Quality Of Tap Water In Bangkok

[cyberbillny]

Hi,

I've been drinking Bangkok tap water for the past 6 months. No apparent effect or illness that I can notice, but I'm increasingly curious about the quality of the water, particularly with the majority of my friends and colleagues only drinking from gallon water at home or work. Triggers my curiosity of the quality of Bangkok tap water and question if I should start to do the same and start ordering gallon water delivery.

Would appreciate if someone could share the knowledge or advice about the quality of Bangkok tap water. Also appreciate if any advice/recommendation which is the better gallon water delivery for home, I'm thinking "Sprinkle" brand.

TIA!

[Naam]

"Would appreciate if someone could share the knowledge or advice about the quality of Bangkok tap water."

there is no such thing like "Bangkok tap water". the quality of the water varies widely although it might come from exactly the same source. quality is affected by leakages which might cause suction of dirt and bacteria and much and foremost by the cleanliness of the tank where the city water is stored.

best of luck to you drinking tap water and saving a few Baht for more Chang.

[lopburi3]

That said - and believe you are talking home tanks as quite sure there is no standing public water tank for Bangkok - water tested by US Embassy medical section in the late 1970's showed less contamination in the CBD water supply than in the major bottled waters. I expect both have improved since that time and know the low pressure problems in most areas for tap water have been worked on. I do have a ceramic filter as most Thai use.

[farangene]

Bangkok Post did a long article on tap drinking water purity in Bangkok about 5-6 years ago. Their conclusion was that the water is pure when it leaves the water dept facility but might get contaminated if any cracked/broken pipes near the main where it is routed to homes. Their bottom-line general suggestion was probably OK to drink tap water if the building you were living in was less than 10 years old.

My current building is older than 10 years and I drink the water sometimes. Never had any problems caused by it that I was aware of.

Edited March 3, 2010 by farangene

[Gary A]

I lived in an apartment in Bangkok for two years. I thought it was nice that my landlady furnished my big bottles of water. As it turned out, she was filling them from the tap. She claimed that the tap water was good because she ran it through her filter. I looked at the ancient sand filter and she says it hasn't been cleaned since she bought it. She said that it only needs cleaned when the water slows way down and that it has never slowed down. Apparently the tap water was Okay because I'm still alive.

[wpcoe]

I recall reading someplace that although the Bangkok municipal water supply was adequately filtered and therefore safe to drink, that it was more highly chlorinated that many foreigners were used to in their home countries, and that the chlorine may upset more sensitive digestive tracts. For that reason alone, I used to filter (via a generic countertop ceramic+charcoal filter unit) my drinking water when I lived in Bangkok. I never got parasites or illness the entire five years I lived in Bangkok.

[rodentwarrior]

I have lived here for over 5 years. I moved into my current apartment about 2 years ago. It had a ceramic/charcoal filter fitted under the sink with it's own tap.

I have been drinking this water ever since with no ill effects. I clean the filter reservoir out every 6 months, and replaced the filter a few weeks ago.

[ukrules]

Like someone else said the problems are with the distribution of the water through an ageing pipe network.

I often wondered if there are tests that can be run on tap water, I am sure we could you just collect a sample and mail it off to a lab for some tests. What tests are required and how much they cost would be the interesting thing.