Drinking tap water in Tainan-Taiwan
Hi,
The other day a Taiwanese friend told me that I shouldn't drink tap water in Tainan and southern Taiwan, even if it's boiled. Since for tea/coffee I usually just boil water, I found that a bit disturbing. The friend actually suggested that I boil bottled water and use those. Not that I mind doing that, I just wonder...
I'm guessing most street/regular restaurants in Tainan do use that water. I'm also guessing water provided in school is boiled and then filtered with a filter that hasn't been replaced for a long time, but maybe I'm a bit over-pessimistic.
I wonder - does anybody know something about tap water quality here in Tainan? what do you guys do when it comes to drinking water and water based home-made drinks (tea/coffee etc.) ?
Fili
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Don't drink water, drink BEER...
...or wine!
Ok, ok... at home I replace the filters in my system twice as often as necessary. I use this filtered water for everything exept washing the dishes... that is for rinsing I use filtered water as well. Logically for washing fruit, veggies etc.... as well.
As for boiling water, it kills bacteria but it does not remove microparticles, heavy metals and whatever else your imagination comes up with....
Come to think of it, the only time I don`t use filtered/boiled water is when I mix it with Sang Som. But then again I guess Sang Som does the job
...BTW there's a Thai shop at 58 JhongHua West
Because you can not avoid getting unfiltered water I do what I always do to get used to local bacteria: I brush my teeth with tab water... hence I don't swollow it! This tactic has proved useful thoughout all my travels anywhere. you get enough bacteria so your body adapts but not enough to get sick.
I have been reading about several surveys that have been done here in the area (a lot by NCKU) and the water quality can only be rated as poor.
For the bottled water: There was an article in the China Post that 3 out of 10 bottling companies that were checked last year, were cought bottling water under the government quality level, one was even worse than tab water due to the maintanance (or better lack thereof) of their equiptment...
So if you want my advice...
Have you ever tried making coffee with beer...
peace, tom
BTW
Michael makes similar suggestions on his blog:
www.michealturton.com/taiwan/water.html
also with reference to bottled water companies...
I'm off to having a beer, peace, bon appetit, tom
China Post on water quality
from http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national%20news/2008/05/13/1... :
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday guaranteed that all water purification plants in Taiwan provide quality drinking water up to safe standards.
The guarantee was made when the Cabinet-level agency cited seven of the many plants for supplying water with exceptional quality.
The seven cited plants include those located at Zhitan that processes the water stored at the Feitsui Reservoir that caters to consumers in the Greater Taipei area.
The others are located in the counties of Yilan, Hualien, Miaoli, Taichung, and Tainan. [...]
People in Taiwan are still required to boil tap water to prevent ingestion of possible contaminants from pipes or during the water's distribution process.