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
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.
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.
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.