are subjecting packaged water in all the factories visited to 22 parameters testing in order to ensure that they meet the internationally acceptable requirements in safe water production.”
He said the essence of the exercise was not to sanction producers but to open channels of collaboration between the agency and water producers to stem cases of water borne diseases in the country.

Speaking, the Benue state Coordinator of NAFDAC, Mr. Anikoh Ibrahim, said the agency would continue to partner producers of consumables in the country in order to safegaurad the health of Nigerians.

Ibrahim cautioned that the agency would not hesitate to clampdown on any packaged water producer who willingly and deliberately endangers the lives of Nigerians with their products.