Water purifiers do work, company tells court

The Hamilton company accused of importing dodgy water purifiers believes its product works and has many satisfied customers to prove it, Hamilton District Court was told yesterday.

Ecoworld New Zealand Ltd is facing eight charges of misrepresenting its products or seven alternate charges of misleading consumers.

The Commerce Commission has taken the business to court after two tests allegedly found there was no difference in water treated through the Grander Living Water System.

Ecoworld -- the New Zealand importer of the Austrian product -- contends the device changes the molecular structure of water using high-frequency vibrations.

Defence lawyer Marguerite Vujcich said the company believed the information it used in brochures was true as it had relied on information supplied by the Grander company. If the product was falsely represented it was owing to reasonable mistake.

Ms Vujcich said she would call 23 witnesses including five experts from Russia, Austria and Hong Kong.

One witness, Miles Nathan, an Auckland property investor, bought his first unit at the Wairarapa A and P show and installed it in his Wellington home. He moved to Auckland in 2000 and a year later installed another system in the water supply line so his garden, house water and salt water swimming pool received treated water.

He noticed a large difference between untreated and treated water -- treated water tasted better, felt softer, the garden plants seemed more healthy and his swimming pool required half the usual amount of salt to keep the water clean.

He said he believed conventional science did not yet understand how the living water system worked.

"I'm of the view (scientist Johann Grander) has discovered something that isn't fully understood by science yet," he said. "I do know there is great deal of research and development about water going on in the world at the moment."

Homeopath Ronald Blincoe purchased a unit after hearing an Ecoworld demonstration at his Rotary Club, believing it could purify water to the high standards his remedies required.

When he sold his pharmacy and began making homeopathic products from home he installed a second living water system in his house and now has two units, and a paper and carbon filter, to remove impurities.

Cross-examined by Crown prosecutor Deborah Marshall, Mr Blincoe said he did not know how the unit purified the water but was "satisfied it does occur".

*  "Our most vital element for life, water, has been damaged through many environmental factors, electrical disturbances, satellites, etc., and especially through high water pressure.  Because of this, water has lost its resistance and life-force.  It has lost is load-bearing capacity and deposits its slag.  Sick water negatively affects the health of people, animals and plants.  Slag deposits from sick water increase problems in the distribution of water, and in the water system. - If man realised that Earth is a living being, he wouldn't treat it so badly." - Quote attributed to founder of the 'energised water technology', Johann Grander, on Ecoworld's website

- NZPA