INAE suspends bottled water “industry” in Maputo

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INAE suspends bottled water “industry” in Maputo

6:59 CAT | 20 May 2021

Photo: O País

The National Inspection of Economic Activities (INAE) a few days ago suspended operations at ,, an industry dedicated to the collection, treatment and sale of bottled water, due to “very poor hygiene conditions”.

“The unit was also poorly located, as it operates next to an establishment selling automobile parts and accessories and, inside, a lot of obsolete material was found that is not part of the activity. It was also found that this industry does not have a testing laboratory to control the quality of the water during the [water] treatment process. The workers are also not adequately equipped according to the requirements imposed by law for this type of activity,” the INEA’s Inspector Tomás Timba reported.

Without revealing the name of the company, Timba confirmed that the enterprise was properly licensed, and this year, two other companies in the same industry, one in Maputo city, and the other in Manica province, were suspended for the exact same reasons.

Moreover, he said, the enterprise was using other brands’ containers for their product.

The irregularities were discovered between the 1st and the 16th of May this year, during which time more than 100 commercial establishments selling alcoholic beverages were suspended and 19 closed for violations of the schedule established for their operation.

Violation of Covid-19 measures still persists, with the owners of commercial establishments such as bars, ‘barracas’, bottle stores and restaurants rutinely ignoring opening hours and capacity and hygiene issues, much to the INAE’s displeasure.

As an example, on the 16th of this month, 146 barracas and 116 restaurants and other establishments selling alcoholic beverages, such as bars and bottle stores, were inspected.

“What we found is that establishments selling alcoholic beverages have a tendency to violate opening hours,” Timba told a press conference. “What happens is that they close the doors but the activity continues to be exercised, mainly in the case of bottle stores”.

The restaurant sector was also penalised for exceeding opening hours, and transforming the restaurant into a bar sell only alcoholic beverages.

In the same period, seven gambling machines were seized and destroyed for illegal use, and the INAE withdrew from the shelves 913 units of soft drinks, valued at 50,350.00 meticais, for bearing foreign language labelling.

Source: Carta de Moçambique / O País