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.
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 :)
In Hong Kong, they are separate and toilet water is much cheaper. Not sure about other countries.
Speaking of drinking from toilet, I’ve heard a story that a janitor in Japan was so proud of his work on cleaning the toilet that he dares to drink from toilet.
undefined> In Hong Kong, they are separate and toilet water is much cheaper. Not sure about other countries.
Wow. I never even thought the possibility of having two different types of water quality coming in a house. Here in Finland we just have “water”. It’s the same water that we drink, shower in and goes down the toilet.
I have seen a startup proposing a filter the reinject used water from the sink to the toilets or to the garden. Great idea, but very expensive, as you need to redo the entire pipe network of your house
I don’t know about that… you probably don’t want fecal matter to your food. It is the root cause of salmonella amongst other.
Of course then we would need to relearn to wash our vegetables before eating. Maybe why the startup didnt succeed ?