Water filters sans safety certificates

This may come as a surprise to the bulk of consumers in Bangladesh, but manufacturers and importers of water purifying and filtration equipment do not need to get their products certified as safe. The irony of the situation is that most of the suppliers make lofty promises of providing water "as safe as boiled water" while others go to the extent of stamping "approved by BSTI", primarily because consumers suffer from the erroneous perception that the Bangladesh Standards Testing Institute (BSTI) is the approving authority. Given that WASA has been struggling to supply adequate and safe piped water to city residents and failing, a large percentage of city residents have to resort to purifiers to filter bottled water.

So what is to be done? The Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research has tested some of the products available in the market. Many of them did not pass the test on quality. Why is it that a gadget that has to do with the health of its users can be marketed without conforming to certain standards? The BSTI is the appropriate agency to approve the marketability of the product. And it should be equipped, not only with testing equipment, but with manpower to conduct regular drives in the market to hold to account unscrupulous traders who make claims like their product "removes 99.99 percent bacteria." Guilty parties must also face severe penalty.