For context, I live in Hong Kong where most people drink tap water after boiling first. Some may install water filter but may still boil the water. Very few drink bottle water unless they’re outside and too lazy to bring their own bottles.
Now, I’m researching whether I can drink tap water in Iceland (I’m going there in August), and while it looks like the answer is affirmative, almost no web article mention whether I need to boil the water first. People in Japan (a country I’ve visited a few times) also seems to be used to drink tap water directly without boiling.
The further I searched, the more it seems to me that in developed countries (like US, Canada and the above examples), tap water is safe to drink directly. Is that true? Do you drink tap water without boiling?
It sounds like a stupid question but I just can’t believe what I saw. I think I experienced a cultural shock.
Edit: wow, thanks so much for the responses and sorry if I didnt reply to each one of you but I’ll upvote as much as as I can. Never thought so many would reply and Lemmy is a really great community.
2nd Edit: So in conclusion, people from everywhere basically just drink water straight out of tap. And to my surprise, I checked the Water Supplies Department website and notice it asserts that tap water in Hong Kong is potable, like many well-developed countries and regions.
However, as the majority of Hong Kong people are living in high-rise buildings, a small amount of residual chlorine is maintained in the water to keep it free from bacterial infection during its journey in the distribution system. Therefore it is recommended to boil the water so that chlorine dissipates.
So, in short, I actually do not need to boil the water unless I hate chlorine smell and taste. But I guess I’ll just continue this old habit/tradition as there’s no harm in doing so.
Netherlands - we have some of the cleanest tap water here. You can drink water from any tap. Ironically bottled water from the shops is a big seller here and you see people with liters of the stuff in shopping trolleys and I’ve never been able to figure out why anyone would spend money on something that we have an abundance of in our houses
Buying bottled water in the Netherlands is kind of frowned upon, not many people do it and you’ll be judged for it.
Only since I’m abroad I got into drinking bottled water because of my girlfriend from Germany (Germans drink bottled water all the time because they claim their tap water is toxic). I drink it because it’s got bubbles and I’m no longer buying sugary drinks.
Some water treatment facilities actually filter the water to almost to a demi water and add certain elements afterwards. So the quality is really stable and often better than bottled water.
In some places tap water might be better quality than bottled water, since it’s fresh. Bottled water may have gotten some microbial growth during the storing.
You’d likely need a really good filter to filter those out, so I hope yours works. And even then, those chemicals are in everyone and everything so they’re very hard to avoid.
Tapwater in Iceland is safe to drink. Went there a couple of years ago and spoke to the locals regarding bottled water. They told me that the bottled water is the ‘same’ water I get from the tap.
In France I once went to a water museum, yes those exist. They told us that tapwater is safe to drink and that we should stop buying bottled water.
I live in The Netherlands myself and I don’t know better then drinken water from the tap. I would go as far as saying that we are among the countries with the best tapwater in the world.
French tapwater is excellent… near mountains. Tastes absolutely wonderful.
Elsewhere it’s like Belgium and presumably NL as well, it might taste anywhere from great to poolwater because some sources require a lot of chlorine to make drinkable. It’s luck of the draw.
But I haven’t heard of anywhere in Europe where tap water was straight up unsafe to drink, except right after a disaster.
UK checking in here - straight from the tap is perfectly safe. I still put it through a filter though because I like the taste and it makes me feel fancy.
tap water is completely drinkable and safe without any boiling. Exception are some more remote islands, so if you are going on some island, chekc if the tap water is drinkable.
Fun fact: Croatia actually uses drinkable water for toilets as well, altough i would not drink from a toilet :)
In Hong Kong, they are separate and toilet water is much cheaper. Not sure about other countries.
Speaking of drinking from toilet, I’ve heard a story that a janitor in Japan was so proud of his work on cleaning the toilet that he dares to drink from toilet.
undefined> In Hong Kong, they are separate and toilet water is much cheaper. Not sure about other countries.
Wow. I never even thought the possibility of having two different types of water quality coming in a house. Here in Finland we just have “water”. It’s the same water that we drink, shower in and goes down the toilet.
I have seen a startup proposing a filter the reinject used water from the sink to the toilets or to the garden. Great idea, but very expensive, as you need to redo the entire pipe network of your house
Belgium: yes! We drink tap water. Straight from the tap. Hardness varies from city to city. At my home I have a filter to make the water softer. That helps the taste but also keeps all faucets etc running.
Netherlands, yes we drink straight from the tap. We’re in the top 5 of safest drinking water in the world. Buying bottles of water is a marketing trick for fools out here.
We filter our tap water here in Korea. Most people do, but as I understand, it’s safe to drink it just straight from the tap. It’s just better through a machine that gets rid of any lingering chlorine and heats it or chills it for you.
This is crazy - for sure, in many countries it can be taken straight from the tap depending on the reliability of infrastructure… but to waste energy boiling it??? No thanks.
In England, I moved a few times - some places have great tasting water - others not so great - meaning it’s always safe (and ok for brewing or cooking) but not so good for drinking from the tap.
In Scotland (a couple of places I stayed and worked) it’s a toss up whether you should drink the tapwater, or go to your local and take another dram from the top row… those Single Malt Whiskeys made with water from Scotland are amazing… but both are safe in moderation.
In Bangkok, if I don’t clean my shower out monthly, it ends up with brown gunge building up, so I certainly don’t drink the stuff… and it’s hard to know how clean it is (though we’re told it’s certainly drinkable at source, it has a long way to come to my house - and the pressure of the system is low… another red flag). Visiting tropical islands, you see some resorts are connected via long plastic pipes which are often on the surface (in the sun) and so definitely not the best candidate for anything more than a shower.
In Bangkok too, unless you can test it yourself you shouldn’t drink it - but I fail to see why you’d decide to boil dirty water and drink it, seeing as most countries with inadequate tap water have drinking water.
I wouldn’t use ‘boiled tap water’ to make my pasta either.
I have six large bottles which gets topped up each week, to make sure I have plenty of water to cook and drink with… If I didn’t, then I’d invest in a good water filtration system.
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Netherlands - we have some of the cleanest tap water here. You can drink water from any tap. Ironically bottled water from the shops is a big seller here and you see people with liters of the stuff in shopping trolleys and I’ve never been able to figure out why anyone would spend money on something that we have an abundance of in our houses
Buying bottled water in the Netherlands is kind of frowned upon, not many people do it and you’ll be judged for it.
Only since I’m abroad I got into drinking bottled water because of my girlfriend from Germany (Germans drink bottled water all the time because they claim their tap water is toxic). I drink it because it’s got bubbles and I’m no longer buying sugary drinks.
Some water treatment facilities actually filter the water to almost to a demi water and add certain elements afterwards. So the quality is really stable and often better than bottled water.
Yep. They’re alessentially the same but one is €1 per liter and the other about €0,25 per 1000 liters.
In some places tap water might be better quality than bottled water, since it’s fresh. Bottled water may have gotten some microbial growth during the storing.
No boiling, but I bought a filter after listening to a story about PFAS.
You’d likely need a really good filter to filter those out, so I hope yours works. And even then, those chemicals are in everyone and everything so they’re very hard to avoid.
Oh I feel silly now. I guess I’ll go back to drinking from the tap.
Tapwater in Iceland is safe to drink. Went there a couple of years ago and spoke to the locals regarding bottled water. They told me that the bottled water is the ‘same’ water I get from the tap.
In France I once went to a water museum, yes those exist. They told us that tapwater is safe to drink and that we should stop buying bottled water.
I live in The Netherlands myself and I don’t know better then drinken water from the tap. I would go as far as saying that we are among the countries with the best tapwater in the world.
French tapwater is excellent… near mountains. Tastes absolutely wonderful.
Elsewhere it’s like Belgium and presumably NL as well, it might taste anywhere from great to poolwater because some sources require a lot of chlorine to make drinkable. It’s luck of the draw.
But I haven’t heard of anywhere in Europe where tap water was straight up unsafe to drink, except right after a disaster.
Austria here, I drink tap water without boiling all the time without thinking twice about it. Pretty much in the entire EU I feel safe doing so.
Canada here - tap water is just fine, I filter it at home since I prefer the taste but I’ve never been adverse to drinking it straight
Australia here, and yes, the tap water is perfectly fine and normal to drink straight out of the tap - no filtering or boiling needed.
The taste varies wildly depending on where you are. Naturally, everyone else’s tap water tastes like shit and mine is perfect.
Same in the UK. Southern water is awful.
UK checking in here - straight from the tap is perfectly safe. I still put it through a filter though because I like the taste and it makes me feel fancy.
Croatia here,
tap water is completely drinkable and safe without any boiling. Exception are some more remote islands, so if you are going on some island, chekc if the tap water is drinkable.
Fun fact: Croatia actually uses drinkable water for toilets as well, altough i would not drink from a toilet :)
In Hong Kong, they are separate and toilet water is much cheaper. Not sure about other countries.
Speaking of drinking from toilet, I’ve heard a story that a janitor in Japan was so proud of his work on cleaning the toilet that he dares to drink from toilet.
undefined> In Hong Kong, they are separate and toilet water is much cheaper. Not sure about other countries.
Wow. I never even thought the possibility of having two different types of water quality coming in a house. Here in Finland we just have “water”. It’s the same water that we drink, shower in and goes down the toilet.
I have seen a startup proposing a filter the reinject used water from the sink to the toilets or to the garden. Great idea, but very expensive, as you need to redo the entire pipe network of your house
I don’t know about that… you probably don’t want fecal matter to your food. It is the root cause of salmonella amongst other.
Of course then we would need to relearn to wash our vegetables before eating. Maybe why the startup didnt succeed ?
I visited australia and we had to drink from the tap.
Belgium: yes! We drink tap water. Straight from the tap. Hardness varies from city to city. At my home I have a filter to make the water softer. That helps the taste but also keeps all faucets etc running.
Also Belgium, same. I mostly drink bottled water, but don’t mind drinking from the tap now and then…
I’m from Italy, here laws for tap water are very restrictive (more than laws for bottle water). Here in Rome tap water is really good.
Netherlands, yes we drink straight from the tap. We’re in the top 5 of safest drinking water in the world. Buying bottles of water is a marketing trick for fools out here.
We filter our tap water here in Korea. Most people do, but as I understand, it’s safe to drink it just straight from the tap. It’s just better through a machine that gets rid of any lingering chlorine and heats it or chills it for you.
Eastern US here. Definitely can drink without boiling. I do filter it, though. I’m more concerned about metals and particulates than pathogens.
This is crazy - for sure, in many countries it can be taken straight from the tap depending on the reliability of infrastructure… but to waste energy boiling it??? No thanks.
In England, I moved a few times - some places have great tasting water - others not so great - meaning it’s always safe (and ok for brewing or cooking) but not so good for drinking from the tap.
In Scotland (a couple of places I stayed and worked) it’s a toss up whether you should drink the tapwater, or go to your local and take another dram from the top row… those Single Malt Whiskeys made with water from Scotland are amazing… but both are safe in moderation.
In Bangkok, if I don’t clean my shower out monthly, it ends up with brown gunge building up, so I certainly don’t drink the stuff… and it’s hard to know how clean it is (though we’re told it’s certainly drinkable at source, it has a long way to come to my house - and the pressure of the system is low… another red flag). Visiting tropical islands, you see some resorts are connected via long plastic pipes which are often on the surface (in the sun) and so definitely not the best candidate for anything more than a shower.
In Bangkok too, unless you can test it yourself you shouldn’t drink it - but I fail to see why you’d decide to boil dirty water and drink it, seeing as most countries with inadequate tap water have drinking water.
I wouldn’t use ‘boiled tap water’ to make my pasta either.
I have six large bottles which gets topped up each week, to make sure I have plenty of water to cook and drink with… If I didn’t, then I’d invest in a good water filtration system.