Dubai: Residents in Dubai can gain access to all the information related their five-gallon drinking water bottles straight from their mobile phones.
Dawood Al Hajiri, director general of Dubai Municipality, said that as of April 1, 2018, all five-gallon drinking water bottling companies and factories that produce or sell in Dubai will have to implement the smart control system.
He stated that the app will be in the experimental phase from Sunday, and the experience will be evaluated in coordination with the water bottling companies and the project executing company.
Al Hajiri added that the assessment will be done under the supervision of Dubai Municipality and will deal with the challenges arising from the application transparently, taking into account the interests of consumers and companies and ensuring fair application.
“This system includes multiple features such as a unique laser code printing on each package as a "unique mark" that cannot be deleted or changed. A smart sticker will be placed on the lid of each bottle each time it is packaged in the production line. This label is equipped with digital technologies and secure features similar to those used to protect bank notes from forgery,” he said.
Khalid Sharif Al Awadhi, Assistant Director General for Environment, Health and Safety Control Sector, said: "This system will enable the collection of basic data of the product during its production process. These include, but are not limited to, the date of manufacture of the plastic container and the number of times the bottle has been refilled, as well as specific water quality standards.”
“Thanks to the system's smart features and centralized data on the different stages of the production and bottling of drinking water bottles, the monitoring experience will be enhanced for the regulatory authorities and consumers by providing inspectors with devices for use in product-control along the production and distribution chain, which gives access to all the detailed information related to the package. This technology will facilitate and speed up current monitoring and inspection process,” said Al Awadhi.
“The consumer can also report about any product using this App, which provides a feature to determine the cause of the problem from a checklist, as well as the possibility of taking a picture of the container with the subject of the communication and location of the message instantly. This enhances the consumer's role as an active partner in the control process,” he pointed out.
Al Awadhi added that the implementation of the project was carried out with the participation of one of the world's leading companies in the field of providing smart solutions for tracking and authentication, which ensures that goods and services conform to the approved standards.
The Water SmarTrace app
Consumer can download the app called Water SmarTrace on smart phones that run on Apple and Android operating systems.
With this app, the consumer will be able to scan the smart sticker on the water package and obtain the required confidence on the product and packaging that it meets the approved standards.
In addition, some package-related data such as factory name, product brand, date and time of production will be displayed.
