Bottled Water. Is It Safe?

[Lite Beer]

Up to now we have been drinking water from those 20 Litre bottles that get delivered to our home for around 15 Baht.

This week we ran out and had to buy some 6 Litre Nestle bottles of water at 30 Baht a bottle.

This got me thinking.

Is the branded water any more beneficial than the local filtered water at 15 Baht / 20 Litres?

Is the cheap water harmful over a period of time?

What is the difference?

What water do you drink?

How about rain water? Many of the locals collect it in those big urns and bottle it then put it in the fridge. Is it drinkable? Do any members do this?

I would be interested to know what type of water others drink.

[PoorSucker]

The water is produced by reverse osmosis that takes away all minerals that you need.

[Boater]

i buy my water from Makro, ultra cheap

dont really trust the water companies and there 15 THB buckets, always reminds my of Delboys ' Peckham Springs ' scam

[astral]

Beer is much better than water............

[kokesaat]

Years ago, when we lived within the city of Udon, we stopped buying the big bottled water after we saw a soi dog pee on one of the empty bottles sitting alongside a neighbor's gate. I know the water companies are 'supposed' to clean the bottles before refilling, but we lost our appetite.

[elkangorito]

How would you feel about water that was filtered by clay?

[kyb789]

Don't drink the rain water. Every hear of acid rain? Well, Bangkok (or Thailand) ain't the Swiss Alps.

[elkangorito]

Don't drink the rain water. Every hear of acid rain? Well, Bangkok (or Thailand) ain't the Swiss Alps.

In BKK & Chaing Mai...do not drink 'rainwater'. Anywhere else in Thailand...do drink the rainwater.

[Garry9999]

Singha water in brown bottles, only way to go.

[astral]

Seriously we used to use tap water for washing and cooking. This was in Chonburi province.

The tap water was passed though a triple filter, carbon/resin/ceramic to produce our drinking water.

In the UK water is treated with Fluoride to help prevent tooth decay.

That will not be true of any water source in Thailand.

Consider using a toothpaste with extra fluoride.

[zzaa09]

Don't drink the rain water. Every hear of acid rain? Well, Bangkok (or Thailand) ain't the Swiss Alps.

We've long taken collected rain water as our principle drinking/cooking source, with no ill effects. Naturally, there are many parts of the world that bottled water availability would be a god-send. But in the overall scheme of things, I'm of the opinion that the bottled water 'industry' and it's subsidiaries is one big scam.

[Farma]

zzaa09 I'd be wary of drinking rainwater unless you've had it tested. There's a lot of nasty chemicals used on the farms that get blown around eventually landing on your roof. You may not see the effects of the chemicals now but who knows what the future holds.

Edited July 23, 2010 by Farma

[sharking]

Me and wifie drink the rain water here in the jungle,when we get the rain that is,she drinks the water from the concrete vats as i call them i drink the water from a stainless steel tank,all from the roof but before the water goes into the storage tanks there must be a lest 30 minutes of rain before we transfer the water,

taste ok for me,but when our water supply runs ou,t i do use the 15bt bottles, don't know why but i prefer rain water,done no harm to me yet, still can open a bottle of leo

[neverdie]

I drink it all, tap water, bottle water, the water in the big bottles for 12 baht (sounds like ur being ripped off LB), but never klong water.

I even went out with a girl years back who use to collect rain water in an old tyre carcass out the back and give it to me to drink, until I worked out why my guts hurt.

Ole iron guts neverdie, the water here has never been a problem for me.

[jfchandler]

Based on the dust, dirt and other stuff that lands on my porch outside and floors inside all the time in BKK, I don't think I'd be drinking the rainwater that washes all the c**p out of the skies... Maybe the air pollution isn't as bad as it used to be, but surely even now it's not good. Don't think I want that flavor in my drinking water.

For the past six months, I've been using BKK tap water filtered thru a PUR 18 cup countertop filtration unit. Water tastes fine and no ill effects ever since we started with this. And the benefit is, no more carrying home liter bottles of store purchased water, and no more wondering how the store bottled water was really prepared.

And then, just to be on the safe side, when it comes to drinking, we're mostly then boiling the water after it's been filtered either for my wife's hot coffee or for my own hot tea converted to iced tea habit. And same thing when it comes to cooking, mostly in something that ends up getting boiled as well.

[zzaa09]

zzaa09 I'd be wary of drinking rainwater unless you've had it tested. There's a lot of nasty chemicals used on the farms that get blown around eventually landing on your roof. You may not see the effects of the chemicals now but who knows what the future holds.

That must account the third arm growing outta my waist..... In all seriousness and comparatives, we don't really know what bottled water is all about either. Certainly in today's world where profits dominate over quality as such applies to mass production.

[george]

The secret life of drinking water

27 JANUARY 2010 JOE CUMMINGS

Thirsty folk: the average Thai downs 118 litres of bottled water each year

Thailand is Southeast Asia’s biggest consumer of bottled water, but is our choice of brand really a matter of taste?

A few months ago I was dining at Breeze, the vertiginous Chinese fusion restaurant projecting from Lebua Bangkok’s 52nd floor, when my host inquired what I thought of the water we had been served.

Had she asked about the Australian shiraz we were drinking, an instant opinion might have toppled from the tongue. But I hadn’t given the water much thought at all, so I took another sip, swished it around my teeth, peered through the clear goblet, and gamely replied, “Hmm. Tastes like water.”

“Like water?” she chuckled. “Decanter voted it the world’s best bottled water.”

I glanced at the shapely bottle resting in a wine chiller on the table, and made a note of the label: Waiwera Artesian Water, from New Zealand. The following day I was able to find the original December 2007 Decanter story online. The prestigious UK wine magazine had assembled a panel of top sommeliers – all of them Masters of Wine, and thus representing some of the most experienced palates in Europe – and had them taste-test 24 of the world’s top water brands. The list noted that Waiwera was priced at £9, (about $14), a litre at Claridge’s, the Art Deco luxury hotel in London.

Among the 24 rankings, three other results captured my attention immediately. Vittel (63 cents a litre at Tesco) had been ranked the second best water tasted, while tap water supplied by Thames Water (less two cents a litre) had been voted third. Meanwhile, 420 Volcanic, the most expensive water on the list at $82 a litre (and, like the winner, hailing from New Zealand), was ranked a lowly 18th.

According to Bottled Water Report, the trade publication for the International Bottled Water Association (IWBA), there are about 3,000 brands of bottled water around the globe. Americans and Europeans consumed the most bottled water worldwide as of 2008. Surprisingly, Thailand ranked 13th, representing the sole Asian country in the IWBA’s top twenty. In total annual consumption, Thais rank just behind the French, with the average Thai downing 118 litres of bottled water a year.

When Southeast Asia Globe came up with the idea of publishing an article about bottled drinking water in Thailand, I thought again about the Decanter tasting. Clearly, the taste of bottled waters can’t be readily correlated with price or place of origin. At any rate, here in Bangkok, very few people are inclined to pay Bt470 ($14)) for an imported bottle of H2O, even at a five-star restaurant.

So we decided to conduct our own water taste test, focusing on affordable, readily available domestic brands of bottled drinking water. Researching water taste tests online, I learned that one of the more notable first investigations was undertaken by seventh- and eighth-grade students at the Graham & Parks Alternative Public School in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1988 – nearly two decades before Decanter’s panel sniffed and sipped their way through an aqua pageant.

‘The bottled water companies have a strong incentive to make sure no one gets ill from their water’

The students decided to test a belief held by most of their junior high peers: that water from the school’s third-floor drinking fountain was superior to the water from the fountains on the first and second floors. Under the supervision of their teachers, the students designed and conducted a blind taste test of water samples taken from fountains on each of the floors.

To the students’ surprise, two-thirds preferred the water from the first-floor fountain, despite the fact that all had claimed to prefer the water from the third floor. In the face of their strong belief in the superiority of the third-floor fountain, the students so doubted their initial data that they conducted a second blind test with a larger sample – the rest of the junior high, about 40 students in all. The results were virtually the same, with water from first floor favoured over water from the third floor.

Salt water: the addition of minerals such as magnesium and potassium can give bottled water an extra health kick

With these noble precedents in mind, The Globe set about shopping for bottled water. We settled on six brands you can find in virtually every supermarket or mini-mart in Bangkok: Aura, Crystal, Minere, Namthip, Nestlé and Singha.

Before setting the liquids loose on our tasters, I talked to Suksom Jangsawang, managing director of Water Test Company and an MA graduate of the Unesco-IHE Institute for Water Education in Delft, the Netherlands – the world’s top centre for water management research and education. For the last decade, Suksom’s company has designed, equipped and serviced water quality monitoring stations for rivers, canals and industrial wastewater. In an effort to go beyond the colourful descriptions and marketing tags on our water brands, I asked him to explain how bottled water differed from public tap water, and what kind of water treatments were used in Thailand.

“The raw water that the drinking water companies use is taken from the same sources as the public tap water: Thailand’s rivers and canals. The only difference is in the treatment,” Suksom said.

“The Metropolitan Waterworks Authority (MWA) treats tap water in conventional ways, by filtering out turbidity [suspended particles] and disinfecting with chlorine to remove toxic bacteria.” Although the MWA sets and enforces standards for tap water in Bangkok, the standards do not approach WHO or other international water quality standards. Outside Bangkok, water treatment comes under the aegis of the Provincial Waterworks Authority, whose standards are even lower, according to Suksom.

“The quality of tap water in Bangkok further suffers in neighbourhoods far from the pumping station where standpipe pressures may be low, making them susceptible to outside contamination, both industrial and organic, when pipes leak.

“Individual buildings may also have rusting pipes or pipe fittings, increasing turbidity and metal contamination. Furthermore, owners often build systems that store tap water in large tanks, where the supply can stagnate and breed bacteria.”

When asked about home filtering systems, Suksom replied, “Post-treatment units use resin plus activated carbon to reduce water hardness and turbidity, and to filter out residual chlorine and organic compounds. But most people don’t maintain these systems properly. After a while, the carbon filter will accumulate a lot of germs and downgrade tap water quality instead of improving it.” The maintenance cost of these systems can be prohibitive for many people as well.

As for the popular drinking water dispensers at petrol stations and supermarkets where people can fill their own containers, Suksom points out that a similar lack of regular maintenance means they are not 100% reliable.

All of which makes the idea of relying on bottled drinking water, as do so many people in Western countries, sound all the more desirable. Whether the labels are marked “mineral water,” “purified water” or just “drinking water,” it all comes from the same sources as publicly distributed tap water and thus filtering and chemical treatment is necessary.

“The bottled water companies have a strong business incentive to make sure no one gets ill from their products, so they supplement conventional methods with more aggressive, reliable treatment measures, including reverse-osmosis (RO) and ozone gas technologies.”

Although there are problems inherent in these technologies as well, they have more to do with how the containers in which the water is stored react to them, rather than with the contents.

Before hearing Suksom’s assessment on the containers, let’s look at the results of the informal blind tasting we conducted in Bangkok.

Our panel of six included three men and three women, half of whom were Thailand residents and half visitors from abroad: Rattakan (age 20, Thai, business student at Bangalore University); Claudia (age 29, Belizean, life ethnographer); Bill (age 30, American, Bangkok Post editor); Tom (age 44, British, Hong Kong publisher); Greg (age 45, American, Green Day guitar technician); and Paige (age 44, American, hair stylist).

The tasting venue was neither as distinguished as Claridge’s nor as scientific as Suksom’s lab. Our panel convened around a table in the living room of my apartment, deemed suitable because it was cost-free and offered plenty of light for viewing the samples.

Sky high: unlike in the US or Europe, Thailand does not strictly control ozone content in its bottled water

The panellists were told they would taste six brands of bottled water but were not informed as to which six were being compared. Before the taste test began, we asked the three Thailand residents whether they preferred any particular brands. Claudia claimed she usually chose Namthip because she felt it had no chemical or mineral after-taste, and therefore had the most neutral and pleasant flavour. Bill preferred Singha, he said, because it was cheap and had a sweetness that he liked. Rattakan thought Aura tasted better and purer than any other Thai brand.

The six brands were served in identical two-ounce vessels of clear glass, in successive flights identified only by the letters A through F. As they tasted each brand, our panellists wrote their impressions on printed questionnaires.

The panellists exchanged curious glances and nervous laughter as the first two flights were served and they began scribbling down tasting notes. By the third brand, the room became quieter as the collective level of concentration increased. Tom summed up the group spirit as he commented that the exercise was “very Zen” in the way it compelled him to focus on flavour subtleties he might not otherwise notice.

After tasting all six brands, the panellists were given the opportunity to request a second taste of any of the six. Three of the participants re-tasted three brands each, two re-tasted only two brands and one participant declined to re-taste at all. Then everyone ranked the brands they had tasted from number 1, for their favourite, to number 6, for the least impressive. The tasting, writing and ranking took about an hour, after which I collected the tasting sheets and shared the results with the group.

Surprisingly, there were no strong correlations between ranking and brands. Two members ranked Aura number 1 while two other members ranked the brand number 2. Meanwhile three members – half the panel – placed Namthip second. Three panellists also ranked Singha at the bottom. The latter two voting clusters showed the strongest group agreement, but at 50% backing, not particularly significant.

In their written appraisals of the brands, the water tasters showed wild variation. In reference to Namthip (“Brand B” to the panel), Claudia wrote “Slightly bitter, clean, virgin, durable. I can drink this one for hours.” For the same sample, Tom wrote “Mineral or chemical kick, like it travelled through a rusty pipe.”

Rattakan, writing about Singha (Brand F), said “Soft, sweet, similar to Brand A,” while Greg noted down “Alkaline taste, heavy mouth feel.”

While on the one hand, such results might suggest that flavour differences between brands aren’t very noticeable, another conclusion might be that there is simply no consensus when it comes to brand preferences.

The latter notion appeared to be borne out by the fact that Rattakan, who had noted a pre-test preference for Aura, also ranked Aura first in the blind tasting. Likewise Bill, a self-claimed Singha fan, rated Singha number one. And Claudia, who had said that Namthip was her preferred brand, confirmed that preference in her number-one ranking. Considering none of these Thailand residents knew the identities of the brands they tasted, that 100% correlation between stated preference and blind tasting preference suggests that people – some people, at least – really can distinguish flavour differences in water.

However, before you conclude that bottled drinking waters are the obvious way to go, Suksom has more to say about the containers in which they are supplied.

“Where there is a choice, I would only drink bottled water from clear PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles rather than the cloudy PE (polyethylene) bottles because water stored in the latter is more apt to contain carcinogenic compounds leached from the plastic.

“Unfortunately, even with PET bottles, if the ozone content (introduced during ozone treatment) isn’t strictly controlled, an over-abundance of residual ozone can react with the bottle and unleash toxic and carcinogenic compounds. In US and EU drinking water standards, ozone content is strictly controlled. But ozone parameters are not even mentioned in Thai industrial standards or by the Ministry of Public Health.”

“Always store bottled water in cool environments away from direct light,” advises Suksom, as heat and light can speed up the reactions between water and its container. Suksom says to trust your eye and tongue. “If you can see no turbidity in the water from a PET bottle, taste a sample at ambient temperature. If there is no sour taste then most likely the water is safe to consume.”

Or you could move to Christchurch, New Zealand, where you may not need to buy bottled water at all. It’s one of the only urban areas in the world with access to pure, raw water of sufficient volume that no treatment is necessary.

But how would a blind tasting of the water from outdoor Isaan restaurants in Christchurch fare, I wonder?

-- © 2010 Joe Cummings

[zzaa09]

I drink it all, tap water, bottle water, the water in the big bottles for 12 baht (sounds like ur being ripped off LB), but never klong water.

I even went out with a girl years back who use to collect rain water in an old tyre carcass out the back and give it to me to drink, until I worked out why my guts hurt.

Ole iron guts neverdie, the water here has never been a problem for me.

That's how I've always been....and I've lived in the 'undeveloped' environment most of my life. I can drink any sort of water.

[Tywais]

In the UK water is treated with Fluoride to help prevent tooth decay.

That will not be true of any water source in Thailand.

Not entirely true, though the percentage is on the low side.

There are some countries where Fluorosis, too much fluorine from natural resources are a major health problem.

International Water and Sanitation Center

[catmac]

<snip>

In the UK water is treated with Fluoride to help prevent tooth decay.

That will not be true of any water source in Thailand.

Consider using a toothpaste with extra fluoride.

We drink the natural spring water from either Lotus or Carrefour (same water, sold under their own brand name) that actually has a high fluoride content. I wonder if the natural presence of fluoride could account for the generally good teeth of Thais, given their addiction to sugar?

[TAWP]

I would never drink rain water in Thailand...not after seeing the wierd affect water drops from rain leave on my glasses...it is *not* clean water by any standard...

[jfchandler]

Interesting article above, once you get past the snooty opening...

But, now I'm feeling much more reassured....

“The Metropolitan Waterworks Authority (MWA) treats tap water in conventional ways, by filtering out turbidity [suspended particles] and disinfecting with chlorine to remove toxic bacteria.” Although the MWA sets and enforces standards for tap water in Bangkok, the standards do not approach WHO or other international water quality standards. Outside Bangkok, water treatment comes under the aegis of the Provincial Waterworks Authority, whose standards are even lower, according to Suksom.

Looks like it's back to drinking khlong water for me... :bah:

But seriously, my PUR unit recommends to change the two-stage filter every two months or so, depending on use. And I follow that schedule religiously....

One good sign... When I put the filtered water into my countertop water boiler to prepare it for making green tea, the boiler basin has stayed remarkably clean and free of mineral junk building up on the bottom or sides of the metal tank.

[hughben]

When in Thailand I drink Volvic.

All the local brands contain fluoride which I steer clear of.

Any one seen the documentary made by the BBC journalist 'The Fluoride Deception'?

I wouldn't drink tap water unless my life depended on it.

I would assume it's high in heavy metals.

Edited July 23, 2010 by hughben

[MB1]

How would you feel about water that was filtered by clay?

I'd prefer vodka and Jack D triple filtered by charcoal...

Water, I just buy it from a supermarket or shop like 7/11...

Edited July 23, 2010 by MB1

[yabaaaa]

Don't drink the rain water. Every hear of acid rain? Well, Bangkok (or Thailand) ain't the Swiss Alps.

What??? so clouds all change at the Swiss border do they?

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/230626/europe_still_showered_by_acid_rain/index.html

Edited July 23, 2010 by yabaaaa

[Rinrada]

In Bangkok we have those stainless steel filtration jobbies with the ceramatic filters and still alive since install ..almost 7 years.

Up in CH our H2O comes straight out of the mountains via a dam behind us and tastes as sweet as nature intended.

We get it first (on line) before it heads down to the villages below but have have also had it tested with good results.

Hopefully next year will do our own boreholes and might even have a go a t bottleing and flogging the stuff...bit of "Farang Highland Spring"....aka Del boy style...custy...

[Javabear]

After doing some plumbing work here at the house and seeing all the black funk on the inside of the pipes, I can assure you that I will not be drinking anything that comes out of my tap.

[Lite Beer]

From the earlier article.

However, before you conclude that bottled drinking waters are the obvious way to go, Suksom has more to say about the containers in which they are supplied.

“Where there is a choice, I would only drink bottled water from clear PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles rather than the cloudy PE (polyethylene) bottles because water stored in the latter is more apt to contain carcinogenic compounds leached from the plastic.

I found that a bit worrying have drunk from those bottles for the past 6 years.

[toptuan]

Having just come off of 10 days of severe diarrhea, I think I've linked its onset with a change in water suppliers. For six years I've drank water in the big 20L container (15B) which I picked up at a local beverage shop, with no ill effects.

However, about 10 days ago, a young guy in a beat-up-looking pick up truck came by, full of the same-sized bottles, but no logo or writing of any kind on them, indicating the source. Since he was offering to-the-door delivery for 12 baht, and since I hardly ever pass up a bargain, I bit the bait.

The water tasted OK, but after my bout with the trots, this thread has my full attention.

[PoorSucker]

I remember this article on Samui tap water.

http://news.samuiexpress.net/archive/86-samui-tap-water-deemed-clean-safe-to-drink.html

Edited July 24, 2010 by PoorSucker