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

iswatersafetodrink.in

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

#91

Post by guenthert »

smayr wrote: post #76
IAmEveryone wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that this includes sparkling water. At least in Germany, I would estimate >80% of bottled water being sold to be sparkling.

That's interesting, I'll look into that! Sparkling water might be indeed a reason why people buy bottled water, although there are household solutions for that as well.

Well, above 'sparking water' was written, but 'mineral water' was meant. Sold in bottles and in restaurants and commonly purchased is indeed mineral water. What you can easily do at home is carbonize the water and make it sparkling, without, of course, the (real or imagined) health benefits and different taste of mineral water.

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

#92

Post by guenthert »

paines wrote: post #87

I call bullshit omn that map. The water in the us tastes like cholrine and is better rated than the one in germany and bosnia, which both don't have that. Also the water is not adviced to be drank from tap in portugal where i was recently, and it is rated with 80?!?!?

Tap water quality differs from one municipality to another, so I wonder about the value of a map by county. E.g., in Germany the quality is generally good, almost universally safe to drink, but in some rural areas with intense agriculture, the water might be so rich in nitrates, that occasionally (seasonally?) it is recommended that pregnant women and small children drink bottled water.

The taste and suitability to make tea differs wildly w/o impacting health (matter of carbon content). And it's not quite clear to me, whether the amount of chlorine should affect the listed water quality. Some people are sensitive to it, I'm not. And you can always let it sit for a while and the chlorine will evaporate.

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

#93

Post by Delk »

namelosw wrote: post #89
m12k wrote: post #88

Something like this is interesting, but I find it's missing a lot of the info that I care about. For example, here in Denmark, because our underground is chalk instead of rock, our water has high amounts of calcium - this makes the water 'hard', which means we can rinse off soap very easily in the shower, but most of our water-appliances and coffee machines struggle with limescale, and towels need to be washed with a…

Taking 'hard' water for granted since I was born, it's quite surprising and interesting that water cannot rinse off the soap. This year I went abroad for a business trip. In the hotel, after washing my hands or taking showers, I found I couldn't rinse off the soap. I was so confused because it was so hard to do it, plus I brought my own soap. I inspected, smelled, and tasted the water carefully and didn't find any di…

I live in an area of "soft" water. I knew of the concept but I had no idea it affected the rinsing off of soap. I had also never noticed that soap might have rinsed off easier when traveling. (And even if I had, I'd probably just have assumed the soap to be different.)

Conversely, I suppose the buildup of limescale might surprise me if I were to spend time in an area where water is significantly "harder".

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

#94

Post by sam_goody »

In many parts of New York City, the water contains tiny bugs called copepods[1] (actually a rather interesting bug).

For some, that is an issue. For some that is an advantage (protein!!). For most, it makes no difference.

But I wonder how common such a thing is outside NY, and what other surprises our water contains.

[1] https://www.foxnews.com/science/whats-in-your-water-probably...

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

#95

Post by keidjfks »

_-___________-_ wrote: post #72
smayr wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are right, that's one thing I missed. Water bottle prices are determined on a country-level (I assume average bottle prices are higher in Moscow, I should show them ideally on a city-level) and I'm assuming people are buying 1.5L bottles for simplicity's sake. I am planning to provide a calculator soon to add more flexibility to the savings calculations.

I've lived in many places where the tap water is not safe to drink, and in all those places, nobody except tourists was buying 1.5L bottles of water.

In Germany, tap water has super high quality but people still buy 1 liter bottles, because fancy name or sparkling. I appreciate the pro-nature advertisement!

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

#96

Post by smayr »

markdown wrote: post #85
smayr wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, can you tell me why? Don't know specifics about Fiji.

> The municipal water supply in Suva, Nadi and other large towns is chlorinated and can usually be trusted, but elsewhere avoid untreated tap water. This is true everywhere in the world, is it not? What are you judging if not the municipal water supply?

This is sourced from Lonelyplanet and to my judgment this means tap water is drinkable in larger towns, while it's not in smaller towns in general.

This is not the same across the world, in countries like Switzerland, for example, you can drink the tap water virtually anywhere, while in some African countries this is not even true for the capital cities.

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