The reason: most of them are spurious.

According to civic body sources, officials have already discussed the steps to enforce the ban and a detailed order is expected within the next couple of weeks.

Against the average sale of about two lakh drinking water sachets per day during the rainy and winter months, about three lakh of them (200 ml each) are sold (for Re 1 each) at the city’s petty shops during April and May each day, according to an estimate. TASMAC bars (each packet costs Rs 3) and places like Marina Beach, Triplicane, T Nagar and many parts of North Chennai record significant sales of water packets everyday.

Besides, locally manufactured cool drinks and buttermilk in plastic sachets are a big draw during the season.

The Opposition floor leader in the Corporation, Saidai P Ravi, has been pressing the civic body for the past several months to ban such products on multiple grounds. According to Ravi, these pouches not only are a health hazard because of their poor quality, they also are responsible for pollution. For, because of lack of a disposal mechanism, they end up in the city’s main waterways and choke them.

In the last five months alone, the civic body had seized and destroyed about 1.70 lakh such spurious drinking water sachets across the city.