Pakistan’s water quality watchdog has found 29 bottled and mineral water brands unsafe for human consumption after detecting microbiological and chemical contamination in samples collected across the country.
The Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) conducts quarterly monitoring of commercially available bottled and mineral water brands under a government directive, with the results published to raise public awareness about health risks.
For the second quarter of 2026, covering April to June, PCRWR collected 230 samples from 20 major cities and tested them against bottled water quality standards set by the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA).
The testing found 29 brands to be unsafe due to chemical or microbiological contamination.
Nine brands — HR Water Healthy Life, A2Z Pure Bottled Drinking Water, Pure Drinking Water, Deep Blue Pure Drinking Water, Sip Nest Purified Drinking Water, Aab-e-Haram, Aqua Life Bottled Drinking Water, Drinkly and Alpha H2O Bottled Drinking Water — contained sodium levels above the permissible limit.
PCRWR said the safe limit for sodium in drinking water is 50 parts per million (ppm).
Four brands — A2Z Pure Bottled Drinking Water, Imperial Pure Drinking Water, Aab-e-Haram and Alpha H2O Bottled Drinking Water — were also found to have excessive total dissolved solids (TDS), exceeding the permissible limit of 500 ppm.
Meanwhile, 22 brands, including Mai Sial Bottled Drinking Water, JERS Safe Life Bottled Drinking Water, Natural Pure Life, Natural Sip, Al Meer Bottled Drinking Water, Al Saha Drinking Water, Al Shifa Pure Life, Royal Fina Bottled Drinking Water, Aqua Nice Pure Life and Noor Aqua, were found to be contaminated.
PCRWR further identified bacterial contamination in Aqua Pure, Drinkwell Pure Drinking Water, Imperial Pure Drinking Water, Zalmi, Deep Blue Pure Drinking Water, Aab-e-Haram, Vital Sip Bottled Drinking Water, Hunza Ulter Water, Rehydr8 Drink Pure Water, Moya Mineral Water, Tynant Aqua Bottled Drinking Water and Aqua Pura Smart.
The council advised consumers to review the detailed test results before purchasing bottled water brands.
The complete report is available on the PCRWR website.
