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Show HN: An interactive map of countries by tap water quality

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Re: Show HN: An interactive map of countries by tap water quality

#51

Post by holografix »

keith__talent wrote: post #16

The primary/top database (Numbeo) you source is of dubious quality - i.e. Opinion based. Other sources vary wildly in reputation and don't offer information down to the city level you offer in search. The link to the CDC is to the homepage and offers no further depth on the subject you are reporting on. Don't understand why you have a marketing type message that offers a calculation cost of savings from not drinking…

You clearly have never been to Belgium (and I’m sure other EU countries) where, who ever can afford it, only drinks filtered water, and typically water fountains in offices have cucumber or mint etc to give it a more palatable flavour. To say it’s the same water as in, ie Sweden is ludicrous.

Re: Show HN: An interactive map of countries by tap water quality

#53

Post by asjw »

keith__talent wrote: post #16

The primary/top database (Numbeo) you source is of dubious quality - i.e. Opinion based. Other sources vary wildly in reputation and don't offer information down to the city level you offer in search. The link to the CDC is to the homepage and offers no further depth on the subject you are reporting on. Don't understand why you have a marketing type message that offers a calculation cost of savings from not drinking…

Not to disrespect any country, but the fact that Tunisia ranks higher than Italy it's a bit ridiculous...

Re: Show HN: An interactive map of countries by tap water quality

#54

Post by dacox »

smayr wrote: post #2

Hi HN! I made this while I was lockdown-bored. The data sources are linked on the website. I plan to add scientific reports on water-levels soon on a city-level. I want to raise awareness on how saving money and the environment often comes hand in hand when it comes to drinking water. For most people around the globe drinking straight tap water or using a water filter is a better solution than giving money to bottlin…

I think a city level would be great, and interesting. Looking at national numbers misses a lot. For example, Canada and the USA are very similar.

However, I live in Vancouver, and when I went to Chicago last year, the tap water was unbelievably bad (tasting). Even the complimentary bottled water in my hotel was bad.

Re: Show HN: An interactive map of countries by tap water quality

#57

Post by Assadi »

drdaeman wrote: post #36
jfoster wrote: post #19

It's interesting how many places have contradictory advice depending on who you're listening to. Eg. Hong Kong: WHO says it's safe. CDC says it isn't. One suggestion: If the top-level advice is that water from a country (eg. Japan) is that it's safe, it would be useful to call out particular places in that country where it isn't. (eg. Fukushima in the case of Japan)

WHO's index of 96/100 for Russia (contradicting all other sources) makes me question WHO methodology or sources. I get that my personal experience cannot be authoritative source (except for myself) and is purely a single data point at best, but still... Russia is a vast country, but as a former local (north-west region) I'd say that it's generally not a good idea to drink tap water there. I haven't talked much about…

A lot of Russians also believe things like drinking water with ice cubes will give you a sore throat. I wouldn't put too much stock in something just because the locals believe it.

Personally, I think the water boiling thing is one of the dumber things they do because, at least in most of the big cities, the thing that is most likely to be wrong with the water is not bacteria and other things that would be killed by boiling your water but rather heavy metals (and, last I checked, boiling my water does not remove lead!).

Also, anecdotally, I've yet to die from drinking from drinking unfiltered Tomsk tap water & never noticed abnormal levels of anything nasty during blood work. I think there is a lot of paranoia about the water system here that has generally been undeserved over the past decade or so.

Re: Show HN: An interactive map of countries by tap water quality

#58

Post by smayr »

hutzlibu wrote: post #28

Looks good, but probably not very usable. I know some areas in germany, where you cannot drink the water because of too much chalk. But in general it is very good in germany. But in spain for example I could never find a tab, I could drink of - way too much chlorine.

That's a good point, I think it very much depends on the area you are in, that's why I added sub-pages for each country, e.g. https://www.iswatersafetodrink.in/germany/Munich. Although to be fair they are still lacking serious data, I'm working on that!

Someone in the chat was kind enough to provide me a good water quality source for Hamburg, if anyone is interested here is the link: https://www.hamburg.com/residents/housing/12792124/water-qua...

Re: Show HN: An interactive map of countries by tap water quality

#60

Post by kdrag0n »

grecy wrote: post #47
smayr wrote: post #2

Hi HN! I made this while I was lockdown-bored. The data sources are linked on the website. I plan to add scientific reports on water-levels soon on a city-level. I want to raise awareness on how saving money and the environment often comes hand in hand when it comes to drinking water. For most people around the globe drinking straight tap water or using a water filter is a better solution than giving money to bottlin…

Looks fantastic! What mapping tool did you use?

It says "Leaflet" in the corner: https://leafletjs.com/
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