Patna: The Patna district administration on Sunday issued an order to seal five mineral water producing agencies in the city after their products were found unfit for drinking.

A few days back, the district administration started a campaign against mineral water making and bottling agencies selling unhygienic water in Patna after which the decision was taken to seal some of them.

On November 5, 2017, the district administration collected samples from 12 mineral water making agencies and it was sent to the state-level water testing laboratory (SLWTL), which comes under public health and engineering department (PHED).

After the samples were collected, Patna district magistrate Sanjay Kumar Agarwal formed a three-member team to look into the matter.

PHED executive engineer, east, Nityanand, PHED executive engineer, west, Prasoon Kumar and food safety officer Sudama Prasad are part of the team.

On Sunday, they submitted a report in which water of five agencies were found unfit for drinking. "The SLWTL has mentioned in its report that water of five mineral water agencies were found unfit for drinking. In the report, it was found that the pH value in the water was less than the permissible limit. I have issued an order to seal the five agencies and ordered a thorough inquiry into the production houses," Agarwal said.

The five agencies, which have been sealed, are Raj Purifier Water Supply in Phulwarisharif, The Ganga in Danapur, Raj Lakshmi Enterprises in Mandiri, Sinha Homeo Hall in Punaichak and Ekdant Neer Sagar in Patel Nagar.

The PHED official said normally water with pH lower than 7 is considered acidic, and with pH greater than 7 is considered basic. During the laboratory test it was found that most of the mineral water has pH value less than 7. He added that the desirable limit of pH value even in groundwater should be between 6.5 and 8.5.

Agarwal issued the order against the owners of the agencies to submit a detailed report of their bottling plants or else their factories would be shut down. "Action would be taken against people responsible for selling unfit water to the people of Patna. Water is very important for survival. If unfit water is sold there would be too many water-borne diseases," Agarwal said.

He asked the PHED executive engineer to conduct raids on mineral water agencies and get samples checked from the laboratory regularly.