Assessment of Compliance to Ethical Standards in Bottled Water Producing Firms in Nigeria: A Study of Selected Bottled Water Companies

Abstract

This paper assesses the extent of compliance to ethical standards in the production of Bottled water in Nigeria with particular reference to selected bottled water companies. The paper determined whether producers of bottled water are aware of the existence of ethics, the level of compliance to ethical standards required by the regulatory agency, and whether consumption of bottled water reduces health hazards or not. Survey design was adopted for the study. Data for the study were obtained from Primary Source and analyzed using frequency tables and Pearson Chi-Square to test the three hypotheses of the study. The results showed that producers of bottled water are significantly aware of the existence of business ethics and are also significantly complying with required ethical standards set by the regulatory agencies. The study further showed that consumption of bottled water significantly reduces health hazards as deadly water borne diseases such as typhoid fever, diarrhea and measles have been drastically reduced to the barest minimum. It is recommended that awareness of business ethics and consistent compliance with the required standards as required by the regulatory agencies should be upheld and sustained overtime without compromising by water producing firms.