A
rapid increase in immigration from rural areas to cities as a result of
industrialization has inevitably led to more densely populated cities in Turkey.
The fact that the existing water infrastructure in many urban areas is
insufficient to meet the resulting increase in demand, as well as high levels of
arsenic found in water in some cities, such as the Aegean province of Izmir, has
led residents in big cities, in particular, to choose bottled water.
Bottled Water Producers Association (SUDER) Chairman Adnan Çavus told Sunday's
Zaman that in Turkey people choose between tap water and bottled water in
accordance with the quality of the water supply in the city where they live and
their income level. Noting that as a result of the increasing populations in
urban areas Turkey has seen in recent years, along with the negative effects of
global warming, there have been difficulties in meeting the demand for healthy
and clean water in some cities, he said the number of bottled water producers
has been increasing rapidly since 1994. Emphasizing that the carboy water market
grew by 4 percent in 2008, he added that the growth in retail bottled water was
23 percent in the same period. He noted that while 8.5 billion bottles of water
were sold in Turkey last year, 6.1 billion of these were carboy bottles and the
other 2.4 billion were retail bottles.
Mücahit Ersoy, sales operations director for Aytaç Su, one of Turkey's leading
drinking water suppliers, said that although city residents obviously prefer to
drink bottled water more than residents in rural areas, more and more residents
in Anatolian provinces are starting to choose bottled water over tap water. "Aytaç
Su still does not have dealers in some Anatolian provinces," he noted, adding
that they see demand growing rapidly in Anatolia.
Are carboys really healthy?
Increasing demand for carboy water has raised concerns over the hygiene of this
form of water supply. Professor Fatih Köksal, from Çukurova University's
department of microbiology and clinical microbiology, recently warned people in
Turkey to be careful when drinking water from carboys. He told the Anatolia news
agency that if the water in a carboy is exposed to sun and oxygen it can speed
up the reproduction of various microorganisms, which can lead to a number of
potentially fatal diseases. Noting that water makes up 70 percent of the human
body, he said water enables communication between cells and regulates metabolism
and that people should be careful to ensure that the water they drink is
healthy. "People should use bottles that can be consumed in a very short amount
of time. It is not healthy to use 19-liter carboys for days after they are
uncapped, no matter how they are stored."
Illegal production is the problem
Çavus, however, said as long as the carboys are kept in a dry and clean
environment without direct exposure to sunlight, the water in them will remain
healthy for 10 days. Stressing that the bottling of carboy water is carried out
under advanced hygienic conditions, he explained that what is important in terms
of carboy water safety is paying attention to whether it is bottled by licensed
firms in facilities that are inspected by Health Ministry. "Illegal production
can lead to people consuming unhygienic water, in addition to unfair competition
in the sector.
People should make sure that their water is certified by the
Health Ministry by checking its production and expiration date, production
address and laboratory analyses. They should also make sure that they are the
first to uncap the carboy by tearing the security band," he emphasized.
Ersoy also warns people to avoid illegally bottled water and to choose
well-known brands in the sector. Stating that although the Health Ministry
periodically inspects bottled water manufacturing facilities, he said it is the
companies themselves that choose whether or not to maintain quality standards on
a regular basis. "Applying these standards costs the producer money, of course.
For example, carboys that are filled more than 60 times are no longer healthy.
We do not use carboys more than 60 times, yet some illegal companies may not
comply with this," he explained. Noting that the criteria for the disinfecting
of carboys are set by the Health Ministry, he said carboys should be cleaned
with water heated to 70 degrees Celsius and special chemicals.
