BBCL clarifies Aqua ban, says water is ‘safe’
Bowler Beverage Company Limited (BBCL), producer of Aqua Pure water, has issued a statement clarifying circumstances surrounding the ban on its product.
“We would like to advise our esteemed customers that Aqua Pure bottled water produced out of the Blantyre factory is safe for consumption despite reports in the public media that the product is ’unfit for human consumption’ and has since been banned,” reads a statement issued by the company made available to Nation Online.
The company says their Lilongwe plant is the one that has not been fully compliant with the MS699 after one of their purification equipment got damaged due to frequent power outages. This contributed to two batches -BB Dec 15 and BB Feb 16- not meeting the MBS 699 requirement.
According to BBCL, the director of Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) visited them to inform them of the need to address the shortcoming and that they would issue a suspension order.
The standards body then advised the withdrawal of the two non- compliant batches, a thing which BBCL says it immediately complied with.
“We have already ordered the spare equipment from the United States of America which is due shortly, adding to our huge investment to this industry,” continues the statement.
According to the company, the Lilongwe factory had already suspended its operations as per the MBS directive to temporarily close the plant while waiting for the spare part and will only resume operations after MBS does renewed tests and gives them the nod.
BBCL says their Blantyre plant which is fully functional and compliant with MBS standard MS699 has since been tasked with supplying the nation with current products.
The statement closes by stating that they did not receive any formal communication from either the Malawi Bureau of Standards or the Competition and Fair Trading Commission (CFTC) on the Aqua Pure ban.
How does this clarify matters? Shouldn’t the journalist check with the relevant authorities as well? How hard can this be? Is this Bowler in any way connected to the thug at the UN?
Strange indeed, why a story could only cover one side and be entirely based on a paid-for statement/advert without even talking to any of those concerned. If the statement is already in the paper as an advert, why bother even repeating it verbatim, instead of using it to get views from those concerned or the public at large? Strange journalism we see in Malawi
yes of course. This guy used to produce Naporo before he sold the assets to Chibuku but he maintained other lines of production of juices and bottled water. Later he entered active politics through UDF, then DDP