10 water plants resume output after SFDA action

Saudi Gazette report JEDDAH — The Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) has given permission to 10 water-bottling factories to resume operations after they had been shut down for various violations, Makkah newspaper reported on Sunday. An SFDA source said the 10 factories are in Jeddah and Makkah and were shut down for raising prices without permission from the authority. “The factories paid their fines and have rectified their status with the authority. The factories had previously increased the cost price of water, which in turn will increase the retail price of water for the consumer,” said the source. The source also said the increase in prices was reported to the authority and it shut down and slapped fines on the factories involved. “The authority is now strict and less lenient about implementing punishments against pricing violations. It plans to organize even stricter inspection campaigns. The authority cares about maintaining quality in the production process in all water-bottling factories,” said the source. Siraj Sind, director of a water factory in Jeddah, said the intensive and strict inspection campaigns by the Food and Drug Authority and the Consumer’s Protection Committee have led many factories to update their equipment and production line. “Many of the factories used to operate on outdated machinery and inefficient tools. They had no incentive to give a better service with higher quality. The strict implementation of regulations by the authority forced factories to spend more money on their production equipment and on serving a product of better quality,” said Sind. He added the factories have become more health conscious by replacing the plastic water bottles with better quality ones of different sizes. “People complained in the past that some of the factories were distributing contaminated water. The contamination is not always the fault of the factories but of refilling stations, who refill water into contaminated and sometimes used water bottles,” said Sind. He added that the distribution companies then expose the water bottles to sunlight, which contaminates the water even further.