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.
US here. Yes, can confirm I can, and do drink water from the tap without boiling. The city provides, maintains, and regularly checks the safety of the water. Notices are put out if something damages the pipes and a “water boiling” policy is put out promptly over local radio and/or newspaper.
In the US, the only time you’d have to boil water before drinking in most places is if there’s something wrong with the water system and they put out a “boil water” advisory, and that’s pretty rare. It’s definitely not something you have to on a daily basis. Some people will use water filters but it’s not usually a necessity.
Very true. However in the less urban areas there is often well water which varies by jurisdiction from drinkable to toxic (even flammable!) Also some places in the US have water that is unsafe to use even if it was boiled. Usually water is handled on the local level and can be different depending on the local government’s ability, wisdom, and funding.
Tap water in Brazil is supposed to be drinkable, but I use a filter anyways because I don’t trust the companies.
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
Yep. They’re alessentially the same but one is €1 per liter and the other about €0,25 per 1000 liters.
I’ve lived in Canada and the US and I’ve never thought twice about drinking water straight from the tap.
I’m in Canada and we just drink the tap water. Some northern and remote native communities have to boil their water and it’s considered an embarrassing failure of basic human rights.
Edmonton here, I really like our tap water. I would take it over bottled or filtered any day.
Canadian here. Municipal water supply is highly filtered and treated. I drink it straight out of the tap.
German person here.
Tap water is very regulated here in Germany. It’s legally classified as food. The community and your landlord are obliged to make sure the water stays within the regulations. You can also always contact the water company and have your water checked if it is within the regulations.
Usually it’s absolutely save to drink directly from the tap if there isn’t one of those. It may not always taste great, though.
Berlin. About two years ago or so, I noticed that the limescale (Kalk) on my teapot and even on tap itself had become much more severe. Since then, I have started using a filter.
It’s not unhealthy, though. It’s actually slightly towards the healthy side.
yeah, i’m not considering this as unhealthy too, but frustrating a bit. Have you noticed the same thing last years in your place?
Fyi most filters aren’t going to do anything to calcium in the water. You’d need a special ion exchange filter.
But the calcium is not a health problem. I grew up with very calcium rich water (a well in suburban New Jersey, USA). We had to buy a new coffee maker every few years because it would just kill them, even if we washed it with vinegar regularly.
Australia here, and yes, the tap water is perfectly fine and normal to drink straight out of the tap - no filtering or boiling needed.
Seattle, United States - we drink without boiling although a water district in the area has semi-annual boil water orders for e. Coli and stuff. I’ve lived in water districts where the tap water tastes funny and lots of people put it through a cheap filter, but I’ve never minded the flavor.
Basically, the default here is that you don’t need to boil or filter your water… But sometimes contamination happens and then everyone freaks out for a week or so.
Pretty sure this is generally the standard throughout the US.
I’m in northern BC Canada. I drink out of the tap, sometimes without even using a glass
Philippines here. You cannot trust the tap water in this country anywhere, even after boiling. You really have to use a good water filter or just buy jugs of purified water from a water station.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the EU has regulations that say tap water should be drinkable as-is.
That said, in some places it may taste a bit weird - and by place I mean even in the same city. I live in a city in Hungary, lived in four different buildings on different parts of the city. 3/4 the water was fine 99% of the time, though the fourth one was absolutely nasty. Didn’t live there long luckily.
deleted by creator
Since OP is confused on this question in particular, the phrasing “safe to drink” means to drink straight from the tap. If you have to boil or filter your water, your tap water is NOT safe to drink. This is why OP is culture shocked, they thought their water counts as “safe” because they could drink it… after boiling. But as seen in this map, it is not.
Safe has this very specific meaning in this context. If “safe” included water after treatment, then there would be no unsafe water anywhere, because even radioactive waste water would be “safe to drink” when could just filter it.
In Germany, France, the Netherlands, Great Britain, and italy, everybody also just drinks it without boiling or anything
Fun fact about the Netherlands (might be for Germany aswell) the water from the tap has a higher quality than water from bottles. This is because the quality standards and regulations for tap water are higher than for bottled water.
Yeah true, i heard about that here in germany, thats why many people here buy soda stream and make their own sparkling water now
