Tap water in Thailand safe to drink: PWA

[Local Drunk]

We shower, wash dishes and flush the toilet with it and that's that.

Edited August 14, 2014 by Local Drunk

[Local Drunk]

Safe to drink tap water in Thailand!

I would certanly NOT recommend it. But if you want to spend most of your time on the toilet (or in worse scenarios, at the infection clinic in your local hopsital...) just go ahead and drink it.

Here in Hua Hin the water we get delivered to our houses is of the worst quality. So we have invested in expensive water cleaning systems, which have to be carefully monitored all the time.

There is so many nasty things you casn get from drinking bad water, so please do not even try to drink water you are not 100% shure of it´s cleanliness.

We buy out as well... but it always get's boiled. My (Thai) wife doesn't even trust the filtration systems.

[SupermarineS6B]

I switched from bottled water (Crystal) to using the communal water filter in my condo which I know has regular maintenance. Maybe its just placebo, but I'm sure that my gut is healthier since I switched.

Does anyone know of a home kit you can use to test the water? Just for curiosities sake.

Yeah, after contracting a serious illness from Thai water, i went out and bought just about every bottled water brand in the seven eleven. After testing every brand, low and behold i found that the only two that were pure (Ph7) were of course western operated plants (Companies) Nestle, and Minere. These are the only two companies that are pure (Neutral) every other one, especially the Thai ones were acidic Ph5-4 very close to vinegar. Water purity has a very narrow margin, between 0.5-1.0 either way from Ph7......... After coming from a country where tap water is clean, i never thought that i would have to test bottled water for purity......... You can test Ph with a swimming pool tester........., but you can't pick up toxins, ( Very nearly killed me ) Thai tap water drinkable ? MY ARSE !!!!!!!

[wattaman]

I keep some water in the bathroom, in a small barrel/tank as all Thais do probably. It always has some dirt (mud) at the bottom and I have to clean it regularly. And this is not it, the insides of that barrel gets sticky, somehow it feels like shampoo when I touch it, not like normal water.

So... I doubt it is safe to drink.

Maybe they meant to say "It is safe to drink 1-2 times" !?!

[Payboy]

This is bad news for the bottled tap water industry.

[HiSoLowSoNoSo]

Thai tap water is great! (compared to in India)

[Local Drunk]

This is bad news for the bottled tap water industry.

Not at all... Did you bother to read the posts before your comment?

[Local Drunk]

Thai tap water is great! (compared to in India)

It's all yours!

[goltec]

Every town, village , city is responsable for their own tap water (piping system).

Everywhere water is treated differently and in some cases not treated at all but just pumped straight into the piping network of the village or town.

In cities the situation is better and the quality is being monitored. but even then absolutely not potable.

Just only take the fact that the water is chlorinated......good to kill bacteria (some...sure not all)....

type in google: "chlorine causes"

Chok Dee

(i am purifing water in Isaan since 2006 for schools, households, tempels, cityhalls etc etc........ H2O water systems. www.h2o.In.th

and for our foundation which is specialized in rainwater harvesting at rural schools www.hoat.nl )

not sure if it is allowed to name websites. if not, I appologize....

at the hoat website there is an interesting videoclip that I made about piping water being potable or not. it's called "waterfilm part 1 and 2

[Zeegator]

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)

If you're serious about that, which you obviously aren't, why did you not give your contact details? Worried he may take up your offer?

[TheSwede99]

PWA are most welcome to my house and drink from the tap.

[Zeegator]

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.

You know what "Toxic" smells like then?

You don't think fish drink the water they're in, do you ?

Perhaps it was the rain water that that you "rinsed" them in that killed them.

[Alwyn]

I've always drunk water from the tap in Chiang Mai, not had any problems (that I know about anyway). In Samui, not a chance and same in Phuket where the government mains water is well dodgy. I'd poured a bucket of water from the tap (in Bangtao) I put the bucket aside and forgot about it, 2 days later there thousands of little red worm-like things swimming around in there! I wouldn't drink tap water in Phuket even after boiling it!

[Gimbo]

Ha, ha, our tap water comes straight from the Mae Nam Mun river. It's just pumped straight into a water tower, and then distributed in the village (when the PVC pipes ain't broken somewhere). Try to shower in it and the floor is covered with sand and silt from the river...

Safe to drink....muh hah ha ha ....i die!

[Gimbo]

Ha, ha, our tap water comes straight from the Mae Nam Mun river. It's just pumped straight into a water tower, and then distributed in the village (when the PVC pipes ain't broken somewhere). Try to shower in it and the floor is covered with sand and silt from the river...

Safe to drink....muh hah ha ha ....i die!

[connda]

Ha ha ha ha ha

[Zeegator]

This is bad news for the bottled tap water industry.

Not at all... Did you bother to read the posts before your comment?

But they were posts from ThaiVisa members, our opinions don't have any credibility.

[lcp0761]

if your a foreigner, recommend you purchase bottle water for drinking.

Tap water is ok for washing dishes or cleaning food.

Recommend you boil the tap water first for personnel consumption.

[belg]

maybe at the source pipe in the water plant, but further than that?

only with a good set of filters

[lovetotravel]

For those folks living in the Bangkok Metropolitan Area you can get water quality info from the Metropolitan Water Works web site at this Link. There is Excel spreadsheet data there as to how the water is tested, results compared against World Health Organization standards, etc. But of course if the pipes in your local area/building/home are crap, then clean water going into them means crappy water coming out. But as I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, the water coming to my western Bangkok moobaan is clean and I only use a couple of charcoal filters which I change once year for my drinking water tap and my frig ice maker/water dispenser...being doing this for 6 years...me or none of my family have got sick or died yet from the water. Once every week or two we take a couple of 20 liter containers of our water to the wife's mother in a nearby province for drinking water...she thinks it tastes great...and she has also been drinking it for 6 years.

I don't mean to be rude, but do you really trust a Thai governmental agency? I barely trust the ones in the west, much less the ones here in Asia.

Consider your water source in Bangkok. It's the Chao Praya river. Hardly a source of quality water. Chlorine and basic filters won't get rid of all the toxins, pesticides and heavy metals.

Just saying...you won't get sick immediately, but the long term effects are pretty bad. Take a canal boat some day. It's disgusting.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/571167-just-one-fifth-of-wastewater-in-thailand-is-being-treated/

[wilcopops]

A couple of years ago I read an article saying the same, that the water in Bangkok was clean enough to drink.

I know we all scoff at that claim, but we don't really have reason to other than our own prejudices (well, I'm excluding you people who say that your tap water is coming out brown).

I got a cheap filter at my house, and I have been using that for 3 years with no problem... I just got the filter because everyone, foreigners and Thais alike, say that the tap water is unhealthy, despite the government claims.

Although the tap water might be as clean as the gov claims, I imagine there are lots of problems with the pipes and water seeping in during heavy rains. That is to say that the water may be clean at the processing plant, but lots can happen to it before it reaches my sink.

I find it a bit surprising that poorer Thai people will still opt to buy water rather than drink from the tap, considering the relative cost of water. Perhaps it's because they know the water is bad, or perhaps it's because they hold the same prejudices against their own country that foreigners also hold? Perhaps they think that only the poorest of the poor drink from the tap, and they don't want to be associated with the folks at the bottom of the economic ladder?

OK, I'VE DECIDED TO BE THE GUINEA PIG! I'M GOING TO DRINK THE TAP WATER RIGHT NOW, AND CONTINUE DRINKING IT FOR 3 DAYS. I'll just bypass my home filter. I live in a cheap apartment near Victory Monument on the 5th floor. I'll post my results...

No joking here... I might stat a new thread about this.

My concern would be the state of the pipes in your condo...not the mains.....

[wilcopops]

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

...and once you've mixed mains with another water in the tank....that's it - you don't know WHAT you've mixed it with.

[wilcopops]

For those folks living in the Bangkok Metropolitan Area you can get water quality info from the Metropolitan Water Works web site at this Link. There is Excel spreadsheet data there as to how the water is tested, results compared against World Health Organization standards, etc. But of course if the pipes in your local area/building/home are crap, then clean water going into them means crappy water coming out. But as I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, the water coming to my western Bangkok moobaan is clean and I only use a couple of charcoal filters which I change once year for my drinking water tap and my frig ice maker/water dispenser...being doing this for 6 years...me or none of my family have got sick or died yet from the water. Once every week or two we take a couple of 20 liter containers of our water to the wife's mother in a nearby province for drinking water...she thinks it tastes great...and she has also been drinking it for 6 years.

I don't mean to be rude, but do you really trust a Thai governmental agency? I barely trust the ones in the west, much less the ones here in Asia.

Consider your water source in Bangkok. It's the Chao Praya river. Hardly a source of quality water. Chlorine and basic filters won't get rid of all the toxins, pesticides and heavy metals.

Just saying...you won't get sick immediately, but the long term effects are pretty bad. Take a canal boat some day. It's disgusting.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/571167-just-one-fifth-of-wastewater-in-thailand-is-being-treated/

That's not how you purify water and the source is not necessarily Bkk - the river is long and tit has reservoirs.

[JoeThePoster]

This is bad news for the bottled tap water industry.

Not at all... Did you bother to read the posts before your comment?

Did you read "bottled tap water"?

[Halion]

Safe to drink is an outrageously stupid comment to make in such a sweeping manner . The majority of apartments have a central water tank on the roof and the conditions of the pipes and the tank would make it almost impossible to make such a sweeping statement. However even under the WHO standards potable only means that it is safe for consumption , not that it is clean.

[2fishin2]

I wont drink brown water

Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

[goltec]

if your a foreigner, recommend you purchase bottle water for drinking.

Tap water is ok for washing dishes or cleaning food.

Recommend you boil the tap water first for personnel consumption.

Only bottled water from companies like Singha, coca cola etc.....

The big or small white bottles of non-transparent plastic may not be safe either.

I've seen many of these places where they bottle the water at the inside and some are ok....many not....to safe money they often don't replace cartridges or uv lamps.

boiling kills,,,but it does not get rid of pestecides, fertilizers heavy metals and so on.... especially in agricultural areas like where i live, Buriram.

often water is pumped up from ponds and not treated well.

Buffalos bade in it and sh.t in it...

but not only buffalos......

happy vegetable washing to you!

especially in villages and towns often chlorine is not even added.

Be especially verry carefull with eating salads.... also in many restaurants!.

these are not boiled of course.

Edited August 14, 2014 by goltec

[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.

P. S. I gave our hamsters tap water for the first time, having in mind that tourists shouldn't even brush their teeth with that water.

Even those guys who buy "sealed" water bottles from a company that frequently come to your house, are using the same freaking tap water.

Either the 10, or 20 liter containers, or the 0.7 liter bottles. It's all the same bullshit. Okay, I'm already immun, but I prefer to buy my drinking water at Big-C, Tesco, or other places.

50 baht for 6 bottles a' 1.5 liters can't be that bad. Especially when people pay 200 baht for a small bottle of Leo, just to see some ping pong.

I know some Thais making good money selling tap water, under a brand name. But they don't drink their shit. Guess why?

If I can't afford that, I'll move back where I came from.

Tears in hamster heaven?-

Edited August 14, 2014 by lostinisaan

[emilymat]

So, what about the ice that is used in bars and homes to add to drinks?. Are there any controls about what water is used?. Just interested as someone could be really careful in all respects with the water they drink and then go down with the dreaded......!!

[goltec]

Water in the Isaan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoMDWRnvdbo&feature=player_embedded

and part 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XLNXZP4LY0Q

Edited August 14, 2014 by goltec