Asklemmy

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

UK, tap water is fine.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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 USA yes, we drink tap water without boiling as long as we're in an area with safe tap water (most of the population) and not using our own untreated/untested well water. Every once in a while we get alerted to local unsafe tap water. We have a filter on the tap water but haven't always.

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.

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

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.

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 :)

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

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.

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

German Here, we have really good Tapwater here.

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.