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

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.

Vertelleus,
@Vertelleus@sh.itjust.works avatar

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.

ElkanNixed,

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

pumpkin,

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.

Wrrzag,
@Wrrzag@lemmy.ml avatar

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.

Ministar,

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 :)

infamousbelgian,

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.

andyMFK,

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

truami,
@truami@programming.dev avatar

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.

Underwaterbob,

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.

boopdepop,

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

nameisnotimportant,
@nameisnotimportant@lemmy.ml avatar

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…

closure1170,

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

mub,

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.

LongPigFlavor,

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

CurlyWurlies4All,
@CurlyWurlies4All@slrpnk.net avatar

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.

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