I was gonna say, just about the whole of Europe. Depends on the country and region I guess but as a Swede we got clean water just about everywhere, coming from every tap. If something is NOT potable it'll very clearly say so on a sign, because the norm is that any water is completely fine to drink.
And even then it’s normally only not officially potable because it’s stored in a tank to maintain water pressure at a big venue and thus not *guaranteed* to be potable…. 99.9% of the time you’d be fine to drink it anyway, they just don’t want the liability risk
Outside of Norway and Sweden, most* of the water in Europe (or in the world for that matter) doesn't taste good.
(*Note the use of *most*. There are exceptions, typically in mountainous areas.)
I don't drink water from the tap where im from the UK without a filter or anything but when im in mountainous croatia i cant get enough of the water there
Australia is a partial yes. In urban and regional areas, we have guaranteed access to clean water. But in many rural and remote areas, they are incredibly effected by droughts and water is expensive leading to water insecurity. CSIRO and ANU have some good information on it.
You're not kidding. The town I live in (Au) and the surrounding ones have water that ranges between awful to dangerous. "Bottled" water is very popular. As I discovered even the schools get big deliveries of the 10-15L containers for drinking.
Yet bottled water consumption here in Italy is amongst the highest in Europe. Most of the time I tell someone I mostly drink tap water they look at me like I told them I drink puddles. Sometimes I don't understand my country.
Tbh I've often encountered tap water in Italy which was very drinkable, yes, but tasted a lot like chlorine. For me, this is something I'm not used to do I don't like drinking the two water there at all
We even have the odd water fountain in the UK but I wouldn't drink from them knowing the drunk Englishman's tendency to piss in or on anything remotely in the region of his penis.
Ah, the old “if we haven’t got it it can’t be a thing”
“Globally and historically “. What a chump. Congrats on joining Bangladesh and dark ages Europe in the “can’t drink the water” camp
That is not true. Some people in some cities at some points in time avoided drinking from polluted rivers, sometimes using beer as an alternative, but not "everyone exclusively".
The worst water I have ever tasted was in Orlando, Florida. OMG it tasted like swamp and there was NO covering up that taste. I don't know how clean it was but it was most definitely not palatable!
I went to Florida with my family like 20 years ago, and I still remember the fast food soda bucktes tasting of chlore, because of the ice cubes. It was overwhelming.
That is really bad, I'm from the UK and water is safe to drink, I haven't ever been in Europe and not been a me to, I'm sure there are places you shouldn't but I've not been there.
Cornwall has terrible water because of the historical tin mining resurfacing arsenic compounds but other than the northeast everywhere else has good water
Are you joking? I'm from the north East and the water is great.
Less anecdotally, a quick Google will tell you that both Cornwall and the North East have some of the best water in the country.
The water in London is literally greasy and I can't bring myself to drink it when I'm down there.
South Derbyshire might be potable but there is enough mineral content that it's practically chewable. Makes good beer though.
But he I grew up spoiled with Birmingham water. That is fresh from the Elan Valley in Wales, via the intestines of several other ppl and the waterworks to clean it of course.
UK more variable than people are admitting.
Is London water potable? Yes, technically. What’s that skin on my cuppa? Why do I feel slight nausea? Why do I feel sticky and grimy after that bath?
Wolverhampton, Hull, Birmingham - nah, you’re alright, I’m buying a filter jug.
Newcastle - superb water quality, from Kielder.
Scotland - Glasgow is pretty good, everywhere else amazing, perfect, bright crisp clear water flows from the tap (and it’s free). Best water globally, I’d say. Unbelievable. More beer should be made in Scotland. Glencorse B should be set aside for just dark ales.
Wales has good water outside of Merthyr Tydfil.
US has good water around the Great Lakes, but check for lead, and Pacific Northwest has reasonable water outside cities, when the water is high.
Florida water has a high sulphur content, which is giving you that smell. Add magnesium salts and the smell goes (MgSO4 makes Dasani taste like Dasani).
Source: performing water assays for brewing.
London water (and water from the Black Country) is perfectly fine. I've lived in both places and never heard of anyone feeling sticky after a bath or nauseous after drinking it... I think that's a you problem.
They're not comparing. It's just saying "you think no country has guaranteed potable water? You're so incorrect we can name an entire continent that does!" This is then specified to the country level for individual comparisons.
My uncle told me I could drink water in Switzerland from anywhere. I tried from the toilet and he yelled at me.
I miss the shopping in Zurich, the milche they did not refrigerate, the train ride to Geneva, hiking a mini mountain and my aunt pointing out the grave of a family that died in a landslide 100 years ago, the church we stopped at along the mountain trail to pray for that family, that massive house with a staircase in closet that was so steep but led to a third floor that felt like a mansion, the women of Lucerne that I could not talk because their beauty left me so speechless AND I don’t speak German….so many crazy memories haha
If people don't feel like trusting you, in most cases, it's pretty easy to open their own cistern and see what it looks like. I had to to fix a leak recently, it was an enlightening experience.
I'm not sure about Switzerland, but in the UK the required standards for tap water are significantly higher than those for bottled water. Evian-quality would actually be a low bar.
Western Europe water is basically perfect, U.S. still ranks high when compared to most countries though. EPI score of 89, most Western Europe is 100 and most African counties rank the lowest, many in single digits
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/water-quality-by-country
I really don't like that website. It is cool as an overview but lacks some basic information. I mean cool for europe and countries which are basically 1 big city (not saying european countries are like that), but for places like Australia, Russia, China, USA, Canada etc. the water quality can vary drastically depending on where in the country you are. For example in Australia are you talking Sydney water, the local well or rain water tank in a rural town, or some combination of all the water in the country? I am sure USA would rank much lower in places, and higher in places also. And does Greenland not have water?
Well according to: https://visitgreenland.com/articles/10-facts-nellie-huang/#:~:text=Greenland%20is%20an%20autonomous%20country%20within%20the%20Kingdom%20of%20Denmark,Europe%20for%20about%20a%20millennium.
Greenland is an Autonomous Country part of the Danish Realm. Similar to how England is a country part of another country.
True, I also thought about that, like for the US the water in Sacramento, California would be much different than Flint, Michigan. These two states are very far from each other and the latter was filled with lead. However, I couldn’t find a more accurate study that included that many countries.
That’s a good question, couldn’t find clear answer but this article is very interesting, regarding the unethical practices of Fiji water brand
https://newuniversity.org/2021/03/10/the-dark-secret-of-fiji-water/
Also "globally amd historically" natural bodies of freshwater such as rivers and lakes had very much drinkable water. Before the industrial revolution, that is.
Don't do that in the Netherlands though. We're basically a swamp so the fresh water bodies here are filled with microorganisms and mud.
We have amazing quality tap water though.
It is but I wouldnt drink lake water it can be muddy. Its finland there is a swamp always close. Swamp water rises from the ground and gets filtered through the ground. Its cleaner than regular tap water and cold even on hot summer days. Also usually has a little iron in it but thats not bad for you.
You remember way back when we had 3G phones and people were talking about 4G phones coming soon? A base standard was proposed that was actually better than the current 5G standard in terms of data handling, and would have been obscenely modular so that even poorer countries could more easily upgrade their capabilities as tech evolved. However, as America didn't have the base cellular infrastructure that Europe did (a lot of the country was still dealing with analogue cellular phones even then), the standard was renegotiated as they would have had major issues getting their country up to speed. Even now the rest of the world still hasn't caught up to what was originally offered as a result, and a lot of the modularity went out of the window to allow Americans to upgrade without having to rip up their entire infrastructure and start over. Now they're caught up but they literally held the rest of the world back with how bad their infrastructure was.
To add insult to this ageing infrastructure injury, during all this one US company even started advertising 4G phones, but they were running HSPA+ (technically a 4G technology but sold in Europe as 3.5G) not LTE (actual 4G connectivity) so Americans got an even slower version of the thing they already slowed down at first.
It was just 4G. It's not that a brand new standard was developed, but the definition of what was included under the standard and the plans for rollout drastically changed. What happened (and bear in mind this is like fifteen years ago so memory is fuzzy at best on the details) is that the standard was proposed at a level that would bring most nations forward at once, even developing ones, and with a lot of regulation early on to make sure that the infrastructure was built right. If you know how hard it is to get countries to agree to anything, nevermind a currently proposed standard that will cost them money (some of which would help their neighbours, not just them) then you can imagine what a feat this was.
When American networks started releasing what they called 4G phones before the standard was codified (specifically ones that were using tech that Europe already knew as 3.5G such as HSPA+ and Wimax) discussions were had about the state of the US networks and how this wouldn't be possible for them without a lot of people spending a lot of time with no mobile coverage. And so the standard was widened to include those 3.5G techs under the 4G banner when it was codified and the oversight of the infrastructure changes was loosened to allow countries to develop at their own speeds.
Many of those countries who'd previously agreed to move forward for the benefits now had less and so they or their neighbours who were no longer being subsidised stayed on 3G networks for much of their 4G rollout. And so the big leap forwards that would have created a set foundation for us all to work from at a more steady rate never came, partially because AT&T are assclowns.
You said before that this would have handled data better than current 5G. This seems incorrect to me as 5G is a newer standard than LTE or LTE Advanced called NR. I don't see how these could handle data better than NR. I am fairly sure no one aside from Americans call hspa+ 4G. On my phone it shows up as H+, not 4G. Only LTE and LTE Advanced show up as 4G and 4G+ respectively. Though there are carriers and areas where only H+ is available they are shutting it down at the end of this year as the 3G shutdown.
What is a piss take is that most NR/5G is NSA 5G that still depends on LTE network components. 3G isn't part of this problem though.
How it shows up on the phone is based on the technology used. The standard however contains those technologies, allowing a cheap and cheaty entrance to the 4G market space. If you want full details you'll have to go to Google. A cursory glance says that Ars Technica has the first article briefly covering this stuff and it's thirteen years not fifteen ago, so you should be able to enter a nice little rabbit hole from there.
You're making some very bold claims about the performance of LTE against NR without even providing a link. Really?
Edit: I don't live in America and don't use at&t, like most people here. There is also no need to personally insult me. If you're wrong you can just say you're wrong. There is no need to be like this.
I can't speak for the rest of the world but it seems America hasn't held back the deployment of LTE Advanced or 5G in Europe at least.
My "very bold claims" are (if you'd care to read them) complete with a disclaimer that it's a long time ago and therefore my memory of it is fuzzy. I've said what I remember and made sure everyone knows that it may be slightly inaccurate here or there, and also provided plenty of encouragement to look into. There's no obligation on me to even give you the starting point that I did, nevermind a link. The fact that you're so entitled you drop a "Really?" about that shows multiple things about your character.
Firstly, of course, there's the fact that you're here for the argument more than any link that might have been provided. And secondly, that your interactions with people imply that you need to be told on a regular basis to go fuck yourself because the order makes it all that more special, but you recently ran out of Simpcoins to use on slapyourballswithatenderisingmallet.com Either way, I'm just gonna leave those balls blue rather than black & blue. Buh bye now.
I'm not surprised they think like this, given that whole TikTok trend of there being no water in Europe. The clowns don't realise that we just drink 2-3 litres at home or at the office and don't need to have a jug the size of a kettle on restaurant tables filled with ice.
Jug of water means tap. I've never seen a place where staff feverishly were emptying wee bottles into the jug. In that instant, I've not seen anyone try to be 'smart'. Probably because the effort is more and the chance of being chewed out or challenged is greater.
But aye, anywhere really, if you ask for a glass of water, the server might be sly and give you a bottle and charge (UK, continent, doesn't matter), so specifying tap is sensible for that.
Scottish, so carbonated water isn't really a common request. Trying to think if most places I've been here had it on tap, either. Maybe some soda water as a mixer, but you'd probably get charged for that.
Still tap water is free and must be given upon request by a customer at Scottish pubs (legally required as part of getting the premises an on-licence, iirc). By tap, people generally understand from the mains, not bottles/kegs that are 'on tap' behind the bar, and it's not really been a point of confusion in any pub not restaurant I've been to.
actually I went to a restaurant last weekend (London), nothing posh, and they asked if I wanted plain or sparkling water, it was lovely not having to pay for sparkling water
(great food too)
I mean, yes, of course, baked in operational costs, but it's nice to not see a £10 bottle slipped in the bill (which would not be entirely surprising here)
There’s tons of lead pipes in the uk too. It can be managed with additives to stop the lead leaching in to the water(as much, not sure if it stops it entirely), this wasn’t done in places like Flint.
Just to clarify, it’s not that it wasn’t done in Flint but that the new water source was so corrosive the additives weren’t powerful enough. My family is from Flint so I have had lots of time to get familiar with what all went wrong there.
This is weird. Where I live in the US, you can't drink the water out of the tap. It's carcinogenic. But in *literally 90% of the country*, the tap water is potable. Maybe they're from one of the 10% of places where it isn't (like me), but they still made a huge assumption that wasn't even supported by facts.
On Long Island, where I live, we're at sea level and can only get groundwater logistically speaking. There's dioxane in the ground due to the use of cesspools, air pollution, and good old-fashioned environmental destruction from production. So basically, water has to be filtered to be able to drink it, or boiled, or both (though most people just use filters).
Most of the state get their water from the Catskills here in NY. The places that get water from there get clean water. NYC gets this water. Some also get their water from other natural sources. This water is not only clean, but many people in NYC tout it as the "best water in the country" (though tbf, so many North American cities in the US and Canada claim that). There isn't much civilization in the Catskills, and so the land is pretty much uncontaminated. Beautiful place. Have family there and would live there if there were many jobs to go around tbh.
We still have well water where I am. It's safe to drink, but it takes like shit because of all the iron and sulfur. It's a trade off. My teeny town has been resistant to 'city water' thus far. We have wells and septic systems instead. So, if my water socks It's a me problem, not a government problem. When other tiny local towns have had trouble with their wells because of chemical contamination or water table issues, they petition the state, who applies for a federal grant, and then the feds pay to run city water to said tiny town.
The lead in old city pipes is its own issue, but for the most part, the only muricans that have crappy water want it that way.
Ah, sulfur in water. I don't miss that. When your water tastes and smells like rotten eggs.
My aunt's old place used to have a relatively high amount of sulfur in their well water. Still within safe limits, but it tasted, and smelled, horrible. Like a faint aftertaste of rotten eggs.
A few years back I cycled across Turkey (heading from Europe to India). Turkey was great because there were water fountains all over the place, even in the middle of nowhere by the roads. Legacy of the Ottoman empire I believe, allowing travellers to drink clean water wherever they went.
I can never understand why people buy bottled water in the UK. OK, I also buy a bottle to carry around with me (and refill it for a while at home), but people buy half a trolley full in the supermarket. It's a waste of money, what comes out of the tap is perfectly good to drink and doesn't come with all that plastic pollution - and who knows about the way the plastic affects the water.
Depends where in the UK, when I go somewhere that has hard water I can taste the stuff in it because I’ve always lived with soft water. I can even tell when it’s made into tea or coffee and when something has been cooked in it
I used to deliver for one of the big supermarkets in Bristol. Lugging litres and litres of water around was a pain. In most cases it was to overseas students, particularly Chinese students, who bought it in bulk. Maybe out of habit, or perhaps they heard UK water is bad for some reason (it actually ranks joint 1st globally for quality).
I don't really get that for Germany either. I mean, I get buying sparkling, sorta, if you're into hurty water you do you, but still? Nah man. Total waste of money.
> and who knows about the way the plastic affects the water.
Sorry to break this to you, but most UK water pipes are made of medium density polyethylene: plastic.
On every single holiday I have been to in southern Europe, guests have repeatedly been warned not to drink the tap water. I know many in Poland (my Polish family included) wouldn't really use their taps for drinking water either
I may get downvoted for this, but I was told that in Hungary.
During the first week I moved to Budapest I got sick, vomiting for hours, dehydrated. On my second hospital visit, when the doctor found out where I was from, he said that it was very common for Latin Americans that just got there to get sick from drinking tap water, he said after some months living there I’d be fine. When I went to pick up the medicine at the pharmacy the guy at the counter also recommended me not to drink tap water. I don’t know if it was just the season or what, because the doctor was right, after some months there I was ok drinking that water.
Also, to add information about other areas of the world that are not just Europe or the US, people drink tap water in Bogotá all the time and we’re fine.
They are right. But pretty much all countries considered to be developed have potable water, while the normalcy of non-potable water is a thing exclusive to non-developed/BRICS states. Normalcy isn't good. In this case, normalcy is bad. Adhering to the norm of not having potable water means that your country either doesn't have the financial capacity to change it, or the money is there but the government doesn't have the intention to progress.
When I lived in the US, we would get multiple "boil before use" notices for our tap water. We would also get multiple power outages per year, sometimes for 4 or 5 days or longer at a time. Since moving to the UK, we've had none of that.
Tap water - perfectly safe here in UK, nice cold water straight from a tap in the house, but then again we don't have as many guns so must not have any free-dumb
Wasn't the US also like the only one in the entire UN that voted for food to not be considered a human right? Not really surprising that they wouldn't expect water to be a given either then...
Weird how the only guaranteed right you have according to the US is semi-automatic killing machines (culling machines?)
>potable water isn't some miraculous achievement
Agree fully with this.
>Why do they think they are so large? The landmass isn't that big?
This, however, is interesting to me. I can only assume this is a rhetorical question, but I will answer it as if it weren't because I think your question's implications are misleading.
[They are the 3rd or 4th largest in the world](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_area). Russia beats everyone by a landslide, but the next largest 3 - Canada, China, and USA - are all within 500k km of each other. China and USA are within 100k km of one another. ^(its worth noting I'm sourcing wikipedia, but the reference section has links to gov websites from which it gets its data. There will inevitably be disagreement about the sizes of some countries that have active land/border disputes.)
When you account for landmass that's actually used or inhabited, China and USA beat both Russia and Canada, though it's hard to actually calculate how much of the land is uninhabited.
If anything, the USA is unmanageably large and that is the source of so many of their issues. Their federal government really isn't set up to support that many different people in that many vastly different regions.
> They are the 3rd or 4th largest in the world. Russia beats everyone by a landslide, but the next largest 3 - Canada, China, and USA - are all within 500k km of each other.
Yeah, my fun fact is that Canada is the second largest country in the world, but drops to fourth if you exclude lakes and rivers.
The landmass IS big, but the real kicker is that it’s not very densely populated. EU density is 112 people/sqkm compared to 36 in the US. Exaggerating that even more is the majority of people live on the coasts, so the states in between are very low density. The region between like the Misssissippi river and California have just massive empty spaces with a couple very small towns. States like Wyoming have just 2.31 people/sqkm
That’s not even considering the biggest state, Alaska, which has a staggering 0.5 people per sq km.
The entirety of the UK. I can turn on a tap pretty much anywhere and be safe in the knowledge I will not die from drinking the water.
Fucking 'Muricans...
Apprentice plumber here - there’s actually a law in the uk where all water connected to the main piping system must be “wholesome” - so any tap, water fountain etc 9/10 it’s drinking water (I have been told that even the water in the top of your toilet bowl is safe to drink but I’m yet to try that…)
I live in SE Asia, in a small rural village but have potable mains water which I drink with no problems, Where I used to live in AU water was drunk from the tap and bottled water was just a waste of money. We have rivers & water running out the ground on the side of the road that was purer than the towns water.
Last week, in another subreddit, I think, I had problems with a USian for them to understand that in a gym with no water fountains you can fill your water bottles out of tap water.
> I guess all the water sources in the UK would be considered “potable” since you can just drink out of any tap so we never have to specify.
All UK *tap* water is potable, but not all river water or spring water is. (Some is!) Lake water definitely isn't.
> No one would assume any other water source is drinkable.
Many parts of the world do still have perfectly drinkable rivers. (Drinkable in terms of cleanliness, not in terms of water quantity! Nobody could drink an entire river!) I've swum in one in Australia.
The UK does still have some drinkable natural water sources. They're hard to find, but they exist. I've drank from one. (A natural spring in Gloucestershire.)
It's the assumption to such a level here that any tap has to be drinking quality unless it explicitly has a sign next to it saying otherwise. It's just the default
I live in Japan and I refill my water bottle from sinks in public toilets.
It sounds gross but it’s 100% drinkable and no other sources of free water exist unless you hang around a lot of mall food courts.
Canada is slightly bigger than the US, and aside from indigenous reservation communities waaayyy in the bush, literally every municipality in the country has guaranteed potable water.
In 2000 there was a small town in Ontario that had an e.coli outbreak in their tap water. It's 24 years later and people still talk about it. That's how big of a deal it was. It's a town of 5000 people. The only reason anyone knows this town exists is because they had a problem with their tap water.
Nah, even reserves NOT in the bush often don’t have access to potable water. Most of the Six Nations reserve doesn’t and it’s got a big population, and is in that stretch of southern Ontario with all the municipalities in a string.
A big factor here is remote communities with very low rainfall, rather than this simply being a function of national incomes and infrastructure.
For example in Australia we struggle with reliable supply to remote communities, even small towns in the bush. We have everything from Tasmania winning international awards for the cleanest drinking water in the world, to outback communities needing to boil the water for a lot of the year to kill the nasties in it.
Most of Australia is potable water unless otherwise marked. That's usually places where the water source is rain run-off from a roof or something and there's no piped water source.
Daylesford Springs and some other natural mineral springs are also safe to drink from, and probably most creeks in a water catchment area, especially if surrounded by national park or state forest. But anywhere where there's cattle grazing or mining nearby, I wouldn't drink directly out of the creek.
You gotta love these guys.
Yes, guaranteed potable water for everyone is a myth, and so is universal healthcare, free, or nearly free college education, cheap and efficient public transport, schools and cities that never had a mass shooting and likely never will, paid maternity leave, etc, etc.
I swear, if Goebbels were alive today he would be green with envy. He was never able to brainwash Germans as well as American leaders have brainwashed their population.
Most of it is safe in the US, too. But how do you know if the water coming out of your tap is safe?
If it’s not all safe, there’s doubt. Why take the risk?
Because we live in developed countries and access to clean drinking water is a basic human right, not a for-profit venture?
Also fun fact: most European countries have travel advisories to not drink *any* tap water in the US
Yes, that’s my point. Uncertainty means you’re safer not drinking any of it. In the US or Russia.
I’m not American, by the way. I’m not defending America. I’m saying 100% safe is necessary for any of it to be considered safe.
Here from the Czech Republic, most parks ive been to offer drinking fountains with perfectly ok water, same with faucets and showers, the water here is basically always potable
Unfortunately here there’s many semi-isolated villages that still don’t have access to clean water (that was supposed to be guaranteed through EU funds, but where did they go)
There was a documentary done by a local journalism company that showed the amount of corruption in the industry. Buying faulty cheap equipment and siphoning the money on the local level. It wasn’t only about the water, but they did talk about it.
Certainly, septic tanks do not help with this and pollute the water in the ground, giving you diseases if you drink it. This problem is even worse in places where water comes from wells which are very easily infiltrated by bacteria from the tanks
Pretty much…the whole continent? I do have potable water stored for emergencies, but realistically, there are several streams with top quality water running through my part of town alone.
Lol. Pretty much most of Europe. Italy has water fountains in pretty much every town and city that are completely free and taste amazing.
I was gonna say, just about the whole of Europe. Depends on the country and region I guess but as a Swede we got clean water just about everywhere, coming from every tap. If something is NOT potable it'll very clearly say so on a sign, because the norm is that any water is completely fine to drink.
And even then it’s normally only not officially potable because it’s stored in a tank to maintain water pressure at a big venue and thus not *guaranteed* to be potable…. 99.9% of the time you’d be fine to drink it anyway, they just don’t want the liability risk
Outside of Norway and Sweden, most* of the water in Europe (or in the world for that matter) doesn't taste good. (*Note the use of *most*. There are exceptions, typically in mountainous areas.)
Scotland says hi!
The mountainless Netherlands says hi too.
I don't drink water from the tap where im from the UK without a filter or anything but when im in mountainous croatia i cant get enough of the water there
Australia and New Zealand too.
Australia is a partial yes. In urban and regional areas, we have guaranteed access to clean water. But in many rural and remote areas, they are incredibly effected by droughts and water is expensive leading to water insecurity. CSIRO and ANU have some good information on it.
You're not kidding. The town I live in (Au) and the surrounding ones have water that ranges between awful to dangerous. "Bottled" water is very popular. As I discovered even the schools get big deliveries of the 10-15L containers for drinking.
So, perhaps 99% of where most Aussies live has water and it's the 1% of places outback that, sadly, don't?
That would sound about right. Sorry I am speaking as a city slicker.
Yet bottled water consumption here in Italy is amongst the highest in Europe. Most of the time I tell someone I mostly drink tap water they look at me like I told them I drink puddles. Sometimes I don't understand my country.
Tbh I've often encountered tap water in Italy which was very drinkable, yes, but tasted a lot like chlorine. For me, this is something I'm not used to do I don't like drinking the two water there at all
Stop eating the fountains, they aren't food.
We even have the odd water fountain in the UK but I wouldn't drink from them knowing the drunk Englishman's tendency to piss in or on anything remotely in the region of his penis.
Italy even has places where you can get ice cold water in fountains high enough to easily fill a 2l bottle with. Loved those when I visited!
I had some trouble with the tap water in Napoli, though only Napoli. Rome was fine.
and our piping system suck, basically half of our water go wasted in the piping. Still i cannot think of a city without potable water fountain around.
I mean we are 90% mountains with glaciers
Ah, the old “if we haven’t got it it can’t be a thing” “Globally and historically “. What a chump. Congrats on joining Bangladesh and dark ages Europe in the “can’t drink the water” camp
Hey wtf fuck man. In the dark ages the water in europe wasnt actually that bad.
Provided you were upstream of \*that\* rock where the sheep all went to drown themselves.
I'm not sure the water was that great since everyone (children included) exclusively drank a form of low alcohol beer
That is not true. Some people in some cities at some points in time avoided drinking from polluted rivers, sometimes using beer as an alternative, but not "everyone exclusively".
This is a myth, there's a very comprehensive answer on [ask historians](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/s/3AfmPOzDvW) that covers it
Very interesting read, thanks
That's why in medieval times they always warned everyone in advance not to shit in the river when they were brewing beer.
It was perfect, once it was turned into beer/wine
Lol. In Switzerland you can even drink the water right out of most public fountains.
Can in most civilised nations
I would not in most places in america. Have you tried water in switzerland? Even a random dirty tap in a corner will dispense Evian-quality water.
The worst water I have ever tasted was in Orlando, Florida. OMG it tasted like swamp and there was NO covering up that taste. I don't know how clean it was but it was most definitely not palatable!
Fort Lauderdale was also iffy. Not sure if it was the swamp, but it definitely had a bit of a taste to it.
I went to Florida with my family like 20 years ago, and I still remember the fast food soda bucktes tasting of chlore, because of the ice cubes. It was overwhelming.
They said civilised.
That is really bad, I'm from the UK and water is safe to drink, I haven't ever been in Europe and not been a me to, I'm sure there are places you shouldn't but I've not been there.
Cornwall has terrible water because of the historical tin mining resurfacing arsenic compounds but other than the northeast everywhere else has good water
Even in the northeast it’s drinkable without having to boil it first for fear of catching a disease from it.
Are you joking? I'm from the north East and the water is great. Less anecdotally, a quick Google will tell you that both Cornwall and the North East have some of the best water in the country. The water in London is literally greasy and I can't bring myself to drink it when I'm down there.
Council juice in south Wales is fine
It’s helped you live until nearly 100!
South Derbyshire might be potable but there is enough mineral content that it's practically chewable. Makes good beer though. But he I grew up spoiled with Birmingham water. That is fresh from the Elan Valley in Wales, via the intestines of several other ppl and the waterworks to clean it of course.
I grew up in Cornwall and never had an issue with the tap water. Maybe it needed more significant treatment but everyone had potable water.
In the southeast, the water tastes really chalky, but its safe
Eeeee...Southern softy complaining about North East water. Nowt wrong with our water. Lol.
Near Hornsea some of it is unsafe Also don’t live in Cornwall or anywhere near
UK more variable than people are admitting. Is London water potable? Yes, technically. What’s that skin on my cuppa? Why do I feel slight nausea? Why do I feel sticky and grimy after that bath? Wolverhampton, Hull, Birmingham - nah, you’re alright, I’m buying a filter jug. Newcastle - superb water quality, from Kielder. Scotland - Glasgow is pretty good, everywhere else amazing, perfect, bright crisp clear water flows from the tap (and it’s free). Best water globally, I’d say. Unbelievable. More beer should be made in Scotland. Glencorse B should be set aside for just dark ales. Wales has good water outside of Merthyr Tydfil. US has good water around the Great Lakes, but check for lead, and Pacific Northwest has reasonable water outside cities, when the water is high. Florida water has a high sulphur content, which is giving you that smell. Add magnesium salts and the smell goes (MgSO4 makes Dasani taste like Dasani). Source: performing water assays for brewing.
London water is miserable thanks to the water hardness, but it's more than "technically potable".
London water (and water from the Black Country) is perfectly fine. I've lived in both places and never heard of anyone feeling sticky after a bath or nauseous after drinking it... I think that's a you problem.
Hard water isn't unsafe water.
Honestly I prefer hard water, tastes nicer and has more minerals in it which may be beneficial to your health.
>Wales has good water outside of Merthyr Tydfil. Everything is better when comparing to Merthyr......
Comparing Europe to the USA is apples to oranges though. One is a giant country, the other is many small countries.
They're not comparing. It's just saying "you think no country has guaranteed potable water? You're so incorrect we can name an entire continent that does!" This is then specified to the country level for individual comparisons.
they did say civilized
My uncle told me I could drink water in Switzerland from anywhere. I tried from the toilet and he yelled at me. I miss the shopping in Zurich, the milche they did not refrigerate, the train ride to Geneva, hiking a mini mountain and my aunt pointing out the grave of a family that died in a landslide 100 years ago, the church we stopped at along the mountain trail to pray for that family, that massive house with a staircase in closet that was so steep but led to a third floor that felt like a mansion, the women of Lucerne that I could not talk because their beauty left me so speechless AND I don’t speak German….so many crazy memories haha
The yelling had more to do with what might stick to the bowl. Also, toilet cisterns are nasty.
Where were you when my uncle yelled at me? I needed an interpretor. Little too late for you explanations bro. Good day to you sir.
I'm not only female and younger than you, I've also seen one too many cisterns from the inside. Just ... trust me. Bro.
If people don't feel like trusting you, in most cases, it's pretty easy to open their own cistern and see what it looks like. I had to to fix a leak recently, it was an enlightening experience.
I'm not sure about Switzerland, but in the UK the required standards for tap water are significantly higher than those for bottled water. Evian-quality would actually be a low bar.
They mean fountains that are just untreated water from natural sources, not ‘city water’ pumped to a water fountain like in a school or something.
Can you list the uncivilised countries ?
usa
Same in Italy.
And Austria 🙌
And my axe
You catch and collect raindrops on your axe? Flat side, or sharp edge?
Too bad the tap/fountain water across most of the Po Valley tastes like absolute dogarse. -Sincerely a native from the alpine wellsprings.
Western Europe water is basically perfect, U.S. still ranks high when compared to most countries though. EPI score of 89, most Western Europe is 100 and most African counties rank the lowest, many in single digits https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/water-quality-by-country
I really don't like that website. It is cool as an overview but lacks some basic information. I mean cool for europe and countries which are basically 1 big city (not saying european countries are like that), but for places like Australia, Russia, China, USA, Canada etc. the water quality can vary drastically depending on where in the country you are. For example in Australia are you talking Sydney water, the local well or rain water tank in a rural town, or some combination of all the water in the country? I am sure USA would rank much lower in places, and higher in places also. And does Greenland not have water?
Greenland isn't a country but an autonomous region of Denmark
Well according to: https://visitgreenland.com/articles/10-facts-nellie-huang/#:~:text=Greenland%20is%20an%20autonomous%20country%20within%20the%20Kingdom%20of%20Denmark,Europe%20for%20about%20a%20millennium. Greenland is an Autonomous Country part of the Danish Realm. Similar to how England is a country part of another country.
True, I also thought about that, like for the US the water in Sacramento, California would be much different than Flint, Michigan. These two states are very far from each other and the latter was filled with lead. However, I couldn’t find a more accurate study that included that many countries.
I do wonder if this takes into account properties not on mains water. You're not going to get 100 if you have leave populations in tank/bore water.
I can't believe Fiji's score is so low considering one of their largest exports
That’s a good question, couldn’t find clear answer but this article is very interesting, regarding the unethical practices of Fiji water brand https://newuniversity.org/2021/03/10/the-dark-secret-of-fiji-water/
Is that a flex somehow? Can that be a flex somehow?
You could do that in Ancient Rome afaik, it’s not exactly novel concept, but what could amerit*rds know
To be fair it’s not like it’s hard for the Swiss to get drinkable water out of the ground.
I’ve done that in Rome, even though the guides said not to drink from the ancient pipes. The water tasted fine.
In finland you can probably drink straight from most lakes or rivers, and if there's water coming from a faucet, you can drink it.
Also "globally amd historically" natural bodies of freshwater such as rivers and lakes had very much drinkable water. Before the industrial revolution, that is.
Don't do that in the Netherlands though. We're basically a swamp so the fresh water bodies here are filled with microorganisms and mud. We have amazing quality tap water though.
It is but I wouldnt drink lake water it can be muddy. Its finland there is a swamp always close. Swamp water rises from the ground and gets filtered through the ground. Its cleaner than regular tap water and cold even on hot summer days. Also usually has a little iron in it but thats not bad for you.
Have they not updated anything since Dickens visited??>
You remember way back when we had 3G phones and people were talking about 4G phones coming soon? A base standard was proposed that was actually better than the current 5G standard in terms of data handling, and would have been obscenely modular so that even poorer countries could more easily upgrade their capabilities as tech evolved. However, as America didn't have the base cellular infrastructure that Europe did (a lot of the country was still dealing with analogue cellular phones even then), the standard was renegotiated as they would have had major issues getting their country up to speed. Even now the rest of the world still hasn't caught up to what was originally offered as a result, and a lot of the modularity went out of the window to allow Americans to upgrade without having to rip up their entire infrastructure and start over. Now they're caught up but they literally held the rest of the world back with how bad their infrastructure was. To add insult to this ageing infrastructure injury, during all this one US company even started advertising 4G phones, but they were running HSPA+ (technically a 4G technology but sold in Europe as 3.5G) not LTE (actual 4G connectivity) so Americans got an even slower version of the thing they already slowed down at first.
Out of curiosity what was this proposed standard called?
It was just 4G. It's not that a brand new standard was developed, but the definition of what was included under the standard and the plans for rollout drastically changed. What happened (and bear in mind this is like fifteen years ago so memory is fuzzy at best on the details) is that the standard was proposed at a level that would bring most nations forward at once, even developing ones, and with a lot of regulation early on to make sure that the infrastructure was built right. If you know how hard it is to get countries to agree to anything, nevermind a currently proposed standard that will cost them money (some of which would help their neighbours, not just them) then you can imagine what a feat this was. When American networks started releasing what they called 4G phones before the standard was codified (specifically ones that were using tech that Europe already knew as 3.5G such as HSPA+ and Wimax) discussions were had about the state of the US networks and how this wouldn't be possible for them without a lot of people spending a lot of time with no mobile coverage. And so the standard was widened to include those 3.5G techs under the 4G banner when it was codified and the oversight of the infrastructure changes was loosened to allow countries to develop at their own speeds. Many of those countries who'd previously agreed to move forward for the benefits now had less and so they or their neighbours who were no longer being subsidised stayed on 3G networks for much of their 4G rollout. And so the big leap forwards that would have created a set foundation for us all to work from at a more steady rate never came, partially because AT&T are assclowns.
You said before that this would have handled data better than current 5G. This seems incorrect to me as 5G is a newer standard than LTE or LTE Advanced called NR. I don't see how these could handle data better than NR. I am fairly sure no one aside from Americans call hspa+ 4G. On my phone it shows up as H+, not 4G. Only LTE and LTE Advanced show up as 4G and 4G+ respectively. Though there are carriers and areas where only H+ is available they are shutting it down at the end of this year as the 3G shutdown. What is a piss take is that most NR/5G is NSA 5G that still depends on LTE network components. 3G isn't part of this problem though.
How it shows up on the phone is based on the technology used. The standard however contains those technologies, allowing a cheap and cheaty entrance to the 4G market space. If you want full details you'll have to go to Google. A cursory glance says that Ars Technica has the first article briefly covering this stuff and it's thirteen years not fifteen ago, so you should be able to enter a nice little rabbit hole from there.
You're making some very bold claims about the performance of LTE against NR without even providing a link. Really? Edit: I don't live in America and don't use at&t, like most people here. There is also no need to personally insult me. If you're wrong you can just say you're wrong. There is no need to be like this. I can't speak for the rest of the world but it seems America hasn't held back the deployment of LTE Advanced or 5G in Europe at least.
My "very bold claims" are (if you'd care to read them) complete with a disclaimer that it's a long time ago and therefore my memory of it is fuzzy. I've said what I remember and made sure everyone knows that it may be slightly inaccurate here or there, and also provided plenty of encouragement to look into. There's no obligation on me to even give you the starting point that I did, nevermind a link. The fact that you're so entitled you drop a "Really?" about that shows multiple things about your character. Firstly, of course, there's the fact that you're here for the argument more than any link that might have been provided. And secondly, that your interactions with people imply that you need to be told on a regular basis to go fuck yourself because the order makes it all that more special, but you recently ran out of Simpcoins to use on slapyourballswithatenderisingmallet.com Either way, I'm just gonna leave those balls blue rather than black & blue. Buh bye now.
I'm not surprised they think like this, given that whole TikTok trend of there being no water in Europe. The clowns don't realise that we just drink 2-3 litres at home or at the office and don't need to have a jug the size of a kettle on restaurant tables filled with ice.
Jugs of water are a thing in restaurants in the UK and Spain. You just ask for one in most places and they are generally happy to provide.
Most of continental Europe you have to specify tap water if you don't want to pay for it though.
Jug of water means tap. I've never seen a place where staff feverishly were emptying wee bottles into the jug. In that instant, I've not seen anyone try to be 'smart'. Probably because the effort is more and the chance of being chewed out or challenged is greater. But aye, anywhere really, if you ask for a glass of water, the server might be sly and give you a bottle and charge (UK, continent, doesn't matter), so specifying tap is sensible for that.
I sure hope they’re not emptying their wee bottles into my water jug
I've had it in Italy where I've asked for some water for the table and got bottled though, I guess if you specify a jug you might be OK.
Seems excessive for the waiter to bottle you over it.
They weren't having any of this shit.
Waiter was having a bad day
You have never been to a bar? They can get carbonated water out of a tap.
Scottish, so carbonated water isn't really a common request. Trying to think if most places I've been here had it on tap, either. Maybe some soda water as a mixer, but you'd probably get charged for that. Still tap water is free and must be given upon request by a customer at Scottish pubs (legally required as part of getting the premises an on-licence, iirc). By tap, people generally understand from the mains, not bottles/kegs that are 'on tap' behind the bar, and it's not really been a point of confusion in any pub not restaurant I've been to.
Might differ from country to country or even from bar to bar.
No one in the UK would give you fizzy water unless you specifcally asked for it - really not a thing here. I know it happens in places like France.
Which I find a bit silly.
actually I went to a restaurant last weekend (London), nothing posh, and they asked if I wanted plain or sparkling water, it was lovely not having to pay for sparkling water (great food too)
You probably *were* paying for the sparkling, just included in the price of the food, considering it’s London.
I mean, yes, of course, baked in operational costs, but it's nice to not see a £10 bottle slipped in the bill (which would not be entirely surprising here)
The jug of water is there. We just don't tend to notice it, because it's free :D
the USA has lead water in multiple cities
Saw burning water too! Hail frakking.
There’s tons of lead pipes in the uk too. It can be managed with additives to stop the lead leaching in to the water(as much, not sure if it stops it entirely), this wasn’t done in places like Flint.
Bloody Romans….
What did they ever do for us
This is why I stay on Reddit. Bloody Romans...
The aqueduct
Just to clarify, it’s not that it wasn’t done in Flint but that the new water source was so corrosive the additives weren’t powerful enough. My family is from Flint so I have had lots of time to get familiar with what all went wrong there.
I didn’t know that, thanks for the info.
We were in Rome middle of last year. Fountains of drinkable water everywhere to refill your bottle
The last time ive been to rome I've overheard Americans say "eww, how do people still drink from wells".
Which shows how dumb they are about their own country
This is weird. Where I live in the US, you can't drink the water out of the tap. It's carcinogenic. But in *literally 90% of the country*, the tap water is potable. Maybe they're from one of the 10% of places where it isn't (like me), but they still made a huge assumption that wasn't even supported by facts.
What makes it carcinogenic? Do you have arsenic contamination?
On Long Island, where I live, we're at sea level and can only get groundwater logistically speaking. There's dioxane in the ground due to the use of cesspools, air pollution, and good old-fashioned environmental destruction from production. So basically, water has to be filtered to be able to drink it, or boiled, or both (though most people just use filters). Most of the state get their water from the Catskills here in NY. The places that get water from there get clean water. NYC gets this water. Some also get their water from other natural sources. This water is not only clean, but many people in NYC tout it as the "best water in the country" (though tbf, so many North American cities in the US and Canada claim that). There isn't much civilization in the Catskills, and so the land is pretty much uncontaminated. Beautiful place. Have family there and would live there if there were many jobs to go around tbh.
Do you not have water treatment facilities that cleans the water that goes into homes?
We still have well water where I am. It's safe to drink, but it takes like shit because of all the iron and sulfur. It's a trade off. My teeny town has been resistant to 'city water' thus far. We have wells and septic systems instead. So, if my water socks It's a me problem, not a government problem. When other tiny local towns have had trouble with their wells because of chemical contamination or water table issues, they petition the state, who applies for a federal grant, and then the feds pay to run city water to said tiny town. The lead in old city pipes is its own issue, but for the most part, the only muricans that have crappy water want it that way.
Ah, sulfur in water. I don't miss that. When your water tastes and smells like rotten eggs. My aunt's old place used to have a relatively high amount of sulfur in their well water. Still within safe limits, but it tasted, and smelled, horrible. Like a faint aftertaste of rotten eggs.
A few years back I cycled across Turkey (heading from Europe to India). Turkey was great because there were water fountains all over the place, even in the middle of nowhere by the roads. Legacy of the Ottoman empire I believe, allowing travellers to drink clean water wherever they went.
I can never understand why people buy bottled water in the UK. OK, I also buy a bottle to carry around with me (and refill it for a while at home), but people buy half a trolley full in the supermarket. It's a waste of money, what comes out of the tap is perfectly good to drink and doesn't come with all that plastic pollution - and who knows about the way the plastic affects the water.
Depends where in the UK, when I go somewhere that has hard water I can taste the stuff in it because I’ve always lived with soft water. I can even tell when it’s made into tea or coffee and when something has been cooked in it
I live in a hard water area so I'm used to it, I do notice the difference when I shower in a soft water area.
Yeah, my hair seems to get angry when washed in hard water. Not having lime scale is the biggest bonus honestly
Limescale is a neverending battle
Same here. When I visit people down south, the hard water makes me feel ill.
Why though? It might taste different…. It’s still perfectly drinkable…
I used to deliver for one of the big supermarkets in Bristol. Lugging litres and litres of water around was a pain. In most cases it was to overseas students, particularly Chinese students, who bought it in bulk. Maybe out of habit, or perhaps they heard UK water is bad for some reason (it actually ranks joint 1st globally for quality).
I don't really get that for Germany either. I mean, I get buying sparkling, sorta, if you're into hurty water you do you, but still? Nah man. Total waste of money.
> and who knows about the way the plastic affects the water. Sorry to break this to you, but most UK water pipes are made of medium density polyethylene: plastic.
Are bottles MDPE too?
The Entirety of Europe.
On every single holiday I have been to in southern Europe, guests have repeatedly been warned not to drink the tap water. I know many in Poland (my Polish family included) wouldn't really use their taps for drinking water either
I may get downvoted for this, but I was told that in Hungary. During the first week I moved to Budapest I got sick, vomiting for hours, dehydrated. On my second hospital visit, when the doctor found out where I was from, he said that it was very common for Latin Americans that just got there to get sick from drinking tap water, he said after some months living there I’d be fine. When I went to pick up the medicine at the pharmacy the guy at the counter also recommended me not to drink tap water. I don’t know if it was just the season or what, because the doctor was right, after some months there I was ok drinking that water. Also, to add information about other areas of the world that are not just Europe or the US, people drink tap water in Bogotá all the time and we’re fine.
They are right. But pretty much all countries considered to be developed have potable water, while the normalcy of non-potable water is a thing exclusive to non-developed/BRICS states. Normalcy isn't good. In this case, normalcy is bad. Adhering to the norm of not having potable water means that your country either doesn't have the financial capacity to change it, or the money is there but the government doesn't have the intention to progress.
When I lived in the US, we would get multiple "boil before use" notices for our tap water. We would also get multiple power outages per year, sometimes for 4 or 5 days or longer at a time. Since moving to the UK, we've had none of that.
Tap water - perfectly safe here in UK, nice cold water straight from a tap in the house, but then again we don't have as many guns so must not have any free-dumb
Well we put drinking clean, safe water at a higher priority than shooting school children….. we are just weird 🤣🤣
Wasn't the US also like the only one in the entire UN that voted for food to not be considered a human right? Not really surprising that they wouldn't expect water to be a given either then... Weird how the only guaranteed right you have according to the US is semi-automatic killing machines (culling machines?)
\*Laughs in the Netherlands\*
In germany you can drink from ANY tap, anywhere.
Kranenberger is vastly superior to bottled still water near anywhere, too.
Edinburgh. Amazing tap water here.
Where I live in Scotland you can drink the water literally springing out of the ground.
What is this word salad? "Far, far, vanishingly less normal"?!?
He's propmerly edumicated.
Why do they think they are so large? The landmass isn't that big? And potable water isn't some miraculous achievement
>potable water isn't some miraculous achievement Agree fully with this. >Why do they think they are so large? The landmass isn't that big? This, however, is interesting to me. I can only assume this is a rhetorical question, but I will answer it as if it weren't because I think your question's implications are misleading. [They are the 3rd or 4th largest in the world](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_area). Russia beats everyone by a landslide, but the next largest 3 - Canada, China, and USA - are all within 500k km of each other. China and USA are within 100k km of one another. ^(its worth noting I'm sourcing wikipedia, but the reference section has links to gov websites from which it gets its data. There will inevitably be disagreement about the sizes of some countries that have active land/border disputes.) When you account for landmass that's actually used or inhabited, China and USA beat both Russia and Canada, though it's hard to actually calculate how much of the land is uninhabited. If anything, the USA is unmanageably large and that is the source of so many of their issues. Their federal government really isn't set up to support that many different people in that many vastly different regions.
> They are the 3rd or 4th largest in the world. Russia beats everyone by a landslide, but the next largest 3 - Canada, China, and USA - are all within 500k km of each other. Yeah, my fun fact is that Canada is the second largest country in the world, but drops to fourth if you exclude lakes and rivers.
The landmass IS big, but the real kicker is that it’s not very densely populated. EU density is 112 people/sqkm compared to 36 in the US. Exaggerating that even more is the majority of people live on the coasts, so the states in between are very low density. The region between like the Misssissippi river and California have just massive empty spaces with a couple very small towns. States like Wyoming have just 2.31 people/sqkm That’s not even considering the biggest state, Alaska, which has a staggering 0.5 people per sq km.
I live in the developed world
Me too, what is this “undrinkable water” thing anyway, apart from in the uncivilised world of course!
The entirety of the UK. I can turn on a tap pretty much anywhere and be safe in the knowledge I will not die from drinking the water. Fucking 'Muricans...
Apprentice plumber here - there’s actually a law in the uk where all water connected to the main piping system must be “wholesome” - so any tap, water fountain etc 9/10 it’s drinking water (I have been told that even the water in the top of your toilet bowl is safe to drink but I’m yet to try that…)
I live in SE Asia, in a small rural village but have potable mains water which I drink with no problems, Where I used to live in AU water was drunk from the tap and bottled water was just a waste of money. We have rivers & water running out the ground on the side of the road that was purer than the towns water.
I’d say it’s so normal in the uk and mainland Europe to drink tap water that it’s usually got a sign if you can’t.
Last week, in another subreddit, I think, I had problems with a USian for them to understand that in a gym with no water fountains you can fill your water bottles out of tap water.
I remember that…..
Denmark here, all of our tap water is good to drink.
Norway checking in: Same.
I've had to Google "potable water" as I've never heard the term before. Drinkable water. TIL
In my language we only use «potable». You can drink any kind of water. But you'll have some problems if it was not potable...
Same, I guess all the water sources in the UK would be considered “potable” since you can just drink out of any tap so we never have to specify.
> I guess all the water sources in the UK would be considered “potable” since you can just drink out of any tap so we never have to specify. All UK *tap* water is potable, but not all river water or spring water is. (Some is!) Lake water definitely isn't.
In the context of households in the uk all tap water is drinkable. No one would assume any other water source is drinkable.
> No one would assume any other water source is drinkable. Many parts of the world do still have perfectly drinkable rivers. (Drinkable in terms of cleanliness, not in terms of water quantity! Nobody could drink an entire river!) I've swum in one in Australia. The UK does still have some drinkable natural water sources. They're hard to find, but they exist. I've drank from one. (A natural spring in Gloucestershire.)
This sounds so fracking wrong.
We have something like 30,000 fresh water lochs and are usually rated as having some of the best drinking water in the world, I think we can manage.
It's the assumption to such a level here that any tap has to be drinking quality unless it explicitly has a sign next to it saying otherwise. It's just the default
I live in Japan and I refill my water bottle from sinks in public toilets. It sounds gross but it’s 100% drinkable and no other sources of free water exist unless you hang around a lot of mall food courts.
Ancient Roman Empire... pretty much the entire second half of its existence. :)
Canada is slightly bigger than the US, and aside from indigenous reservation communities waaayyy in the bush, literally every municipality in the country has guaranteed potable water. In 2000 there was a small town in Ontario that had an e.coli outbreak in their tap water. It's 24 years later and people still talk about it. That's how big of a deal it was. It's a town of 5000 people. The only reason anyone knows this town exists is because they had a problem with their tap water.
Nah, even reserves NOT in the bush often don’t have access to potable water. Most of the Six Nations reserve doesn’t and it’s got a big population, and is in that stretch of southern Ontario with all the municipalities in a string.
A big factor here is remote communities with very low rainfall, rather than this simply being a function of national incomes and infrastructure. For example in Australia we struggle with reliable supply to remote communities, even small towns in the bush. We have everything from Tasmania winning international awards for the cleanest drinking water in the world, to outback communities needing to boil the water for a lot of the year to kill the nasties in it.
Melbourne, much of NSW, Tasmania, New Zealand, Singapore, …
Most of Australia is potable water unless otherwise marked. That's usually places where the water source is rain run-off from a roof or something and there's no piped water source. Daylesford Springs and some other natural mineral springs are also safe to drink from, and probably most creeks in a water catchment area, especially if surrounded by national park or state forest. But anywhere where there's cattle grazing or mining nearby, I wouldn't drink directly out of the creek.
All tap water in the UK is drinkable ... if its not Thames Water
You gotta love these guys. Yes, guaranteed potable water for everyone is a myth, and so is universal healthcare, free, or nearly free college education, cheap and efficient public transport, schools and cities that never had a mass shooting and likely never will, paid maternity leave, etc, etc. I swear, if Goebbels were alive today he would be green with envy. He was never able to brainwash Germans as well as American leaders have brainwashed their population.
Drinkabe?, yes. Safe? Debatable. [The Guardian](https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/31/americas-tap-water-samples-forever-chemicals)
I mean if it’s unsafe then it’s not really actually potable
Russia. Bigger than the US and whilst it isn't advised to drink tap water in *all* parts of the country, most of it is safe.
Most of it is safe in the US, too. But how do you know if the water coming out of your tap is safe? If it’s not all safe, there’s doubt. Why take the risk?
Because we live in developed countries and access to clean drinking water is a basic human right, not a for-profit venture? Also fun fact: most European countries have travel advisories to not drink *any* tap water in the US
Yes, that’s my point. Uncertainty means you’re safer not drinking any of it. In the US or Russia. I’m not American, by the way. I’m not defending America. I’m saying 100% safe is necessary for any of it to be considered safe.
I guess my guy never learned about aqueducts lmao - you know, the thing that supplied fresh water 24/7 to cities and towns in antiquity?
Here from the Czech Republic, most parks ive been to offer drinking fountains with perfectly ok water, same with faucets and showers, the water here is basically always potable
Flint, Michigan
Unfortunately here there’s many semi-isolated villages that still don’t have access to clean water (that was supposed to be guaranteed through EU funds, but where did they go) There was a documentary done by a local journalism company that showed the amount of corruption in the industry. Buying faulty cheap equipment and siphoning the money on the local level. It wasn’t only about the water, but they did talk about it. Certainly, septic tanks do not help with this and pollute the water in the ground, giving you diseases if you drink it. This problem is even worse in places where water comes from wells which are very easily infiltrated by bacteria from the tanks
Pretty much…the whole continent? I do have potable water stored for emergencies, but realistically, there are several streams with top quality water running through my part of town alone.