Is it safe to drink tap water?
For those of us old enough to remember package holidays out to Spain in the 1980’s from the Costa Blanca to Ibiza, we were always cautious regarding drinking the tap water and it certainly used to taste not very nice. Is it clean? Filtered? Washing water only? Can you brush your teeth with it? Should we boil it first? Let’s get some bottle water from the local store and use that instead eh!
Today most tap water is safe to drink in westernised countries with many others requiring boiling of the water first before drinking and of course many more countries will be without tap water of any kind. In the UK we are safe in thinking that tap water is good to drink be it hard or soft, but is that really the situation? Many consumers chose to use filters for their tap water wishing to fully purify what they drink with an element of fear towards the quality of the water and it’s health and safety levels. Households across the UK have converted to using shop bought bottle water for what they drink (our house has been doing this for the last few years).
“Another fact to consider is that many older houses and their plumbing supply taps with tank water which is filled from the mains so then you’ve water sitting there for longer periods of time that can be rather unpleasant to drink – Some water tanks can also be missing lids and have goodness knows what dropping in and adding to what you are pouring out from your taps. “
How many consumers still drink the tap water from home? I put this question out on to Twitter and had a decent response with most people admitting to being happy to drink water from the tap at home:
Is it safe to drink tap water survey on Twitter
Most people from the survey I put out on Twitter, 66.4% of 259 votes, said that they drink water from the tap at home and only 18.1% saying that they do not.
Comments included:
“I’m in Spain, but I drank tap water every day in the UK” Tweet
“I always drink tap water, but filter it first” Tweet
“Never” Tweet
In the UK it is seen as being safe to drink tap water unless your water supplier tells you otherwise – If your tap water is suddenly discoloured you should not assume that it is safe to drink until you
have sought advice from your water company. Most times when water appears cloudy or even an orange / brown colour to seeing tiny particles floating about, it will be due to the likes of a broken pipe / pump and will be quickly corrected. You are advised to contact your local water board / supplier if you see any changes in the appearance of your tap water. Water boards are known to be constantly testing the quality of the water they supply with some doing so up to 100 times daily.
Though tap water in the UK is seen as one of the cleanest in the world there are still issues to consider such as known risks of it including chlorine by-products, microplastics and lead from old pipes.
“187 countries where you can NOT drink tap water because it’s not safe“
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