People around the world, do you drink tap water without boiling?

US here. Yes, can confirm I can, and do drink water from the tap without boiling. The city provides, maintains, and regularly checks the safety of the water. Notices are put out if something damages the pipes and a "water boiling" policy is put out promptly over local radio and/or newspaper.

In the US, the only time you'd have to boil water before drinking in most places is if there's something wrong with the water system and they put out a "boil water" advisory, and that's pretty rare. It's definitely not something you have to on a daily basis. Some people will use water filters but it's not usually a necessity.

Lol, I was you 10 years ago. For context I'm Malaysian and we only drink water that is first filtered and then boiled. When eating outside we generally avoid iced drinks unless it's a reputable shop.

Then I moved to Australia and reacted with utter horror to see my then-bf drink straight from the tap. I was like wtf you're going to get parasites! Spit it out!

Now I drink water like Aussies and my kid refills her bottle from the tap too. My parents, when they visit, still boil water to drink but they've at least stopped thinking we're trying to murder their grandchild.

Berlin, Germany: we drink water straight from the tap. It's free and delicious. If you don't feel like drinking tap, just drink a "Berliner Rohrperle". It's the same thing with a fancier name, because our tap water is awesome.

Nowadays we even have public drinking fountains dotted around the city.

It is safe in most parts of the EU. If you can't, they tell you, usually.
Iceland has one of the cleanest water in the world.

Netherlands: our tap water is better than bottled spring water

If you can't drink your tap water without boiling, your government has totally failed you.

Finland

Yes. Our tap water is among the cleanest on earth

German here. Yes, constantly. The only reason to not do it would be taste (personal preference) or sometimes due to pollutants entering the system, which is explicitly communicated by the city.

Tap water in Brazil is supposed to be drinkable, but I use a filter anyways because I don't trust the companies.

Australian here. Yes, I regularly drink water from the tap without boiling it.

The only exception is if Sydney Water issue a "Boil water" alert. That usually only happens after really major flooding though.

I've lived in Canada and the US and I've never thought twice about drinking water straight from the tap.

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

I'm from Germany and I always drink Tap water without boiling it first. Well to be fair, I turn my tap water into sparkling water with my beloved SodaStream.

Germany, yes we do drink water without boiling it directly from the tap. Tap water must in general have drinking water quality across the country. However, even it may not be a health risk, some people don't like the taste. Where I live, it tastes very good.

Interestingly it's perfectly safe to drink tap water in Hong Kong. But tradition and fear of the government keeps water boiling alive.

https://www.mychinainterpreter.com/china-travel-guide/can-you-drink-tap-water-in-hong-kong/

As opposed to say parts of the US where you really shouldn't drink tap water but everyone does anyway. Flint Michigan looking at you.

German person here.

Tap water is very regulated here in Germany. It's legally classified as food. The community and your landlord are obliged to make sure the water stays within the regulations. You can also always contact the water company and have your water checked if it is within the regulations.

Usually it's absolutely save to drink directly from the tap if there isn't one of those. It may not always taste great, though.

Italy here: tap water is drinkable BY LAW, at least inside houses and public places.

Australia here, and yes, the tap water is perfectly fine and normal to drink straight out of the tap - no filtering or boiling needed.

Important:

Despite the overall quality of the water in the region, the water pipes can ruin it. If you got lead pipes you should avoid drinking the water or using it for cooking. Boiling won't change it.

In Germany, landlords are legally required to tell you if there are lead pipes in your house, don't know about other countries. Typically, the risk of having lead pipes is higher if the house is older.

TL;DR: lead pipes are very bad

BC, Canada - our tap water is perfectly safe and delicious! My experience in North America has been generally safe to drink tap water, but there are areas where it is not safe. I find it similar to reviews - if nothing is wrong, people are less likely to leave a positive review.

In Germany: tap water is drinkable without boiling, if you go to a restaurant you can even ask for a glass of tap water with your meal

In France we drink it straight without boiling it. But water quality control is pretty strict here in France and more generally in Europe

I'm in Canada and we just drink the tap water. Some northern and remote native communities have to boil their water and it's considered an embarrassing failure of basic human rights.

US here, live in the vicinity of Boston, Massachusetts. Water is very safe out of the tap - we get an annual report of what's in it from the Mass. Water Resource Authority (MWRA) and it's tested regularly. Tastes good too, if I'm honest. I would say that MOST developed areas of the US have perfectly safe drinking water out of the tap, though it doesn't all taste very good (looking at you, Washington DC). However there are some more rural areas where the water out of tap is not safe for drinking, and where boiling or bottled water is recommended. I remember traveling out west back in 2010 and being surprised at this.

In Germany the tap water has, by law, higher quality standards than bottled water. So yes, you can drink the tap water without boiling.

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.

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

Here in the Netherlands (and I’m pretty sure most Western European countries) its perfectly safe to drink tap water without boiling

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the EU has regulations that say tap water should be drinkable as-is.

That said, in some places it may taste a bit weird - and by place I mean even in the same city. I live in a city in Hungary, lived in four different buildings on different parts of the city. 3/4 the water was fine 99% of the time, though the fourth one was absolutely nasty. Didn't live there long luckily.

Netherlands, yes we drink straight from the tap. We're in the top 5 of safest drinking water in the world. Buying bottles of water is a marketing trick for fools out here.

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

In Germany, France, the Netherlands, Great Britain, and italy, everybody also just drinks it without boiling or anything

I'm Icelandic. The water is potable straight from the tap: no filtration or boiling required, albeit the hot water may smell a bit of sulfur due to being heated with geothermal energy.

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

Most people I know of don't drink from tap water here at all, boiled or not.

Edit: I forgot to share where I'm at lol (Indonesia)

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 Melbourne Australia but currently live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Both areas have drinkable tap water without having to boil it.

In the US, tap water is regulated to higher standards than bottled! In the rare cases where there is a problem with it, everyone gets notified, for example http://www.msdh.state.ms.us/msdhsite/_static/23,0,148.html.

NYC prides itself on having really good water, both for local food production, and just for taste. NYC did this by buying up land around its reservoirs further inland and building a large aqueduct system. The water isn't even filtered!

That said, some locations have unpalatable water, such as towns near the ocean that get their water from nearby wells.

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.

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

I’ve been to Iceland a few years ago. The tap water often had a strong smell of sulfur, especially in the capital, Reykjavik.

Maybe it’s still safe to drink, but the taste was not great. Even showering was not awesome.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

UK. Yip. Water "hardness" varies across the country which means people usually prefer the taste of the water in the region they grow up in. Other than all the leaky underground pipes and lack of investment in a privatised service, UK water is actaully very good.

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

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".

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

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.

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)

México. NO. Do not drink the tap water. Boiling does not help. It has a bunch of heavy metals and other contaminants in it. It sucks because mechanical filtering is incapable of removing them effectively. Reverse osmosis does but it is a challenging and expensive process to properly keep in your house. We always buy bottled water. Trucks deliver twice a week.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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 😜

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).

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Yes. Canada

Hell to do the no. The heavy metals alone would either kill me from anemia or make me go insane. It's bottled water for us in Mexico, unfortunately. :/ Those saying you can safely drink water from the tap in certain countries.. are you sure? Have you measured it yourself? Even some of the bottled water I ran some tests on back in the day were iffy.

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

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.

I'm from 🇵🇭, particularly Davao City (southern part of the country).

Tap water is drinkable here although there are water bottles available.

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.

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.

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

No boiling, but I bought a filter after listening to a story about PFAS.

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'm in Canada and we drink from the tap.

Spainiard here. You can drink tap water everywhere (that's connected to the drinking water network, obviously), but there are better tasting waters than others. Madrid's water is bad, Barcelona's is atrocious (I don't know anyone living there that doesn't buy bottled water, it even gives weird flavours when cooking), but other places are nicer. My town's water is awesome, I just fill up bottles from the tap and put them in the fridge for easy cold water and laugh at the camacus.

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

Toronto tap water is actually very, very good. Tastes better than most bottled water I've tried. Very high standards here - we are extremely fortunate and I hope the high standards stay for a long, long time.

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

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.

I've lived in Milan (Italy) London (UK) and Rethymno (Greece) tap water is safe to drink in all of them, extremely good in Milan just straight up, good in London but with a lot of limescale so we filtered it for taste reasons, and the same as London in Rethymno.

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.

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.

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

I’m in Australia and have never boiled tap water before. Sometimes during major storms or flooding you get a boil water alert but these are usually advisory and monitoring shows that in most cases the water is still within legal limits. Of course though you should still boil the water if an alert does go out.

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

I am in Japan and have no issues with tap water here, used to drink it regularly.

I live closer to Mt. Fuji now and go get spring water from the mountain weekly instead. There's a basin at a shrine nearby that collects it and is free for people to take. No issues with the tap water, but this water tastes a lot better.

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

Finland has all around signs for foreigners that the tap water is not only drinkable, but very high quality. https://yle.fi/a/3-10303369

But for some unfathomable reason, maybe to push more expensive drinks, many restaurants charge for tap water. Except they do not tell it in advance, you just get surprised by it on the bill and swear never to go that place again.

US. The tap water is safe to drink. Occasionally a metro area will have problems and issue a boil order, telling people to boil tap water before drinking, but this is rare. Some areas have problems with lead contamination due to aging infrastructure, but this too is uncommon in the modern day.

Canadian here, drinking water right of the tap.

Finland: We drink tap water without boiling.

Water? Like from the toilet? :O

(j/k)

Here is Jamaica it is safe to drink the tap water without boiling.

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

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 of course it's safe. I drink filtered water from our fridge, but tap is perfectly fine too. I'm from Europe btw.

France : we drink tap water directly without any issue. People who drink bottled water is because they dislike the taste of tap water where they live.

Some Spanish cities: In Madrid, people drink tap water without boiling. Some leave it to rest so the slight chlorine smell leaves the water. In Barcelona and Valencia, being coastal cities with desalinators, their water is too "heavy" (has too high a density of minerals), which makes it unhealthy to consume on a regular basis, and boiling it does nothing, so people buy a lot of bottled water.

New Zealand, we drink it from the tap although some claim to dislike it depending on which part of the country your in, personally I think they're a bit too fussy

northern USA and we have some of the cleanest tap water in the country. Drink it all day from the tap you will never get sick from it, just tastes like nice water.

I live in Ecuador. Tap water can be drunk without boiling on the capital and most other cities in the andes. In the Amazon and the pacific is better to boil it first. Guayaquil the second largest city has a reputation of having incredibly dangerous water

Spaniard here. I've been drinking unboiled tap water since I was a kid. It's perfectly safe to do that.

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

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

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.

In the United States, it is a little bit different.

There are "standards" that water quality has to live up to. Do these standards actually meet the criteria for safe drinkable tap water? Not always. This is evident in places like Flint, Michigan and other poorer urban areas.

Some of the tap water can be so bad that people wouldn't dare to drink it even after boiling.

In some areas, the tap water quality is wonderful.

Here is a relatively decent source about the topic as it pertains to the USA. https://wisevoter.com/state-rankings/best-tap-water-in-the-us/#:~:text=The%20ten%20states%20with%20the,%2C%20South%20Dakota%2C%20and%20Nevada.

The long story short here, is certain places like Hawaii have extremely clean tap. Other places, like Texas, are notorious for having numerous water quality violations.

It falls down to each individual State and City for maintaining the standards that were set. In my opinion, it it just an easy way for them to waive liability at the end of the day.

X.

I live in South Florida. The tap water in my area is safe. I drink it without boiling or filtering.

Australia here, yes most people drink it without boiling but it depends a little what region you’re in. Some bits of the fat north or some island towns, you may be better off boiling it. Lots of people in the city use built in filter taps but I kind of write that off as con job.

I live in Bavaria, Germany, and I've been drinking tap water here for over 30 years without boiling.

But I live in a rural area. I once had a job in the industrial area of a semi-sized city and the tap water there was sketchy.

Depends, I guess.

I believe in Canada we have high standards for our potable water, unlike the UK for example our water heaters need to be up to par (UK typically has seperate taps AFAIK).

So no need to boil, also if you're trying to get rid of chlorine you can just use Brita filters, carbon filters that restaurants use do the same AFAIK. Also even cities like mine which (at least at some point before now) had way more houses than apartments still chlorinated the entire city's supply.

Filters are insanely good these days. I was thinking about getting a life straw, but there's a slightly more expensive alternative that can do like 500x more filtering before it needs to be replaced, and comes with a pouch you can fill and then pour into a regular water bottle. Life straws are meant to be drank from directly, and the alternatives that company offers are just water bottles with life straws built in - so you put unfiltered water in the bottle itself... Probably gets gross or requires constant cleaning

Canada here - tap water is just fine, I filter it at home since I prefer the taste but I've never been adverse to drinking it straight

Australia: We don't boil tap water here in Australia.

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

I live in Vietnam and tap water is always boiled before drinking. Our tap water sucks.

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.

I grew up on well water and was used to drinking from the garden hose when working out in the yard; but thats southern US for ya.

Now days, jus fill a bottle from the tap and don't really put much thought to it.

Not at all...where I live tap water isn't clean at all. It comes in a white colour with pression. And mining industry contaminated a lot

Argentina, drinking filtered tap water rn (not boiled). It's said to be safe but quality may vary throughout the country. Although it's not recommend for small childrens

I live in Sweden. Yeah, the tap water is clean and can be drank straight from the tap without boiling, filtering, or treatment in the whole country.

Australian here, I grew up drinking tap water without boiling it but since I married my wife who is Chinese, I must drink it after it was boiled. It's good for the healthy.

Australian here, no need to boil tap water for us. Some people get filter taps installed but regular tap is fine for most of us plebs

Scotland here. We don't boil water before use.

I have family down in North West England that do have to do this, though. They live in an area where there is a thin layer of soil and a lot of clay. The water isn't particularly hard but it also doesn't taste very nice if you don't boil it first.

I’m located in the US and like others have said it’s safe to drink the tap water, but me personally, I run my water through a filter first.

In switzerland, we can drink the tap water without boiling it first.

I live in the USA, and we don't have to boil tap water in my city, but after having lived for a spell in a place where tap water is boiled first, I boil mine because I like the way it tastes--it's sweeter. Maybe boiling it helps get rid of the chlorine taste that city water has? I don't know. But I do prefer it.

We filter our tap water here in Korea. Most people do, but as I understand, it's safe to drink it just straight from the tap. It's just better through a machine that gets rid of any lingering chlorine and heats it or chills it for you.

nyc us here, only boil water if there is a warning due to a pipe break or something.

Straight and fresh from the pipes! Writing from Transilvania, Romania.

You can drink the tap water in most places in Iceland without boiling it (especially in Reykjavik), but if you're further into the countryside then I would check first!

Here in the UK we just drink straight from the (cold water only by law due to differring regulations) tap without boiling and that's been the case for decades at the least across the entire nation. There's just no need to boil the water here unless you are cooking.

It's also safe in Iceland, I went there and their water is crystal clear and pure since it's sraight from the glaciers. You could drink out of a random stream there.

In England we drink straight from the tap. I live in London which has incredibly hard water so it's not the nicest tasting and it will leave white residue on the glass but it's not bad for you.

Philadelphia, PA, USA. We don't boil it, but I have a filter on the tap. The drinking water here is safe, but it smells funny, and my family filtered the water even back when we lived somewhere with better tasting water.

Here in El Salvador, you can drink tap water safely depending the region you are.

I’ve never boiled tap. It’s safe where I live. I do have a reverse osmosis filter though. But only for taste, and to remove hardness to protect my glassware.

US it depends on where you live. I grew up and live now in upstate NY and the tap water is great. In between I lived in Arizona and the water was terrible. I have at different times a water cooler or an undersink reverse osmosis. The water wouldn't make you sick though so you can drink it if needed, it was just very hard and tasted bad.

In Sweden, yes tap water is safe without boiling. Might want to filter for taste reasons.

I would drink the water in Iceland without boiling it, probably without a second thought. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if it tastes amazing.

The US varies widely. Some Americans in this thread tell you their tap water is squeaky clean. Meanwhile, there are places like Flint where the tap water not only is deadly but remains deadly even if you do boil it.

In Argentina, generally you can drink straight from the tap.

In Malaysia, the water is advertised as safe to drink. Large majority however, either boils it or uses their own water filters.

Switzerland here,

Yes we absolutely drink tap water here, not only it is well regulated but it may also beat many bottled water in terms of taste..

In Canada I don't boil it.

In Vietnam, I do. Although more because I'm always making tea than anything else. Unless it's well water, in which case that's only for doing dishes, I won't drink that.

I did nearly die from cholera some years back, but it was probably not from the tap water specifically. Sanitation and food safety has really improved here in the last decade, I'm happy to say.

I'm from Chile and we drink tap water without boiling. Some people buy filtered water because they dont like the taste, not because is unsafe.

It shocked me when I visited Peru and Mexico and realized that tap water is not safe there.

In the Philippines, we don't drink from the tap. At all. It's quite dangerous and there have been a number of internet personalities that got stomach aches from drinking tap water ^cough^ ^haachama^ ^cough^

Instead, there are a lot of establishments here that sell drinkable water at a fraction of a dollar per 5 gallons.

in Brazil de usually dont boil, but use a traditonal ceramic pot filter.

One thing to consider: While tab water in most of the developed world is potable,any water safety guarantees usually end where the house water pipes begin. Depending on the state of the piping, tap water might not be safe, even if the water supplyer says it's safe.

You can get a water test (especially bacteria is important) for relatively cheap. Last time I did such a test it was ~€60. It's not wrong to do one.

Also, the definition of potable water is that the water is potable after the tap has been running for 10(!) minutes.

Bacteria contaminated pipes are pretty common and if the water has been sitting in these biofilm-covered pipes over night or even longer, the water can become pretty harmful. Especially after you get home from a vacation, letting the water run for a decent amount of time might be a good thing.

Also: the worst thing that can happen to your water pipe system are blind pipes, so pipes that are connected only on one end. That could be e.g. left-over plumbing after remodeling or pipes that lead to unused taps. If at all possible, these ahould be removed or flushed at best daily.

US, tap water is perfectly good to drink.

Having visited Iceland a few years ago, Iceland's tap water is the best tasting water I've ever had anywhere. Please take this opportunity to try it while you're there.

German: Yes. Most of the water I consume comes straight from the tap

Quebec, Canada. I grew up in a rural area where we had our own artesian well on the plot of land, so not attached to any city infrastructure, and no purification process at all, except what is done naturally from the soil. And guess what? It's the purest water I've ever seen, it taste amazingly fresh and the tap is directly plugged on it.

Moved to a big city and now have to use the city infrastructure, which of course have a huge purification plant and they do tests continuously to make sure it pass a high quality threshold. But even if it's probably cleaner than 90% of the rest if the world, it still have a slight unpleasant taste. I could probably buy a filter, but never bothered.

Buying bottled water is seen as wasteful and also a scam since it's often just tap water they bottled. When my family visited a country where bttled water is common, they were disgusted at how much plastic pollution it creates.

I would hate to have to boil water before every usage, I assume you always keep a few gallons in the fridge to keep some cold? It takes space and energy to prepare, must be annoying. But what I wonder the most is, how to do wash yourselves and your clothes? If the water smells foul, doesn't taking a shower just stink you even more than it cleans?

I'm from Denmark, and water is safe to drink straight from the tap here.

In Canada most people drink water after filtering through a Brita, but it's safe to drink without.

We drink straight from the tap here in Scotland. It's great water.

Venice: we filter it first via some cheal filters. It is very common to own a water mug with a filter embedded here.

Paris: directly from the tap water, though I don't like the taste.

Canadian in a major city - yes, safe to drink right from the tap.

However, many remote communities here do not have access to safe drinking water.

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?

Yes. It's a bit of a scandal when that's not true. (Canada here)

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.

Boiling it has to be "force of habit", then. I wonder how long it's been potable. I'm guessing mainland China is mostly boil-first.

Semi-rural American here. Our water comes from a well and is safe to drink. However, it is hard water and we often prefer to either use a purifier or buy purified water for drinking directly.

Poland: water is always drinkable from the tap.

No, I never drank unfiltered tap water. I have always lived in areas with poor-tasting tap water. It's not necessarily dangerous, but has a high calcium content and isn't the cleanest either.

As a kid, we had a carbon filter on our refrigerator, and that was good enough. When I moved out of my parents house, I started getting those 5 gallon bottles and would refill them at the grocery store.

I eventually got my own refrigerator that had a carbon filter, but I couldn't really go back to a carbon filter once I got used to water filtered by a RO system. It just didn't taste very good. So about a month ago I installed a RO filter under my sink, and now I don't need to drag my bottles to the store anymore. Best of both worlds!

Yes, living in the US, it's safe to assume that any tap water is safe to drink without boiling. Sometimes it doesn't taste great because of mineral content, but it's safe with very few exceptions.

That's also been the case in any developed country that I have visited, including Iceland, Canada, pretty much all of Europe, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, etc. There may be exceptions in all of those places, but in any large city in a developed country you can drink the tap water.

I do. When I was a child, I was even confused about why people don't drink tap water but buy them instead from shops or why they boil or someway disinfect them.

I never drink water out of the tap because I prefer to filter it first. It’s safe to drink but I want it clean and much colder so into a filter pitcher and put that in the fridge

I have been to Iceland recently and tap water is absolutely fine to drink directly and preferred. No one there buys water. Just make sure you drink the cold water and not the hot one as the hot is from natural thermal springs so may contain some minerals I belive. Just carry your own bottles and you can fill up the cold water from anywhere, even restaurants will refill free.

Luxembourg here, i'll drink straight from the tap.

In Rome there are literally fountain running constantly in the middle of almost all the streets(old area specially ) of potable whater. Again non stop, people use them allot

Moscow, Russia. You can usually drink tap water in Moscow, but it's something unusually good for Russian bigger cities in general, and it's considered a good thing to boil it. Actually depends on local specifics and where the water comes from.

From Singapore. Tap water here is potable but we boil it first out of habit. (But I use tap water for drinking when boiled water has run out).

Belgium: yes! We drink tap water. Straight from the tap. Hardness varies from city to city. At my home I have a filter to make the water softer. That helps the taste but also keeps all faucets etc running.

I lived in Taiwan and was taught to boil. I'm starting to think you probably don't need to but we just grew up not knowing any better. In Australia you don't. I drink out of any tap that's not a rain water tap. Lots of Asians here still buy bottled water or boil water out regardless. So it seems to be out of uninformed fear or habit.

My belief is unless a local government/health authority tells you you can't drink straight from the tap. I'm inclined to believe it's safe.

In the UK they had separate taps for hot and cold because the cold was safe to drink and the hot was not.

Croatia here,

tap water is completely drinkable and safe without any boiling. Exception are some more remote islands, so if you are going on some island, chekc if the tap water is drinkable.

Fun fact: Croatia actually uses drinkable water for toilets as well, altough i would not drink from a toilet :)

Im from Newfoundland Canada. The city I live in has a water treatment facility and the tap water is perfectly fine to drink without any filtering or boiling.

Many smaller towns in my province only have natural water sources (lakes/ponds/streams) or wells for their water supply. The town I grew up in was like that up till about 2005-2006ish. It was pretty rare for us to have to boil water though, maybe 3 weeks out of the whole year, a neighboring town with a different water supply had to boil their water for most of the year so there was alot of variability.

Your examples, yes, but I also dont know of any European country where you need to boil the water you drink.

US, Colorado - no need to filter or boil the tap water here. One of the benefits of living at the base of the mountains I suppose

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.

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 didn‘t drink tap water (I was warned), but I mindlessly used it for brushing teeth and that probably ruined my last few days there.

Irish person here. Yes, I drink my tap water without boiling. My water comes from a well as I live in a rural area, but town/city water is drinkable too.

German here. Yes, constantly. The only reason to not do it would be taste (personal preference) or sometimes due to pollutants entering the system, which is explicitly communicated by the city.

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 :)

US here. Although we have a water municipality, I still drink bottled water or water through a filter. I had my water tested by third party lab and found out they over chlorinate which leaves a lot of disinfectant byproducts in the water. I’m looking to get a whole home water filter installed to remedy that.

US/Canada here as well as someone that has visited most of western Europe (UK, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland) and stayed in hostels - no boiling necessary in any of these places.

There's actually a pervasive myth I've encountered that hot tap water is dangerous and that one should only drink cold water. As far as I'm aware, this myth is due to an old setup for water systems that many western homes had before modern taps. The tap was separated into separate cold/hot faucets. The cold water came safely from the city, but the hot water came from tanks that were stored in people's attics. The water in these tanks sat stagnant and was therefore prone to rats and other creatures dying in it or bacteria building up. This is why still today, most British homes have separate hot/cold taps - to keep the "safe" water separate from the "dangerous" water. I occasionally encountered such taps in the US and I assume that's why my dad raised me to make sure the water was cold before drinking it. My father's understanding of this was clearly outdated though. I learned all of this from a Tom Scott video.

Lemmy isn't blocked in Hong Kong? Oh I guess its much more difficult since they'll have to block all lemmy instances.

Anyways, here in the United States of America, tap water is safe to drink, except in certain places like Flint, Michigan, but thats more of a lead pipe issue than a germ issue. I regularly drink water directly out of the tap, I don't have any health issues that result from drinking water.

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

Here in italy we can drink tap water without boiling it first

German Here, we have really good Tapwater here.

New Zealand and yes it's safe to drink without boiling here. I do run the tap for a few seconds to clear out any standing water before drinking anything though.

Spanish here. I drink tap water, but I have a filter installed in the faucet, otherwise it tastes a bit funny (it is drinkable though).

Generally in the west (US/Canada, and most of Europe) tap water is safe to drink. I've been to Iceland and don't remember tap water being a concern. This is something you should double check before every trip though. A good rule of thumb is just going by how developed/rich the country is that you are visiting, with more developed countries usually having potable tap water but this is not a guarantee. (And some countries are far too large and diverse to apply this rule efficiently)

Also asking the locals is not necessarily a good idea either as there immune system might be accustomed to the different bacteria and pollutants in the water. For example drinking tap water in some places in the Middle-East might not be an issue for the locals but as I haven't grown up there I probably wouldn't risk drinking tap if I can avoid it, not to ruin the trip with getting sick.

TLDR: check with your country's official travel recommendations

Edit: someone mentioned bottleded water just being bottled tap water. While this is not uncommon in Europe (not sure about the rest of the world), the water does go through extra steps of filtering and cleaning meaning it might be a bit safer to foreigners.

Australian here, never met anyone who boils tap water before drinking it. Some people have filtered water taps installed but our tap water is usually pretty great, I drink probably 2-3 litres of it a day

I visited australia and we had to drink from the tap.

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.

Poland here, tap water is pretty drinkable in cities, not sure about rural areas though, also I personally use Brita filter just to be sure

Norway = Yes. But the fresh water pipes are in the same trench as the sewer pipes, and being 100 years old, the clean water depends on the pressure. This is in Oslo btw..

Just ask someone from there on day one. They can obviously tell and i think this is the best strategy. I bet it's safe like in most parts of middle and northern europe.

I'm in the US. When I was kid playing outside we would drink the water straight out of the garden hose. (Yeah I know that's the same as "the tap"). Now days, we have a filter on the water dispenser built into the refrigerator. So water and ice goes through activated charcoal to remove anything that could be in it.

I live in the US in a location where the tap water is safe to drink (not always the case, e.g., Flint Michigan) but I still filter it for the taste (chlorine in the water).

Most municipal water is safe to drink in the US. Ground water depends entirely on where you live and many situational factors (City pollution, ground water level, etc.).

We will get boil notices from time to time when a contaminant is detected in the water supply. But that's been rare in my experience, after living in several regions in the US.

No one should ever use tap water for netty potting without boiling it though! You can contract a brain-eating amoeba if you don't boil, which has over 97% death rate.

Hungarian here. It is safe to drink without boiling. People only boil water for baby formula to be extra safe.

In Vienna, Austria, tap water isn't just 'run of the mill' water you'd get in other places, it's pristine mountain spring water, transported all the way to the city through old, yet sturdy, aqueducts.

What's amazing about this is that it's not just safe to drink, but often it surpasses the quality of bottled water you'd find in many other countries. So, the next time you're in Vienna, don't hesitate to fill your cup or bottle straight from the tap.

It's not only environmentally friendly, but you'll be enjoying some of the best water around. Truly a testament to how traditional infrastructure can serve modern needs while preserving the environment.

Louisville KY here: we actually have some of the cleanest tap water in the US. Bottling companies literally just bottle our tap and try to sell it back to us. So yea, straight from the tap.

Even better, I do not boil I run though and store in a Brita pitcher that should have had a filter change six months ago!

New Zealand, Christchurch. We can drink straight out of the tap BUT it was chlorinated while our crappy infrastructure was being upgraded in recent years. Still is in some parts of the city I think? The actual water is from deep aquifers and was pristine and then it went through our dodgy wellheads which have since been upgraded.

Here is Jamaica it is safe to drink the tap water without boiling.