Qatar’s Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has said that bottled drinking water available in Qatar is completely safe to drink and that it conforms to standards set by the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as GCC specifications.

The MoPH’s statement came in response to a message doing rounds on social media, which was said to have ranked the ‘best drinking water in the region,’ reported The Peninsula.

The ministry said the “circulated information was misleading and that the sodium concentration in water had no health effects according to the WHO. The WHO-stipulated pH level is between 7 to 8.5, and the variation within that range has no bearing on health,” said the statement.

The official statement said that bottled water in the country met international standards and authorities do not allow distribution of bottled water that doesn’t meet the specifications.

Ministry also urged the people in Qatar to obtain health information from official sources and not to indulge in circulating false information from unreliable sources.