Asklemmy

As long as you don't live in Flint, USA water is generally safe to drink 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.

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.

Eastern US here. Definitely can drink without boiling. I do filter it, though. I'm more concerned about metals and particulates than pathogens.

Northern California, United States.

I filter my tap water mostly for taste, but it's completely safe to drink without boiling. I would even argue that it's beneficial to drink because of the fluoride (I'm not an anti-fluoride/anti-science nutjob).

Australia. My local water supply is sourced from a muddy river. Not ideal as there is agricultural runoff and occasional algal blooms but it is a semi-arid region and the only option. The towns water supply has sediments settled out then is filtered, treated with chloramine, then UV, then fluoridated for dental health. We mainly drink it chilled through an inline fridge filter. There is no need to boil as the chloramine and UV kill any microorganisms. The bigger concern is probably agricultural chemicals but I am sure the quality is monitored. Some people still buy bottled water because they are ignorant. We take water bottles filled with tap water to school and sports and the schools all have chilled tap water for refilling water bottles.

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

Chinese person in Canada: I just drink cold tap water, but my parents and grandparents drink boiled water. Not really for safety concerns over here, but they, my grandparents especially, subscribe to that traditional Chinese medicine thing of don't put anything cold into your body ever.

Murican here: I only boil if there's a boil alert, but I always run tap water through a carbon or ceramic filter even though tap water is supposed to be regulated and safe to drink. I think it just tastes better and I am a little mistrustful given disasters like Flint Michigan.

Hong Kong: safe to drink from the tap. I filter it for taste and do not boil it.

Here is a recent government test, which I think is a good complement to asking what people do or do not do.

In Germany, Luxembourg and Norway I was drinking it straight from the tap. In Germany specifically, tap water is more regulated than bottled water you buy from the shop, making it safer to drink.

When I was living in Africa (Liberia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Madagascar, Kenya) as well as now in China, tap water is generally considered unsafe for consumption, no matter if you boil it or not, due to the possibilities of heavy metal poisoning. At home I tested my water through a lab (twice with ~24 months in between) and it's free of any dangerous metals or chemicals so I use it for cooking and for my coffee machine, but even though it's supposedly drinkable I wouldn't do so - neither boiled nor fresh.

Same applies for HK by the way, even though you don't have as much heavy industry poisoning the water supplies, the proximity to Shenzhen alone means that there's gotta be a ton of toxic fumes washing down that ends up in your freshwater supply. And while boiling gets rid of bacteria and stuff, many carcinogens are largely unaffected.

In the UK our tap water is perfectly drinkable. In some parts it's actually nearly as good as bottled water

In NL, the public water company pulls their water literally from the exact same springs as the expensive bottled waters (no joke). So our water is exactly the same.

I think almost everywhere in Europe you can drink tap water (my 2 cents from France)

Dublin, Ireland here. Always drank water straight from the tap. Unless there is some kind of issue with the water system in your area, then a notice will be put out to tell people to boil water before drinking.

I live in the great lakes region of Canada and our tap water is totally safe

Poland: I drink tap water everyday, it's safe to drink, it's tasty and it's cheap :)

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.

In Canada, I know people from Hong Kong who still boil water before drinking. They have been in Canada for 40+ years, have seen everyone around them drink tap water, and yet hang on to this ritual of boiling copious amounts of water.

Yes I'm drinking untreated tap water in Germany, got a SodaStream to add bubbles sometimes. When we were recently visiting the US (NYC) I drank tap water, too, but my wife didn't like it because of a distinct chlorine smell and taste but I didn't mind

I’m from Scotland which has some of the best tap water, so yeah, I drink it without boiling.

Finland: We drink tap water without boiling.

I live in the pretty rural u.s. and my water is pumped up from an underground water table, a well that may or may not contain high traces of any number of metals, minerals, or toxic substances, and it's important to have it tested.

I get my drinking water in refillable 5 gal jugs, 2 at a time, from a machine that has pretty intense filters, iirc. So it's pretty much filtered tap water.

A filtration system would be pretty expensive outside of a basic sediment filter, which I have. Showering is fine with my tap water. Drinking it is probably fine too tbh, and I do it once in a while. Though I try to be conscious about my water usage, cause digging a deeper well is out of my power, money wise.

In some cities, there is lead in the water due to infrastructure incompetence, and straight malicious bad actors.

That's not a problem in my home city, and the tap is largely fine to drink.

It's super strange for me to only drink bottled water/filtered abroad.

I've visited Peru and when I said to locals that we drink tap water directly they just didn't believe. It was unthinkable to them. And the bottled water was not cheap there...

I'm Portuguese

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.

I live in a major Italian city, I'm well over fifty, and I've always drunk unfiltered water straight from the tap without boiling. Some Italians apparently don't like the taste of tap water but it's still safe to drink it unfiltered and unboiled in nearly all the country.

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.

Australia here - we drink water straight from the tap, but I picked up the habit of drinking boiled water from my frequent trips to Shanghai.

Here in Brazil, you better boil everything. Yet it's still dangerous in some places.

Sweden. Very good water here, people drink from tap.

Here in Austria we drink our tap water as it is. It comes basically straight from the mountains, you can't get any better.

In our biggest city, Vienna we even have the best water in the country (in my opinion) if you live on the West side of the Danube river. I miss the Viennese water, no joke!

Canadian here. Municipal water supply is highly filtered and treated. I drink it straight out of the tap.

I live in America (Minnesota), and tap water has always been safe to drink in my lifetime. There are other places in the US where it’s discovered that the tap water has been unsafe, but that’s generally seen as a huge scandal and a public health emergency, and culprits are tracked down.

It’s my impression that people nowadays drink a lot of filtered water, either through a water tap on their refrigerator that has built-in filtration, or through a pitcher with a built-in filter. I believe people mostly do this for flavor reasons, or out of an abundance of caution rather than any real, concrete concern over the safety of the tap water.

In Minneapolis, every spring there’s typically an algae bloom that makes the tap water taste like vegetation for a few weeks, and that’s gross, but I believe it’s safe. That’s the worst tap water experience I’ve had. When I was a kid, I remember being told that the tap water up at the family cabin was so hard (rich with minerals) that it could make someone constipated, but that sounds like nonsense to me now.

Interestingly, there are places in the US where there’s more lithium in the water than in other places, and studies have been done that show that people in those areas are a little happier (less incidence of self harm, crime, etc.)! So sometimes, the tap water is even beneficial 😜

Australia- Safe to drink. The water is chlorinated and fluoridated (for dental health).

I'm not 100% sure if the water is fluoridated across the whole country or just in my state

Europe, slovakia tap water is drinkable but the taste differs from city to city i think usualy vilages and tiny towns have better tasting water

Portugal 🇵🇹, we drink tap water here it should be fine unless you're in an old building and the pipes haven't had any maintenance. Been in old buildings in Lisbon that had brownish/tan water and I had to let it run for a good 30secs until it came out clean.

Never drank water from there unless I was desperate, always used bottled water. However, where I was raised the tap water there is sooooo good.

Also I'm absolutely biased and conditioned by living here my whole life, but I've visited a lot of countries. And no tap water is even close to Portuguese tap water.

P.S. Been to HK just about a month and I really found it charming. The way "western" culture is applied there. Mostly on buildings and lamps etc. While on the other side you have traditional temples. Very cool

Shame for the past couple of events there (cough CCP cough)

Spain here, tap water is safe for drinking everywhere, though you might have some issues in small old towns. But generally you will not contract any illnesses nor have any health issues, 100% guarranteed

I live in the Netherlands and we drink tap water without boiling.

The thing about living in an undeveloped countries is that you don't have to worry about that sort of thing.. I'm pretty fucking sure a billion things will get me before contaminates water does.

Yep, in the Netherlands we drink tap water all the time. No reason to boil it, except for tea of coffee of course.