Asklemmy

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.

Manila, Philippines: My drinking water comes from a delivery service that drops off a few blue containers of drinking water every few days. I've never swallowed tap water but I do use tap water when rinsing after toothbrushing. The sticker on the blue containers has the company name on it, contact details (obviously), and something about "18-stages latest US technology".

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.

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)

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

I'm in northern BC Canada. I drink out of the tap, sometimes without even using a glass

Joining the choir from Italy - we too drink without boiling.

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

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.

In Germany tap water is considered "one of the most strictly controlled food products"

Here in the Netherlands (and I’m pretty sure most Western European countries) its perfectly safe to 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.

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.

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

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

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 😜

Absolutely. We have outstanding tap water here in the PNW. It tastes better than bottled water and is crystal clear.

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

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

In NZ, the only time I've boiled water is when we had an earthquake that screwed up a bunch of stuff, including the water & sewage pipes.

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.

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.

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

I am from Singapore, so I am used to drinking straight from the tap without boiling. In school, we just drink from the taps, or water cooler (which probably have gone through a particulate filter).

When I moved to the UK, I was also drinking from the tap. But I did noticed that there is a lot of scummy residue in the kettle after I boiled water for making tea. That was probably from the hard water in London area. So, if I am making tea, I would use filter water for the kettle. But i won't think twice about drinking straight from the tap still.

Yes. Canada

In Indonesia, the tap water is not drinkable. Some gets their water from a nation-owned Drinking Water Company (PAM; Perusahaan Air Minum).

The situation is similar, they contain plenty of Chlorine to prevent bacteria from growing. But the distribution system might not be the cleanest. So usually people buy gallons of mineral water and put them into a dispenser.

Some others, takes their tap water from groundwater, pump it into a water tank, and use them. It is not drinkable either.

At home I use Reverse Osmosis dispenser from the groundwater, and it goes through a reminalisation process after the filtration process. I’ve been drinking with this setup for over 15 years now.

Argentinian here, depends on the region of the country, in most places it's safe to drink tap water although it usually has too much chlorine or in small rural cities like mine sometimes there's a bacteria leak on the water so we prefer to buy bottled water

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

Drank tap water from the faucet for 35 years. Broke down and bought a Breta filter just for the heck of it and never looked back. US citizen btw

Here in the US, tap water is safe to drink, but its "hardness" (that is, mineral content) can vary even between adjacent municipalities. Harder tap might taste "bad" or "off," especially if you're not used to it, but it's actually healthier because of all the magnesium/calcium/whatever.

A lot of people use filtration devices (such as Brita pitchers) to improve the taste, but I don't know anyone who would refuse to drink tap.

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.

Illinois, US. tap water has always been safe to drink wherever I've lived in this state. I've only been under a boil order a couple times in my life. That being said, I do filter my tap water otherwise it tastes strange to me

Germany here. My family and I drink tap-water all the time. No problems. Sometimes the Water could be contaminated with certain bacteria, but thats rare and the local government will warn you.

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.

Acc. to this site it's fine to drink cold water without boiling in Iceland. However don't drink the tap warm water - it's sulphurous.

But answering your question, in Brazil it varies from city to city. I drink tap water in my city just fine, without boiling or filtering; but I had to do both in another city ~400km from here.

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).

Most first world countries will issue boil warnings when there may be a necessary reason. Ie) water main work or other contamination.

Iceland should be fine. In fact, I think they have some of the cleanest water around.

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.

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.

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

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.

Finnish here and the tap water here is one of the cleanest in the world, so yeah, I drink straight from the tap.