Tap water - fit to drink?

[Swagman]

Agree TDS are not not a measure of water purity, but we found the two generally went together.
One tip from Australia where Bali belly was oft experienced by holiday going children, is to carry some concentrated fruit drink. The story goes that they use so much preservative in the concentrate, that if you pick up a bug, a quick eggcup full of the concentrate kills just about anything in your tummy. Don't know if this is just folk law, but we always used it when required and it seemed to sort out the kids really quick - and no issues getting them to take it.
Cheers
John

 

[jordanbasset]

Seem to remember a study in the UK showed that on average tap water had less germs than bottled water

 

[vyv_cox]

Seem to remember a study in the UK showed that on average tap water had less germs than bottled water

Yes, considerably less. Not just germs either but less dissolved solids too, particularly sodium. I recall a TV documentary that sampled many makes of bottled water, identified the one that had the lowest organic and inorganic content and tried to find its source. Turned out it came from a shed in Manchester, where two guys were filling bottles with mains water straight from the tap. Apparently some of Manchester's water even today has no treatment whatsoever, runs straight out of Thirlmere into the mains.

 

[ccscott49]

Most of the islands in the Ionian the water is awful, in gouvia there is a separate supply for drinking, but to be honest after I have washed down the boat with the "rough" water, I rinse off with drinking water, the stains the rough stuff leave, wont come off! Needless to say we never drink it, filtered or not. Even the "drinking water" plugs our prefilters!

 

[Chris_Robb]

In Leros we buy bottled water and the supermarket delivers to the boat for nothing, so long as we buy other stuff from there. If you buy sufficient then you don't need to do it every week.

I also put a very small amount of bleach into the tanks every time I fill to avoid nasties growing in the heat, but we don't drink from the tank unless its tea or coffee. Interestingly the Leros water makes very good coffee - perhaps the added salt enhances the taste.

 

[blueglass]

In Leros we buy bottled water and the supermarket delivers to the boat for nothing, so long as we buy other stuff from there. If you buy sufficient then you don't need to do it every week.

I also put a very small amount of bleach into the tanks every time I fill to avoid nasties growing in the heat, but we don't drink from the tank unless its tea or coffee. Interestingly the Leros water makes very good coffee - perhaps the added salt enhances the taste.

Not too sure about the bleach although for the same reasons we do add a water purifying tablet or two to the tank at each fill up even though we don't drink it other than in coffe/tea. Any more than 2 tablets to a 100 gallon tank and the tea is horrible.

 

[Chris_Robb]

Not too sure about the bleach although for the same reasons we do add a water purifying tablet or two to the tank at each fill up even though we don't drink it other than in coffe/tea. Any more than 2 tablets to a 100 gallon tank and the tea is horrible.

I use tablets when I have them, but for end of season shock cleaning I just use supermarket bleach which was recommended by the Head Mistress on this site and then rinse the tanks. It gets all the SH!T out of the pipes and if done every year the system remains very sweet. Problem with all Sodium Hypochlorite, liquid or tablets is that is degrades quickly. I prefer having a marginal chlorine smell than to come back to the boat after leaving for July August to find tanks infected by legionella - may be entirely paranoid about this! The smell should disappear totally on boiling as Chlorine is very volatile.

 

[Davy_S]

The Tap water on Kefalonia is among the purest water you can get, very hard water yes, but pure, agree about Gouvia water. If you want a serious dose of the s hits, try the bottled water on the trains in India, the barstards fill them from the stream and seal the top with a lighter!

 

[Ariadne]

I use tablets when I have them, but for end of season shock cleaning I just use supermarket bleach which was recommended by the Head Mistress on this site and then rinse the tanks. It gets all the SH!T out of the pipes and if done every year the system remains very sweet. Problem with all Sodium Hypochlorite, liquid or tablets is that is degrades quickly. I prefer having a marginal chlorine smell than to come back to the boat after leaving for July August to find tanks infected by legionella - may be entirely paranoid about this! The smell should disappear totally on boiling as Chlorine is very volatile.

People get Legionnaires' disease when they breathe in a mist or vapor (small droplets of water in the air) containing the bacteria. One example might be from breathing in droplets sprayed from a hot tub that has not been properly cleaned and disinfected. The bacteria are not spread from one person to another person.

Still if you guys want to pollute the world with plastic and still find a reason to do so; carry on - A great legacy to pass on to your children and grandchildren!

 

[Cariadco]

For years now, I have cleaned my teeth with the free water, that is available on the pontoons in Gouvia Marina, with no effect on my guts, or teeth. However, I would never drink the stuff, nor anything that comes out of a Tap in Corfu.

Apparently, when the SAS are establishing operations in a foreign country, and if they will be there for a period of time, the first thing the 'Boys' do is drink the local Tap water, so their guts get used to it (if you know what I mean). Then when the familiarization period's over, they never have an issue with water shortage again...!

 

[Chris_Robb]

People get Legionnaires' disease when they breathe in a mist or vapor (small droplets of water in the air) containing the bacteria. One example might be from breathing in droplets sprayed from a hot tub that has not been properly cleaned and disinfected. The bacteria are not spread from one person to another person.

Still if you guys want to pollute the world with plastic and still find a reason to do so; carry on - A great legacy to pass on to your children and grandchildren!

So what about the shower on the boat spreading legionella? Not sure why you emphasized the bit about bacteria spread from one person to another.

 

[NornaBiron]

My brother in law used to work for Mid Kent Water. Apparently the problem with drinking water in other countries is not necessarily the bacterial levels. The chemicals used to treat the water are used in different proportions depending on what they are treating. It is often the different chemical mix that gives us gippy tummies, not poor water quality.

We have drunk tap water all the way from the UK to Greece and continue to do so now. We run the tap, check it for taste and clarity (very crude measures, I know) and then use it to fill our tanks. All our drinking water is filtered twice on the boat.

We refuse to add to the ridiculous amount of plastic that is washed up on beautiful coastlines.

 

[whipper_snapper]

Just add bleach or aquapur or equivalent and then filter your water through a cheap carbon filter just before the tap. That is 100% safe and the filter removes the chlorine taste.

 

[NornaBiron]

As TC has already stated here in Crete we can drink the water-which we do. However it surprises me to see so many Yachties here bring so many bottles of water on board,

Peter

The locals we know in Elounda are always amazed that we drink the tap water that we collect from the quay. They all traipse off to Lidl once a week to buy car loads of water! You'd have thought that as they've seen us drink it for a few years now they' d have started to save themselves some money and drink from the tap.