It baffles me that a modern developed country has people even needing to question if tap water is safe.
In the UK (and I dare say much of Europe) its not at all uncommon to ask for a tap water at a restaurant. I drink around 2 litres of tap water a day, have done all my life.
Having been to a fair few places in the US I can see why people dont want to drink it, it stinks and tastes pretty awful. How you manage to take pure natural water and make it taste like feet is beyond me.
The US is a big place and water sources vary widely from place to place. Springs usually have the best tasting water but are relatively rare as municipal water sources. My hometown used a well as a water source and the town to our north used a river. Our water always had a bit of sulfur taste to it (as did my family's private well for agriculture) but the city next to us didn't have that taste. Our city was small and couldn't afford the infrastructure to get the sulfur content down and we didn't have river access.
The intended moral of the story is, while I am unfamiliar with the UK I suspect that water distribution is likely far more centralized there as the place is much smaller overall vs the US and more densely populated than most areas in the US. Higher population density means more money to build the facilities to have better tasting water. Plus a centralized administration would result in a more homogeneous quality across the region. Here in the US, each city typically runs its own water system with little to no state involvement other than periodic inspections for standards compliance.
I wish they would spend some of that money on removing limescale from the water.
Hoestly, the savings for the economy in terms of wasted electricity from scaled up kettles and the reduction in chemicals needed to remove the near instant buildup of limescale would be worth it 10 times over.
This was a minor point of culture shock coming from the UK. The idea that water is free (at least at the amounts we drink) is so culturally ingrained.
It was very noticeable when I passed through Dubai airport and tried to fill up a water bottle. I tried several cafes and all told me they don't do that, I'd have to buy bottled water. I've never been refused that in the UK when asking politely. Ended up finding the water fountains, but I think there was only 1 fountain per terminal, and 2/3 weren't working when I visited.
In South Korea there's abundance of free water every where you go specially on public buildings and they love filtering their tap water. Compared to Japan they just drink straight from the tap and having water filter is not as common and free water is just common on parks.
Restaurants in the US do serve tap water, though (and for free, unlike in Europe, proving that these restaurants aren't buying fancy bottled water to serve you). Some places in the US have naturally higher concentrations of sulfur in the ground, which can contribute a "stinky" taste, but usually that's only noticeable if you're drinking from a well on your property rather than from the municipal water supply. Of course, the US is a big place, and this will vary by region.
In places of the EU, especially close to the sea, tap water fucking sucks. You end up with kidney stones if you drink it every day. Stop romanticising the EU so much for fuck's sake.
Chill the heck out, I was very obviously talking about the UK, and parts of Europe, not all of it. We don't all have politicised motivations or a desire to 'one up' continents.
When I was a kid, you could buy 4 or so different soft drinks, a few juices and some flavoured milks. Now, the drink fridges take up a whole wall in the store, and there are multiple waters, flavoured waters, sparkling waters, non-sugar soft drinks, the usual big brand soft drinks but with many varieties, iced teas, energy drinks of all sorts, many juice permutations, multiple coffee drinks, protein shakes, kombucha, specialised kiddy drinks… the explosion in options is quite striking. I assume this is because selling drinks is a good business, essentially reselling people their tap water for a huge margin. I also think that the gargantuan marketing expenditure of Coke and friends has deeply implanted the idea of drinking from bottles into a whole generation, and other drink makers benefit from this advertising ‘penumbra’.
Obviously there are many things going on here, and I am not saying this is the end all explanation to the whole thing, but an interesting part of the puzzle I came across during a project I did on the brewery industry during my bachelor, is that there exists a whole market segment of consumers who just wants to "try something new".
When you ask yourself in the super market "Who in their right mind wants a snickers and mint flavored orea?" this is that segment.
So, in my case, the beer industry was (is? This was a decade ago) losing sales to ready-mades (Barcadi Breezer, cans of rum and coke, etc.) and a way to hold on to consumers was simply to add new, limited run recipes.
All classes of drinks are trying to hold on to consumers who are being stolen by other classes of drinks, by offering up new colors and strange flavor combinations.
But at the same time I think you are right about companies training consumers to drink larger and larger portions sugared drinks. Like, 1.5 liter coca-cola isn't even the largest size drink in the cinema sometimes!
Right, yes this makes sense! I suspect that these short-lived new flavours actually increse sales of the original flavours, since the consumer desires to taste the original again.
I've seen a funny observation that bottled water comapnies don't produce water, they just package it. So what they are selling to you are just plastic bottles.
They actually buy the location of the water source like springs or rivers and is becoming a problem for locals and tourists since they can't enjoy the natural resource anymore once they fence it and put guards around it.
Socrates supposedly loved going to the market. When his students asked him about this, Socrates replied, "I love to go and see all the things I am happy without." :)
> chances are that the water coming from your faucet is perfectly fine to drink (though there are, of course, some exceptions)
The article lists only two areas with unsafe water that have had a lot of media attention, but there are so many places under water boil orders that I can't even keep track of them all. Every single state I've checked shows they've had some problem with their water in the last year or two (caused by things like contamination, infrastructure failures, storm damage, power outages etc) that caused them to issue warnings not to drink the water without boiling it first. I found one boil order just two towns over from me that had already been lifted by the time I heard about it!
Because these types of issues are constant and everywhere it makes drinking the water while traveling very risky and since I don't obsessively monitor the sites and social media profiles for my own town/city/county I can't be sure I'd always know about one issued for the water in my own home!
Nobody seems to have much confidence in their local water quality and after seeing how in flint MI they worked to hide the danger from the public and faced no meaningful consequences for their actions it's not hard to imagine why.
What can we do but get a good filter for our homes and watch for notices like a hawk? Seems like when outside of the home, water bottles are the only way to be sure the water won't poison you.
When it comes to bottled water I strongly prefer spring water over the salted tap water soda companies push on us, but I wonder what the PFAS content of spring water is. Now that even rain water is contaminated and unfit for humans and animals is natural filtration good enough to keep spring water non-toxic?
I just boil water now as a rule. When I make tea I usually boil little more and just pour the rest into a glass pitcher. When it cools I have water for drinking.
I know it wouldn't help for what happened in Flint but those events are rare. Never heard of single one outside US.
Funny thing is that I drank a lot of tap water as a child and it was perfect. But then I started buying sparklig water and tapwater never tasted good to me again.
Are you still living in the same area you were as a child? The taste of tap water changes a lot from place to place. There are some places where I still like the tap water, but in others I won't even drink it. In some places it even has a gross smell!
Pretty much. I lived in the same place when tap water stopped tasting good to me. And it was over the course of one summer when I started enjoying bottled sparkling water. It was sold in glass bottles back then.
Different places really do have different tastes. Sometimes it's even still distinct when you make tea.
A practical thing that I've had, for years and years, and of which I know literally zero other people who have such thing, is a water cooler.
Yes, in my house, in the kitchen. Like in an office. A big 5 gallon bottle of purified water sitting on a little refrigerated tap. It's literally always good. I want a small glass? No problem, pure water nice and cold. Fill up a bottle to go? Also no problem.
I get it, tap water doesn't always taste great. Also not a problem! I have a couple of giant 5 gallon plastic bottles, which I occasionally take to the local Glacier/Primo machine at the gas station (!) and fill for literally a couple of dollars. It tastes delicious.
After moving across the country, we bought a new water cooler that has a button that automatically dispenses fresh water into a dog bowl next to the cooler. Like, how great is that? My dog can drink water as nice as I'm drinking.
It's like, people don't even want to put in the minimum effort to drink water, which can easily be delicious with a Brita or a cooler or whatever. It's the foundation of life. Come on, people.
We had one of these things in our office once. It didnt get a lot of use, so everyone was afraid of it and whatever it might be harboring.
The next office we shared with a larger company that connected a water line to a tankless device. I was also a little skeptical of these funky plastic lines, but it got enough use to probably not be a problem.
Of course there was the water tap, which serves perfect water, so all this nonsense was for carbonation and cooling.
What is the rate of flushing in the line to an apartment building compared to a line to some novelty within the apartment, I.e. an ice maker? How much more total time in contact with with a surface (that may be semi-porous, etc) will the water in that ice have had? If there were some kind of bacteria problem, where might it multiply without getting quickly washed away?
I live in a developed country so the water from the source is not the problem, pretty much all risks are from defects in private infrastructure and time the water may spend in that infrastructure.
In my many decades on Earth, I have never, ever heard of anyone, anywhere, experiencing any illness borne specifically from a water cooler that didn't get used enough or from contamination of the short water line from a residential pipe to a refrigerator ice maker or dispenser.
It is literally bizarre to hear someone try to question the average "5 gallon jug of water" or a "residential water line" as something that can be potentially harmful in generic, except due to some sort of ludicrous edge case, when water jugs or refrigerator water lines have been used by literally billions of people across continents for decades.
What is even up with this kind of comment? How did you become "anti water line to an ice maker"? Do you work for Nestle, or Coca-Cola?
Of course not, they leave still water in freshly manufactured plastic bottles.. Heathens¹.
I don't see what's odd about considering water contamination the way I do using water flow as a measure for disgust in comparison to buying plastic bottles to have less regulated water in some misguided sanitary-sealing concept of disgust.
> What is the rate of flushing in the line to an apartment building
depending on the height of the building - anything more than 6 floors - the water you are drinking is likely pumped to tanks on the roof and fed back down ... want to know what else might be in those tanks? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_9RLbRZJr0
TLDR: I would worry a lot more about the water you put in your mouth sitting in faeces overnight than it sitting in a plastic tube for a week.
Wow, lots of anti-water people coming out in the comments. Bizarre.
Our family goes through a 5 gallon jug in less than a week. I have a few jugs, which I'll refill a few times, and then the local grocery store or Walmart has a thing where you can drop off old jugs to replace with new ones, sterilized and pre-filled with fresh water. (Clearly this is a thing many other people are doing since the infrastructure exists, even though it's never advertised and I never see other people doing it.)
There is literally no health risk involved here. Yes, I go to refill or replace jugs every two weeks or so. Not a big deal. Easier than buying soda or smaller bottles of water, IMO.
Edit: We used to use Britas but that was honestly more hassle than just dealing with the jugs.
It is pungent, and the natural flavor is unappetizing. Through a filter, either a Brita or a Glacier/Primo machine, it's fine.
It is remarkable to me, an actual person who lives an actual life in America, that anyone might question the desire to have 1) fresh water or 2) decent-tasting water. Internet trolls are questioning the base essence of humanity, and it's honestly troubling.
Tap water tastes yuk to me. Happy to run that through an RO and chiller for a better taste. As a gourmet experience it is worth the money. Do I need it for survival? Not really.
The slippery slope is if bottled water is a con, aren’t all bottled and canned drinks a con?
How is that a slippery slope? Last time I checked coca cola and Fanta don't come out of the ground - Water does though. And tap water taste depends heavily on location.
Opinion pieces like this one generally frame the choice as “bottled water” vs “water from tap.” For me, these don’t compete. I buy a bottle of water when I’m on the go and want a portable drink. There isn’t a faucet in my car, or in a park, or on the street. Indeed I know the bottle of water probably came from a faucet.
If there weren’t bottled water I wouldn’t drink from the tap instead. I would buy a bottle of something less healthy, like Coke.
> There isn’t a faucet in my car, or in a park, or on the street.
The town I grew up in had plenty of public faucets, in the town centre and in parks. This was a solved problem. Then the taps got removed and now we’ve all lost that choice.
The city I live in now has plenty of public water fountains in malls though, so we’re moving back in the right direction.
I remember the public faucets being disgusting. It was nice when bottled water became available everywhere and we didn't have to drink from them anymore.
Yeah, even if the water is routinely tested and pure, and the fountain and its pipes are well maintained and not full of mold/bacteria/lead, public drinking fountains can be full of germs, especially the parts everyone has to touch. I'd rather carry a bit of water with me and not even have to worry about it.
And many people buy bottled water to drink at home, where there is tap water available. That's the choice they're talking about, not you choosing not to use the non-existant faucet in your car.
Sure, but it's not a uniquely American thing. Lots of people in Germany buy bottled water to drink at home, and Germany's tap water is perfectly fine, under constant quality control, there are countless rules against pollution, tap water has to comply with stricter regulations than bottled water and therefore often is of higher quality etc etc, and has been for decades. Still, people buy bottled water.
My in-laws’ delicious tap water is from the Harz Mountains, and yet, they insist on serving a rather sulfuric, somewhat-carbonated bottled water. They have trouble believing that no, I honestly prefer their tap water.
If that's what they want to spend their money on, whose to ridicule them? In the end, people always spend money on stupid things for irrational reasons.
Regardless, my family avoided our w well water back up in NY since is reeked of sulfur and no fix ever worked.
those bottles represent multiple negative externalities that affect us: fossil fuels and co2 emissions to make the plastic, more to make it into a bottle, more to transport it, and finally pollution, when the bottles don't actually get recycled (either by the user or the recycling center)
> The slippery slope is if bottled water is a con, aren’t all bottled and canned drinks a con?
No, obviously not, because orange juice and sodas aren't don't come out of your tap. None of them are, as the article says, a "public resource [turned] into a private commodity.” Also, everyone knows you don't need juices but that you do need water, which is why one is a utility and the other is a luxury. The way that bottled water is a con is that it's packaging something you already have and don't need more of and in a not so environmentally-friendly way.
As the article says "chances are that the water coming from your faucet is perfectly fine to drink (though there are, of course, some exceptions)", so if that was their point then they should have argued it explicitly.
My point is bottled water (and water filtration systems) is not a con because it tastes better than tap water (in many places) and that has value to a lot of people.
100%, I don’t use wasteful bottles but my house has those large water jugs with a dispenser that we get refilled weekly and there is a very noticeable quality difference in taste (even noticeable when making fancy loose leaf tea).
People who say tap water is exactly the same aren’t being entirely honest. They do the same thing and a lot of people don’t care about how it tastes but plenty do and aren’t always hurting the environment.
I use an RO (reverse osmosis) and run that through alkaline filter and that is the gold standard for me I have not tasted better water, even evian or those expensive Zip systems.
I don’t recall how good Brita is but I imagine similar to Zip in that it will get rid of most of that chlorine taste and filter out a lot of particles which is a big improvement. If I were renting I would consider Brita for the convenience of nothing to install and no ugly unit.
I wouldn’t buy bottled water for home unless very low
on choices! Because it seems wasteful.
> As a gourmet experience it is worth the money. Do I need it for survival? Not really.
The point is that many people are convinced that tap water is unsafe, or at least that bottled water is safer. In most regions of most developed countries, that is untrue. Buying water as a gourmet experience is something different.
> The slippery slope is if bottled water is a con, aren’t all bottled and canned drinks a con?
To a degree, yes. There was a time when people used to carry around a thermos of coffee, much as people carry around their reusable water bottles today. People can buy significantly less expensive bulk packaged drinks or concentrates, then transfer it to reusable portable bottles.
> The slippery slope is if bottled water is a con, aren’t all bottled and canned drinks a con?
I'm usually reluctant about the products that contain a lot of water. Mostly because I have cheap water at home already. Why would I buy and haul more water?
So why would I buy a detergent gel if I can buy powder? Liquid soap if I can buy a bar?
Water as a basic human right is... an extremist view. Wow. WOW. These people urgently need to fall off their jets and yachts. They can be "controversial" on the entire way down they'll be falling.
Statements like that leave me questioning the integrity of the video or its translation. I wouldn't be surprised that people hold such views. When you think about it, most people in developed nations drink water that has been tested, treated, and transported. There is no reason why a business couldn't handle that. We simply deal with that handling through public institutions, in part to ensure accessibility and in part to ensure safety. What does surprise me is that a CEO would make such a statement publicly. Such statements can easily be interpreted (or misinterpreted) as denying people fundamental human needs unless they can afford it.
That said, I find that a somewhat weak argument made under public pressure, and I carefully try to avoid buying Nestlé products for many reasons, one of which is the statement made in the video above.
For one school year (~2011) I worked in food services at a public school district. I don't have kids, so this was my first chance to see _future generations_ attending class. What single observation shocked me the most? Walking the halls of K-6 school, I saw *every desk* has a water bottle of some sort.
_When I was a kid_ we had a fountain in the hallway. How do they manage all of the bathroom break requests? And, when I was in elementary school, you didn't really _want_ to use the school toilet. Ewww. Gross.
As a bit of a tangent, it’s amusing how differently purchasing packaged water in restaurants is seen in certain countries (e.g. Spain, Italy) compared to in the US/Canada where it’s generally the default, and to a lesser extent Switzerland and perhaps other tap-centric European countries where tap water is at least the norm outside of restaurants.
It's not clear from your post what the restaurant norms are in any of those countries.
Having lived in Italy, my experience is that Italians are pretty obsessed with bottled water. Well really bottled spring water to be exact. At restaurants especially. The exception would be in areas where you can get spring water from the source like a mountain resort. Spain is quite similar although I've only spent months at a time there so I'm less experienced in their views on water.
In the US it varies, but it's still fairly easy to find restaurants that bring a glass of tap water without even asking you. Big city restaurants and upscale restaurants will try to sell you bottled water but asking for tap water is not frowned upon like it would be in Italy.
I haven't spent enough time in Switzerland to comment on that, so maybe you could give more details on your experience there.
> It's not clear from your post what the restaurant norms are in any of those countries.
Sorry, that's my fault, I was editing my comment to make it more concise but managed to also extract its clarity. :)
I would agree about Italy and Spain. At least in Italy, many restaurants provided some regional brand of mineral water from a local-ish spring, but I virtually never saw someone asking for tap water.
In the US, I would even be surprised if I asked for water and was brought a bottle that I would be charged for, although I'm sure there are places that will try and up-sell bottled water.
In Switzerland, there's something of a dichotomy in my experience. In homes and most public spaces, including self-serve restaurants that often have a filling station, tap water is almost always the expectation. It's also much more accepted to drink directly by putting one's mouth up to a tap, whereas in the US I imagine most people would find a dedicated water fountain, cup, bottle, etc. With waiter service, however, there seems to be at least a weak expectation in Switzerland that a patron will order some beverage. Asking for tap water didn't seem frowned upon, but I would get noticeably more hesitation for it than anywhere I've been in the US or Canada.
That was also my experience staying with a Swiss friend in both her city home and mountain home. Drinking tap water at home and then ordering bottled water at the restaurant literally next door to the house. I'll have to ask her about it next time.
Companies have a litany of tactics — and cash — to get people to buy, buy, buy. They position bottled water as a healthier alternative to sodas (which it is) and to tap water (which it often is not). They try to entice people with sleek imagery and promises of purity, positioning the packaging as sporty or sexy or extra-healthy or whatever the brand’s schtick is.
This is bizarre.
Who thinks you can't drink tap water? Maybe, just maybe, someone things "hey, I like the taste of bottled water better, so I'll drink that because I don't mind the cost".
The article stinks of some weird victimhood where corporations take away free will from consumers.
There is probably need for water infrastructure upgrades, but that’s not the central reason for the consumer choice — they’re not “falling into a trap” when they buy water.
There is value captured in the health, convenience, safety and satisfaction aspect of on-demand, portable, trustworthily quality-assured water access for a premium that this piece doesn’t really deal with.
Does anywhere even do good public water infrastructure? I wouldn’t trust a public fountain or refill station in my city.
> Does anywhere even do good public water infrastructure?
Yep, developed countries do.
It's impressive the logical hoops you'll jump through to justify terribly inadequate public services and then just wave it away saying "it's good to pay for better quality".
Yeah, I lived in Austria and travel across Europe fairly often, the only time I buy bottled water is in the airport or when I accidentally leave my refillable bottle of tap water at home. The quality of the tap water is equal to or better than the bottled water.
That's more of an indictment against bottled water than it is an endorsement for tap water. Both bottled and tap water are too often full of stuff you don't want to be drinking.
I wouldn't trust the water in any industrialized country unless I could see the reports. Especially city tap water. Mountain resort or any rural area without industrial farming is probably a safe bet. Germany possibly gets it right.
> I wouldn't trust the water in any industrialized country unless I could see the reports.
Most municipalities in industrialized countries regularly publish water quality tests and reports. Most areas also have independent testing labs that are used by private citizens to test their well water, so you're always free to double-check the official reports.
Rural areas are the ones who often don't. And industrial farming isn't the only way (literal) shit can contaminate your water supply.
> Most municipalities in industrialized countries regularly publish water quality tests and reports.
Well yes, that's why I mentioned reports in the first place.
> And industrial farming isn't the only way (literal) shit can contaminate your water supply.
Agreed. Don't drink water out of fresh looking mountain streams unless you want to risk being sick for weeks.
But the topic is tap water & bottled water. In rural areas in developed countries and where there is little risk of industrial farming contamination, there should be no hesitation in drinking the tap water as a visitor. If you live there, then of course get the water tested. Trusting any water long term without tests is a risk. And since lots of testing is either free or very cheap, there is no reason not to.
+1 for this - Germany has excellent tap water pretty much everywhere. Water supply is a public service, and an extremely high quality standard is mandated by law. I can't vouch for all neighboring countries and Scandinavia, but from my travel experience, their tap water is at least very good, if not the same quality or even better.
As someone who has to use a water filter: The quality from a health-PoV is great, the taste-quality depends far more on location. The water where I live is very hard, and I can’t stand the taste, so I have to filter it before drinking.
You can't taste many industrial chemicals or even biological contaminants. Tap water can taste great and be unsafe. And taste horrible due to minerals and be perfectly safe. You really need to see regular reports on water tests to understand if the local infrastructure provides safe drinking water.
What's more impressive is immediately jumping to the assumption that because bottled water is ~2,000 times more expensive than tap water, that it's at all better.
It's theoretically possible that your particular town's tap water comes straight from the devil's armpit, and has a generous helping of cyanide and arsenic in it, but in the vast, vast majority of the developed world, there is not a damn thing wrong with it.
Chlorine in tap water will kill your gut microflora with long term use. Some more sensitive bacteria (reuteri) are most important for immune system! At least leave tap water stand still for couple of hours, so the chlorine gets out!
>Chlorine in tap water will kill your gut microflora with long term use. Some more sensitive bacteria (reuteri) are most important for immune system!
That doesn't appear to be the case[0], but I'm no expert on these things.
What I do know is that water chlorination can provide safe drinking water for millions who don't (or didn't, until their water was chlorinated) have safe drinking water.
>At least leave tap water stand still for couple of hours, so the chlorine gets out!
That was my first thought and it's a good one, if such things concern you.
For leaving water out to sit, I've heard from fish owners that you have to be careful that it is a chlorine system and not chloramine which doesn't so simply evaporate out:
I grew up basically expecting clean drinkable water every single time I turned the tap.
It's pretty sad to see that isn't the case anymore, assuming it ever was in the first place. Nobody in a nation with as much wealth as we have in the US should have to plan a glass of water hours in advance to make sure they aren't being harmed or have to buy and maintain expensive filters for their home.
In the UK (and I dare say much of Europe) its not at all uncommon to ask for a tap water at a restaurant. I drink around 2 litres of tap water a day, have done all my life.
Having been to a fair few places in the US I can see why people dont want to drink it, it stinks and tastes pretty awful. How you manage to take pure natural water and make it taste like feet is beyond me.