• Microw@lemm.eeEnglish
      27·
      10 months ago

      I mean, you will find at least one spot in every EU country with drinkable tap water

  • Wahots@pawb.socialEnglish
    17·
    10 months ago

    The amount of bottled water in the EU is insane, lol. I’d always Google it just to be sure, but the tap water is always drinkable, so I try to do that instead of buying a ton of bottles (or getting them at restaurants. I wish parts of the EU had more water fountains and refill stations for metal water bottles.

    I’m guessing it’s more of a cultural thing from the postwar reconstruction?

    • Bohurt@lemm.eeEnglish
      6·
      10 months ago

      The reason behind bottled water is a mixture of bad taste, hardness and lack of trust for watter supply (age related thing). Hence why additional filters have become somewhat popular (from small bottles with built-in filters that you fill on the go up to large separate installations that filter water for entire house). Everything depends on type of water available in certain areas. Cities by the mountains are the best in that aspect as they are often supplied with water directly from the mountains.

    • Rob1992@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      10 months ago

      It’s because aside from a few countries, everyone puts chlorine in their water. It stinks and tastes awefull

    • Haarukkateroitin@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      5·
      10 months ago

      Officially tap water in Malta is drinkable but somehow several hotels I visited have instructed not to drink tap water and office I used had water filters installed on tap.

      There is problems in EU countries too so I would not always trust the official declaration especially when country has higher level corruption - example like Malta.

  • tatann@lemm.eeEnglish
    11·
    10 months ago

    What european water filter do you guys use for tap water ?

    I personally use Brita, which is from Germany (and not Britain or Brittany)

        • wischi@programming.devEnglish
          4·
          10 months ago

          Austria is in a pretty privileged situation here. There is almost no chlorine added to the water. Because of the alps we have a lot of fresh drinking water sources.

      • Muoteck@szmer.infoEnglish
        8·
        10 months ago

        My tap water is hard af and filtering helps with that. Also tastes slightly better and doesn’t leave limescale stains after being filtered.

        • Renohren@lemmy.todayEnglish
          9·
          10 months ago

          Limescale is magnesium and calcium… Hard tapwater is the best water for you.

          For your washing machine, clothes, kitchenware though, not so great…

          Here’s the solution: use clear vinegar instead of fabric softener. It won’t stink once it’s dry. Promise.

          • eneff@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
            4·
            10 months ago

            You really shouldn’t use fabric softener for things intended to absorb and transfer moisture at some point anyway (So almost all laundry). It is terrible for the moisture wicking abilities of fabrics.

    • Macaroni_ninja@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      10 months ago

      Brita is the most popular here as well. I have a water jug from them. While the tap water is perfectly drinkable here I like to filter the water I use for tea and coffee. The tea tastes better and the coffee machine gets less limescale.

      Also worth mentioning BWT (Austrian brand) home filtering systems and water filter manufacturers. My sister has on of them fancy kitchen taps with built-in filtered water option and it uses a big BWT filter.

    • Echolynx@lemmy.zipEnglish
      4·
      10 months ago

      I like using Brita, but having to buy non-sustainable single-use filters is a serious buzzkill. Yet, since I rent, I can’t install one of those fancy tap-level filters either…

        • Echolynx@lemmy.zipEnglish
          2·
          10 months ago

          Technically, but I have no plumbing skills and don’t exactly want to drop $100+ for a sink-type filter that requires a lot more space than I have, anyway.

    • IndiBrony@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      10 months ago

      I don’t need to use a filter, but I do keep a jug of filtered water in the fridge for the summer when I want a nice pre-chilled drink. I, too, use Brita.

      I wonder if it does anything for microplastics?

      • iLStrix@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        10 months ago

        Heavily depends on where you live in Germany. It should be healthy (by law) and fairly tasty to drink everywhere in theorie, but in reality it is not. Especially depending on the landlord, old pipes can make drinking water range from tasting bad to being unhealthy. Yes, that is against the law, but landlords abusing the shit out of their position of power happens everywhere and a lot more than many probably realize.

    • SierpinskiDreieck@feddit.orgEnglish
      15·
      10 months ago

      US: 100/100 Score. Looking at you, Flint Michigan :D I don’t know what cherrypicking bullshit they had to do to get that result.

      • Kissaki@feddit.orgEnglish
        11·
        10 months ago

        Yale University’s Environmental Performance Index, which tracks 40 performance indicators—including “Sanitation & Drinking Water”—in order to pinpoint the most environmentally friendly countries in the world. Additional performance indicators tracked by the EPI include environmental health, climate change mitigation, air quality, waste management, biodiversity, fishery populations, and more.

        Sounds a bit like “stuff in place doing things” rather than actual quality tests. If so a bit of greenwashing seems feasible.

        Sounds more like a development index than a quality index.

        • SierpinskiDreieck@feddit.orgEnglish
          8·
          10 months ago

          Which is even wilder. They are acting like agricultural and oil-drilling practices in the US (and elsewhere too) are not degrading the global fresh water base.

          This is propaganda.

        • Benign@fedia.io
          7·
          10 months ago

          Two main issues I see here:

          • they don’t care if it is tap or bottle
          • they rely on hospitals reporting on contaminated water as a cause of medical issues or something

          I other words: Only bottled water available, and hospitals don’t report on water contamination issues - > 💯

      • evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        10 months ago

        Flint is a very small percentage of the population, so even if everyone in Flint was affected, which they weren’t, it would still be possible to get a 100/100 score. The problem with Flint’s water was highly publicized because of how uncommon it is for water to be unsafe in America.

        The legal limit for lead in drinking water in the EU is 10 ug/L. Lots of places in the EU are above that.

        Flint, at the height of the crisis, had a median of 3.5 ug/L, but 17% of samples were over 15. Compare that to the study I linked, which shows Vienna having 18% of samples over 25.

        • SierpinskiDreieck@feddit.orgEnglish
          1·
          10 months ago

          yeah. i do not doubt for a second scientists can bullshit up a nice statistic where any country on the planet gets a “100% renewable green sticker well done buddy”. those are smart people.

          if it says 100/100 and the US is fracking the shit out of its country something is left out. most likely by design. What we measure becomes our goals, if they say it is 100/100 that means keep doing what you are doing.

          e: I can’t imagine italy deservers one either, just to be clear, or the 96 in austria where I live. Lots of wells from people on the countryside are deemed unsfae bacuse of fertilizer pollution

    • Squizzy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      10 months ago

      I definitely dont believe the US is 100%, sounds like they just decided all the lead water was not drinking water so in fact only drinkable water is drinking water.

    • boonhet@lemm.eeEnglish
      5·
      10 months ago

      Yeah. I’ll drink tap water if I need to, but I’m not such a huge fan of limestone. I know it’s not bad for me and in sane amounts it doesn’t affect the flavour too much, but my tap water has way too much.

      I’ve lived in other cities in the same country where water tasted way better. So it’s not that I’ve ruined my taste buds by drinking copious amounts of carbonated mineral water, it’s that in the particular city I live, every apartment has had kinda shit tap water. Of course it’s all city water.

      My friend’s parents’ home has tap water that comes from a spring on their own property. It has a lot of iron and that water tastes pretty damn good. My own childhood home has a well that the pump lifts water from. It’s not excellent, but it’s still better than the tap water in my current city.

    • dumblederp@aussie.zoneEnglish
      3·
      10 months ago

      Chlorine is kinda fragile, you can boil it or use uv (sunlight) to break it down. I find Melbourne water tastes bleachy from the tap.

    • digipheonix@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Most places treat their water with chlorine or chloramine. Way better than having amoebas but if you can afford a filter do so. Different municipalities treat water differently, look yours up or test to see what you need. I went from carbon filters for chloramine to RO after moving somewhere with worse water

      • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        I guess it’s more like most places in some regions.

        • Where I grew up it they get 44% pumped groundwater, and 56% from capped sources in the surrounding hills. The water from the sources is UV light treated to kill any organic contaminants, the ground water didn’t need it.

        • Where I lived during high school it was all ground water filtered in three stages: ozone, activated carbon, and pH rebalancing, because it was close to a major river that leads into the Rhine.

        • Where I live now we get 85% groundwater, and 15% from sources with UV treatment for the sources only again.

        So you can imagine that I’m not used to the taste. Visiting some regions in Italy where they chlorinated their water pretty hard, especially in summer, is always kind of a shock taste wise. Though to be fair I gotta say in Torino where I was last year it was completely fine.

  • Justchilling@feddit.nlEnglish
    7·
    10 months ago

    As a EU citizen I always buy my water bottled instead of from the tap, not only does it taste better… but my family used to have a water distiller when I was growing up and we sometimes put tap water inside of it and after the distilling process the residue left was disgusting and gooey, even with some rust laced in (this was in the Côte d’Azur for context) in comparison most good quality bottled water just left a trace mineral residue. Safe to say I’d rather drink mineral residue over rust!

  • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    6·
    10 months ago

    I’ve never lived in a place where the water isn’t drinkable, but I’ve seldom drank from the tap without filtration. Water is so vital to us, it just seems wise to be careful.

    • Luccus@feddit.orgEnglish
      5·
      10 months ago

      Keep in mind that more surface area usually means more bacteria. Afaik there’s is nothing wrong with the usual changable filters (although there are a few horrid ones).

      But many private households tend to underestimate how dirty these things get, even after a short time.

      Since water supplied by the municipality is usually fine and most bad stuff happens as a last-mile problem, I shower in the morning (which I have to do anyway, but it also flushes most pipes) and then wash out a large stainless steel beaker before filling it up and drinking from it for most of the day.

  • SaturdayMorning@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    10 months ago

    I’m Canadian, living in Canada. I grew up drinking unfiltered tap water (municipal water) all my life and still do. My tap water has always tasted fine to me and I have no health issue. I prefer my tap water over soda, juices, sport drinks or flavoured water etc, which has too much sugar.