Price of satchet water popularly known as ‘pure water’ on Thursday soared to N20 from N10 per one in Benin City.

At some restaurants, customers opted to drink bottled water whose price rose to between N70 and N80.

The increase in price however sparked protest from hawkers of satchet water who lamented poor sales.

They said a bag of satchet water that hitherto sold for N100 per bag now sells for N150 per bag.

Helen Usunobun who spoke to reporters said the situation was worsen with the N60 paid daily to council officials.

She said they could not cope with the hike in price which would leave them making N30 profit for very bag of satchet water.

Her words, “They said dollar has gone up. Whether dollar is in the water, we don’t know.”

Another hawker, Mrs. Enoma Blessing, said people that used to consume four satchet water now buy only one per day.

A water factory owner, Mr. Irhue John, ascribed the hike in price to increase in sourcing for packing materials.

Irhue said a film roll that sold for N600,000 last week now sells for N920,000 while packaging material rose from N3300 to N5000.

According to him, “Nobody can give water treatment and sell at the former price of N100. It is a terrible situation we have found ourselves.”

“It is the sourcing of the materials that is causing these problems.”

Chairman of the Water Producers in the state, Henry Eremokhai, said the approved price by the association was N120.

Henry noted that many water factories have been closed due to dearth of packaging materials.