Have always drank tap water. No issue.

• New Jersey 🇺🇸
• Ontario 🇨🇦
• Tokyo 🇯🇵

Depends on how acclimated your stomach is. Locals may be able to drink without problem but foreigners may have stomach problems.

I wouldn't call US a developed country

Thai here, and nope I don't drink from tap. Usually I filter it first not boiling tho.

Yep, I've lived in Japan, Canada and Australia and had no issues with tap water in any of them. (Although in Canada I do filter it, as there is potential issues with lead pipes and acidic water.) When I've been travelling I've drank tap water across a lot of Europe with no issues.

I live in Philadelphia and I always boil and filter my tap water. My mother did it when we grew up in New York, then my brother and I continued the practice.

back then, when I'm still in Indonesia, my family never drink tap water, in my area, tap water was kinda yellow due to mixing up with iron, for consumption purposes, we usually bought gallons and they can be refilled/swapped at the nearest water station, but now in Australia, i usually drink tap without boiling and been doing this for 5 years+

I live in Seattle WA in usa. We have some of the cleanest water. This is because of the great fire of 1889. An entire district and most of the waterfront went up in flames. The reason is that the fire department had no water pressure because of all the demand from the attempt to put out the fire.

After that they got the cedar river shed. A huge amount of land that is owned by Seattle and kept pristine.

So yes you can drink the tap water in Seattle.

But I only drink la croix, lol

NL here. Tap water here is a very well managed substance, and as a result, it's not only hella safe, but hella tasty as well.

I visited australia and we had to drink from the tap.

We filter our tap water here in Korea. Most people do, but as I understand, it's safe to drink it just straight from the tap. It's just better through a machine that gets rid of any lingering chlorine and heats it or chills it for you.

In France tap water is drinkable and good almost anywhere, the exceptions being in some cities during drought or due to unusual pollution. I actually dislike most mineral bottled water because I find it tastes like something.

I used to live in Thailand, while the authorities say the water is good you'll likely get sick if you drink water straight from the tap. I used to buy my water from a filtering machine near my condo.

Australian here, never met anyone who boils tap water before drinking it. Some people have filtered water taps installed but our tap water is usually pretty great, I drink probably 2-3 litres of it a day

Eastern US here. Definitely can drink without boiling. I do filter it, though. I'm more concerned about metals and particulates than pathogens.

You can drink the tap water in most places in Iceland without boiling it (especially in Reykjavik), but if you're further into the countryside then I would check first!

Belgium: yes! We drink tap water. Straight from the tap. Hardness varies from city to city. At my home I have a filter to make the water softer. That helps the taste but also keeps all faucets etc running.

I live in Sweden. Yeah, the tap water is clean and can be drank straight from the tap without boiling, filtering, or treatment in the whole country.

When i lived in hongkong i never boiled the water, i just drank it from the tap

I live in South Florida. The tap water in my area is safe. I drink it without boiling or filtering.

This is crazy - for sure, in many countries it can be taken straight from the tap depending on the reliability of infrastructure... but to waste energy boiling it??? No thanks.

In England, I moved a few times - some places have great tasting water - others not so great - meaning it's always safe (and ok for brewing or cooking) but not so good for drinking from the tap.

In Scotland (a couple of places I stayed and worked) it's a toss up whether you should drink the tapwater, or go to your local and take another dram from the top row.. those Single Malt Whiskeys made with water from Scotland are amazing... but both are safe in moderation.

In Bangkok, if I don't clean my shower out monthly, it ends up with brown gunge building up, so I certainly don't drink the stuff... and it's hard to know how clean it is (though we're told it's certainly drinkable at source, it has a long way to come to my house - and the pressure of the system is low... another red flag). Visiting tropical islands, you see some resorts are connected via long plastic pipes which are often on the surface (in the sun) and so definitely not the best candidate for anything more than a shower.

In Bangkok too, unless you can test it yourself you shouldn't drink it - but I fail to see why you'd decide to boil dirty water and drink it, seeing as most countries with inadequate tap water have drinking water.

I wouldn't use 'boiled tap water' to make my pasta either.

I have six large bottles which gets topped up each week, to make sure I have plenty of water to cook and drink with... If I didn't, then I'd invest in a good water filtration system.

I live in Melbourne Australia and we drink water straight out of the tap. Even restaurants give you tap water

Australian here, yes. Our tap water is pretty good

In this US, yes, we generally trust our tap water (although there have been notable incidents of water infrastructure failures, such as major lead contamination in Flint, MI), to the extent that if you get a drink in a restaurant here, 99% of the time it's going to be mixed or made using tap water, with ice made from tap water.

Some folks will use a filter (Brita brand filter pitchers used to be popular at one time, with TV ads and everything) but that's more for filtering out chemicals/toxins/minerals than anything else.

In rural places, every now and then the local government or water company (yes, a lot of places here have privatized water infrastructure which is not super great) will put out a 'Boil Water Notice' but this is generally considered outside of the norm, and you usually expect to see that kind of stuff resolve within a couple of days unless it's a result of a major disaster (we were under a Boil Water notice for 2 weeks after hurricane Katrina in my area, the longest stretch I ever remember). Boil Water notices are usually a result of either a breach of the infrascture (a pipe collapsing and the water supply getting dirty), or a water supply failing its regular quality/safety tests. Our water (can't speak for everywhere in the US, and don't really know the specifics of how they do it) is chemically treated and filtered before it goes into the tap, and the supply mechanisms are usually regularly tested to make sure they're within safe standards.

All of that being said, I know people who refuse to drink tap water, mostly because it tends to have a distinct taste from treatment and from having minerals in it, but also because they've heard horror stories like in Flint. Two things: those folks normally drink bottled water, which is usually just bottled-up tap water from some other place; and I usually see those folks gladly drinking fountain drinks/tea/etc at a restaurant, which is made with un-boiled tap water and served on tap-ice.

TL;DR - the tap water in the US is generally considered safe to drink, in most places, with notable exceptions, and for now (our mostly-privatized infrastructure is getting worse and worse, and very public failures have started to appear in not only water infrastructure, but everywhere)

Here in Estonia tap water is great everywhere. Like my parents have a well at their farm connected to their plumbing and it's the best water I have ever had. The capital has water that tastes kinda like drinking pool water but that is perfectly safe too and only an issue in the capital city.

State of Maine, USA. I drink without boiling but only rarely without a filter. The water has nothing in it that would be killed by boiling, but straight out of the tap it's noticeably cloudy. The local water source is a lake and while they make sure to kill all bacteria at the treatment center, they don't filter it very well, so you get a lot of minerals and dead microscopic algae and heavy chemical scent/taste that makes the water cloudy and inferior for food use. With a simple filter it becomes crystal clear and perfect with no taste or smell at all.

Most people boil water before drinking here in Singapore. However I personally drink straight from the tap while my wife boils first. Apparently part of Singapore's water is recycled pee but tastes fine to me.