The Rivers State Government has shut four substandard sachet water factories in Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor local government areas of the state.

The state Commissioner for Water Resources and Rural Development, Dr Tamunosisi Gogo-Jaja, authorised the closure during an inspection tour of the facilities, describing their environment as disappointing.

Gogo-Jaja said the water factories were closed over poor hygiene, adding that the state government would stop at nothing to rid the state of any factory that did not meet the required standard of producing potable water.

He said, “It is our responsibility as a ministry to ensure that those who are in this industry are not there only for profit. They should be there to render services commensurate with the charges they impose on people and residents of the state.

“We visited facilities in the water industry and I must say that what we saw in the field was quite disappointing. We discovered that our people are served with low standard, either in the name of table water, sachet water or bottle water.

“We observed that some of them do this business in the worst of environment. We closed some water facilities. The interest of government is to make sure that private or public companies will deliver quality drinking water to our people.”

The commissioner assured people of the state that any water factory that did not have a treatment plant would not be allowed to operate.