this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2023
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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.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Canada here - I drink water straight from the tap.

Although Canadian tap water is some of the highest quality tap water in the world.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Here in Armenia all tap water is drinkable as is

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

yep, i'll drink straight from the tap. i live in california, united states. it is even common to have drinking fountains in public spaces: special button activated taps that spurt cool tap water into the air for you to drink from.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Hello Mr Hong Kongnese. I'm a Brit. We don't boil water here and I've visisted Iceland - they don't boil it either.

Diu gau lan tsat hai - Merry Christmas. Enjoy your holiday.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Noice Cantonese you have right there. πŸ‘

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Where I live in the US, I don't have a need to boil water unless I'm cooking or making tea, and am safe drinking the tap water. I consider myself lucky.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Yes. Here in Portugal, water is drinkable without boiling. Of course, water quality varies from region to region, but as it happens, where I live it's quite good :)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

In Lithuania we do not need to boil tap water to drink it and usually it tastes nice unless your plumbing is fucked

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

You can safely drink unboiled tapwater in most places in Poland.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

USA: Yes, I drink tap water.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

In Finland I drink straight out the shower head, it's fun and wonderfully safe.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

I think you've already had plenty of replies here, but yeah here in western Europe, straight from the tap. I'm also fortunate not to have any chlorine in my water. It's delicious.

One thing about the chlorine, it also just evaporates over time without boiling. Filling a jug of water and leaving it standing around for a while will also get rid of that chlorine smell/taste!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

In Canada, tap water is perfectly fine to drink as is. There are some exceptions when it comes to more remote places, especially in some camping grounds, but they'll tell you or write it somewhere if that's the case.

I went to Iceland last year and the water's very clean and safe! There's no problem drinking it from the tap.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I drink tap water, but ours comes from our private well. We double filter it: sediment then carbon. Back in Costa Rica I also drank tap water, Costa Rica has one of the safest water.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

I'm from Italy and i drink tap water since I was child. Never had any problem. But I was told to check tubature aging and materials first, if it's new and not made in lead metal, it's safe.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

In USA yes, we drink tap water without boiling as long as we're in an area with safe tap water (most of the population) and not using our own untreated/untested well water. Every once in a while we get alerted to local unsafe tap water. We have a filter on the tap water but haven't always.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

certainly no harm in boiling, but yeah most places in the US I just drink right out the tap if it's public water. Some places are better than others, but usually a filter does the trick. Well water is a whole other story.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

At home I exclusively drink tap water. I only boil it for tea sometimes :) Iβ€˜m from Germany.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Bermuda here, straight from the tap!

It actually gets collected from rain water on each individual home's roof. The roofs are lime-washed to kill the really nasty stuff as it runs down in to a holding tank under the house. Some times you get dead critters in there, but nothing larger than a small lizard or bug. They tend to sink to the bottom of the tank, below the outlets.

Most Bermudians swear by a "cup of bleach" thrown down there every couple of years. It's in to a tank that's 10,000gal+ at a minimum (mine's over 40,000), so it's basically homeopathy at that point - but the lime-wash works!

The only place you'll want to avoid it in Bermuda is in the City of Hamilton (mains, not great quality), a house with a dirty roof, or in one near the sole power station on the island. This is an on-going fight to get them to adhere to the emissions safety standards they claim to.

White roofs and smoke stack in the picture!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Austria, yes, water is fine like that I would even drink it in the shower without issue. What is an issue is this habit once made for a bad time in Egypt where I didnβ€˜t drink tap water (I was warned), but I mindlessly used it for brushing teeth and that probably ruined my last few days there.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I live in Brazil. When I lived on the farm, father set it up so the water would come from a natural underground mine and it was entirely safe to drink. However, in the town, we always bought gallons of packet water instead of using it from the tap. In the city I drank tap water for some years and didn't die, but the taste of the water changed when we began using a filter (thought it was likely that it was because the thing connecting our tap to the system was made out of rubber and a colony of bacteriae began to grow there).

Still, Brazil as a whole is mid risk for intestinal parasites and everyone is recommended to get a filter or packed water by the UN, and also to take anti-vermin medicine once per year.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Asian that’s moved to the U.K. here.

Back home, when I grew up I’ve never drank tap water. In my college days I was way too lazy and started just drinking it with a cheap filter. Surprisingly I survived for 5 years despite everyone around me telling me otherwise.

Now in the U.K. I’ve always drank straight from the tap. It’s surprisingly refreshing! And the boiled water taste I can’t really get used to again when I visit home.

The water in Iceland is safe to drink from the tap. Although if I recall correctly it’s pretty sulfuric due to the local hot springs.

I’ve visited a few countries around Europe and have always enjoyed sampling their local tap.

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