Water filtration distributors accused of false advertising, taking advantage of citizens

AMMAN — A number of distribution companies of water filtration systems have taken advantage of citizens’ lack of knowledge about water quality, leaving the companies’ sales agents to sell “unnecessary” filter cartridges to many families by bringing into question water quality standards pursued by the Water Authority in Jordan and the Jordan Water Company Miyahuna said.

Jordanian standards concerning water quality are in accordance with the World Health Organisation's (WHO) guidelines, and the Jordan Water Company (Miyahuna) relies on the information and standards provided by the WHO in carrying out periodic examinations, Director of Water Safety and Quality at Miyahuna Majida Zoubi told The Jordan Times on Wednesday.

“The water filter distributors are entitled to work, but not at the expense of stigmatising the censorship of Miyahuna, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Water and Irrigation,” Zoubi said.

Faucet water is "crisp and clean", as it is monitored by the Health and Water Ministries, the director said, adding that despite this, some water filtration companies persuade people to buy their so-called “purifiers”, a device with multiple rods which separates the minerals from water, leading citizens to believe that tap water from the Water Authority of Jordan (WAJ) is “highly contaminated”.

“The Total Dissolved Solids [TDS] represents the concentration of the substances that are found in water, such as sodium, calcium, magnesium and others that have permissible limits and levels depending on the Jordanian standards for water,” Zoubi stated.

Zoubi continued by saying that home water filtration systems are installed — not to enhance the quality of drinking water — but to improve its taste by filtering some minerals out of the water. 

She noted that some of the water filter distributors have also marketed their water treatment devices by convincing potential customers of the importance of using them.

The process of selling the filters begins with sales agents who come carrying portable electrolysis kits, operating experiments in front of potential buyers by passing electric currents through the water. These currents decompose the minerals in the water using electrodes made of iron, which oxidizes in the water, producing a brownish rust, water quality expert Nawal Sunna told The Jordan Times on Wednesday.

“They deceive people by scaring them with the murky brownish colours that result from the reaction of the minerals with electrodes, and the truth behind this show is that these minerals are essential for our bodies, and the drinking water that we receive from the WAJ follows the most stringent filtering and purifying processes,” Sunna noted.

These companies use Reverse Osmosis (RO) technologies, which they claim result in clean water. However, what actually happens is that RO, a process that uses membranes, layers of cells that allow certain substances to pass through, removes most of the nutrients that support the human body, Sunna added.  

One water filter distributor, who preferred not to be named, told the Jordan Times on Thursday over the phone that water filters are effective because they reduce TDS levels, which leads to improvements in taste, but that water filtration systems “do not get rid of bacteria”. 

“The quality of WAJ water is set according to high specifications, but unfortunately some companies send sales agents instead of water specialists to market their products in a way that will affect the credibility of our sector,” he added.

Mariana Said, who had water quality tests performed by a sales agent recently, said that she received a phone call from the agent offering to come and check her tap water quality. 

“The salesman brought a portable kit and asked me to give him tap and bottled drinking water. Then he immersed a device with rods into the two samples and at last rust and decay resulted, making me believe that both samples are contaminated and host various diseases,” Said told The Jordan Times on Wednesday.

"The company’s water filtration machinery costs more than JD380, and unfortunately, they make lots of people believe that the water from the WAJ does not conform to the standards," she said, adding: “What helped me realise that the salesman was misleading me is that I had a little background on water filtration.”