Tap water in Thailand safe to drink: PWA

[webfact]

PWA: Tap water in Thailand safe to drink

BANGKOK, 14 August 2014 (NNT) - The Provincial Waterworks Authority has reiterated that tap water in Thailand is safe to drink and its production is in line with the World Health Organisation (WHO) standard.

The agency said its water treatment plants ensure that tap water in each province exceeds world standards for drinking water. The “Safe Tap Water” campaigns initiated by the body have been growing, with the latest drive launched in Trang.

The campaign is aimed at informing the public of the quality of tap water and at urging the public to forgo purchasing bottled water in favour of drinking water from the tap.

The Department of Health will also be conducting analysis of the water provided by the PWA as part of the campaign.

The public is nonetheless advised to inspect their household water pipes to make sure they are in good condition all year round.


-- NNT 2014-08-14

[Stradavarius37]

cough cough *bullsh%t* cough cough...

[DrTuner]

I ain't drinking it straight from the tap. We've got a five stage filter and two of the filters (ceramic and carbon) need constant replacement due to being clogged or ineffective. The water coming in is far from pure.

[David48]

That has to be the funniest thing I read here for a while on the News Forum ...

So, despite the diversity of all of Thailand's water supplies, the wells, the bores, the dams, across the entire Nation ... the PWA declare everywhere is fit to drink.

HA ... tell that to my extended Thai Family ... they refuse to drink it and wash their clothes begrudgingly in it.

Potable water out of the pipe ...

.

[riki]

my tap water comes thro brown all last week I would not even shower in it

[RedQualia]

The most common water pipe in Thailand appears to be PVC. PVC is extremely susceptible to bacterial growth inside (see here, for example: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8444652). Bacteria even comes back after "being killed," in pipes containing only sterile water. (see the article.) The inside surfaces of the PVC pipes used in any house with at least modest age is covered with black gook. Go ahead... Take a hacksaw to one of the PVC pipes in your house and have a look.

Of course, bottled water may be no better. Perhaps the best approach is to install a high quality water filter on the tap and drink water you know to have been properly cleansed.

Edited August 14, 2014 by RedQualia

[Bluespunk]

" The Provincial Waterworks Authority has reiterated that tap water in Thailand is safe to drink"

Lots of things are safe to drink, not going to do so though, no matter how sterile it may be.

[IMA_FARANG]

When I first retired to Bangkok in 2010 I lived with my then Thai GF and her family.

I drank tap water, often boiled in coffee or tea, for 6 months.

No problems.

Then I realized my Thai family usually drank bottled water. They had a hot water container which boiled the water the bought in bottles in the market.

They only used that water for drinking water. Tap water was not for drinking, only for washing.

So, frankly, I did what the Thais were doing ..... using bottled water for drinking and boiling that water before I drank it.

maybe that was overkill, but I just followed the Thais I saw doing that.

I mean what to do I know, I'm just a dumb Farang anyhow.

[terryp]

ask this idiot to contact me , I will give him a glass of water straight from my kitchen sink tap ...if he drinks it i will give him 10,000baht a glass full (just ignore the cloudy colour its perfectly safe IDIOTS)

[Tatsujin]

It might be "safe" when it leaves the plants, but by the time it goes through all those crappy, rusty, gungy pipes that are in place before finally emerging from the taps, I'd dispute how "safe" it is to drink . . .

[Pib]

The PWA says tap water is safe to drink? Maybe they haven't checked the water at my mother-in-laws and other relatives villages in Nakorn Pathom province on the west border of Bangkok. Their water is frequently brown, you can see dirt in the water, and it irritates the skin of many. You wash you car with that water and it's dirtier after you finish the wash.

Now with that being said, I live in western Bangkok and the water is clean in my moobaan in my humble opinion as do many of my Thai neighbors. The family and I have been drinking it for 6 years and the water we drink is only run through a small inline charcoal filter which I change once a year. Have such a filter on the one drinking water tap and one on the frig ice maker line. We haven't got sick or died from the water yet. Annually we get a water quality test report from the Bangkok Water Dept showing the test results and how they meet standards XYZ. Now some of my other neighbors drink only bottled water....there is no hope in convincing them tap water is safe to drink anywhere in Thailand.

[jacky54]

It's safe when it leaves it's place of origin but not always when it come out of the tap. If it was safe Thais would not spend money on bottled water and expensive filters.

Edited August 14, 2014 by jacky54

[ColdSingha]

in hua hin can buy 20 litre bottles for 20 baht each

i caught them filling them up with tap water

[lostinisaan]

PWA: Tap water in Thailand safe to drink

My hamster fell laughing off its wheel and died with a smile in its face when I read this article for it.

Edited August 14, 2014 by lostinisaan

[smedly]

I ain't drinking it straight from the tap. We've got a five stage filter and two of the filters (ceramic and carbon) need constant replacement due to being clogged or ineffective. The water coming in is far from pure.

The place I stay is piped into the water main (so far so good) but as the supply is uncertain there are also water tanks that are filled from either - the mains - a truck - rain water or where ever, the problem is you never know the actual source or mix that is coming out of the tap, so unless you have a rig connected feeding the tap (which I had in the past) there is no way I would drink straight from the tap

[CMFarang]

So after adding 20% tap water to my fish pond, All 200 fish were dead in 2 hours. They started dying after 15 minutes , I netted them out and rinsed them in Rain Water and put them into a water barrel of more rain water, they all died regardless.

So the toxin was lethal after a 15 minute exposure, and this is DRINKING WATER ???

Those fish survived 2 years ++, but all it took was the one little top up to KILL.

This was not Chlorine poisoning, I know what that smells like , this was Toxic.

THIS IS THAILAND , you have been warned.

[bangrak]

my tap water comes thro brown all last week I would not even shower in it

They were having a test with a coffee distribution system, did you have the latte or the americano? LOL

[seabass69]

That's like a funeral director saying that dying's good for you. It's their job to spout such nonsense.

[gemini81]

Such liars.

[slipperylobster]

Sure it is. Our water pressure was low, so the water authorities came out and unscrewed the meter. One of them got a 2 meter piece of rusted rebarb and stuck it down the hole. After jamming it in several times, about a gallon of black muck started oozing out. This went on for about 15 minutes. Then he got some brown water for another 5 minutes, before screwing the meter back on and declaring all was fine. They did this, with the same result, up and down the soi. He then warned us about the people across the street, who were keeping 5 dogs locked up in the small area just inside their gate. They would hose off the dog crap into the underground road gutter..through the holes in the covering. That is where the plastic pvc pipe that fed our water originated. Just a little crack around a fitting would supply us with plenty of E Coli, and who knows whatever. There you go.

[ratcatcher]

The Provincial Waterworks Authority has reiterated that tap water in Thailand is safe to drink.

Maybe in a select few controlled areas, yes. We use water from an Artesian well up here in Pathum Thani. My dog drinks it and the fish live in it. We use it to bathe and wash clothes. All else is purchased from vendors in 20 liter bottles. So far never sick.

For the PWA to make such a blanket statement about a vital thing like water is IMO irresponsible to say the least.

Considering the other quality controls of services that administrations are responsible for like sewage, garbage and electricity, I am loath to trust anything a bureaucrat says.

[Artisi]

Maybe, and that's a big maybe at the discharge of the treatment plant but by the time it reaches you it could be well and truly contaminated by any / many pollutants including raw sewage. The fresh water reticulation and plumbing (hahahaha) in this country is abysmal, there is absolutely no checks and not even basic checks for cross contamination, but what do you expect from Somchai the local farmer / labourer connecting into the main water supply lines without any thought or perception of contamination. Maybe that's why most advanced countries have licenced plumbers only allowed to make connections into town water supply systems.

[granuaile]

I normally drink water from my apartment buildings reverse osmosis filtering machine, but I have on numerous occasions drank the tap water here in Bangkok with no problems... I don't worry too much about it... Outside Bangkok, though, I would not be confident to do that...

[h90]

The PWA says tap water is safe to drink? Maybe they haven't checked the water at my mother-in-laws and other relatives villages in Nakorn Pathom province on the west border of Bangkok. Their water is frequently brown, you can see dirt in the water, and it irritates the skin of many. You wash you car with that water and it's dirtier after you finish the wash.

Now with that being said, I live in western Bangkok and the water is clean in my moobaan in my humble opinion as do many of my Thai neighbors. The family and I have been drinking it for 6 years and the water we drink is only run through a small inline charcoal filter which I change once a year. Have such a filter on the one drinking water tap and one on the frig ice maker line. We haven't got sick or died from the water yet. Annually we get a water quality test report from the Bangkok Water Dept showing the test results and how they meet standards XYZ. Now some of my other neighbors drink only bottled water....there is no hope in convincing them tap water is safe to drink anywhere in Thailand.

Well here it is often so full with chlorine that you could also drink it when it is brown color......the brown is dead from the chlorine.

[ourmanflint]

So after adding 20% tap water to my fish pond, All 200 fish were dead in 2 hours. They started dying after 15 minutes , I netted them out and rinsed them in Rain Water and put them into a water barrel of more rain water, they all died regardless.

So the toxin was lethal after a 15 minute exposure, and this is DRINKING WATER ???

Those fish survived 2 years ++, but all it took was the one little top up to KILL.

This was not Chlorine poisoning, I know what that smells like , this was Toxic.

THIS IS THAILAND , you have been warned.

Same thing happened to me in Bangkok a few years back. Lost over 40 Plakat (siamese fighters), some very expensive. I had always used tap water safely for many months then kaboom, all dead in 10 minutes. Lost heart after that.

[northernjohn]

the whole article is ridicules. There is no way you could say the whole country is safe to drink any more than you could say Canada the second largest country in the world can guarantee every place has safe tap water.

[ezzra]

Safe maybe for buffalos not for humans, took one look at a replaced water pipe in my condo

and you wouldn't believe the scum that was blocking the flow,

[CMFarang]

So after adding 20% tap water to my fish pond, All 200 fish were dead in 2 hours. They started dying after 15 minutes , I netted them out and rinsed them in Rain Water and put them into a water barrel of more rain water, they all died regardless.

So the toxin was lethal after a 15 minute exposure, and this is DRINKING WATER ???

Same thing happened to me in Bangkok a few years back. Lost over 40 Plakat (siamese fighters), some very expensive. I had always used tap water safely for many months then kaboom, all dead in 10 minutes. Lost heart after that.

Same here , tried a couple more Koi , twice . and the same result, 3 weeks and DEAD.

Now I just keep Guppies to keep mosquitoes away and they are Much cheaper to replace.

[JacChang]

The only water i'll ever drink in Thailand is sprinkle water

[SuwadeeS]

Best lie of the year. We German have the best water. Thai always talk and pretend....