Sharjah City Municipality warns against circulating, displaying or selling Zamzam water

 Sharjah City Municipality announced a ban on the sale and circulation of Zamzam water in commercial establishments operating in Sharjah, adding that it would intensify its inspection campaign of these establishments to ensure their compliance with its decision.

The municipality’s move is aimed at curbing commercial fraud and public deception schemes and tampering with products in line with its goal of making public health a priority and providing safe and healthy food to the public in accordance with applicable health requirements and standards.

Khalid Al Hammadi, Head of Food Control Section, said the municipality was closely monitoring markets and conducting regular and surprise inspection campaigns to detect any food products that did not meet health requirements and standards and curb fraud or public deception, especially in such products as Zamzam water, which was hard to be distinguished from other waters.

Therefore, the municipality is constantly updating requirements and permits in line with its objectives and strategy for regulating the work of commercial and food establishments, he added.

Al Hammadi explained that the municipality began forwarding circulars to commercial establishments prohibiting the sale, circulation and display of Zamzam water, especially after inspection teams succeeded in arresting a person who had been using deception and commercial fraud to win illicit gain.

The suspect used to fill water from the tanks of his house into plastic bottles with labels indicating that they contained Zamzam water and to sell and promote it on social media platforms, selling large quantities of it for large sums of money, he said.

Al Hammadi pointed out that the municipality was hereby urging the public to co-operate with it by refraining from buying Zamzam water from local markets and reporting any violations to the call center at 993.

The municipality was also calling on the public not to deal with any unlicenced food establishments and not to buy any products through social media unless they had verified their source and made sure that such products had been licensed by the competent authorities in the emirate, he added.