UKC

Has anyone experienced Czech tap water before? I understand you're not suppose to drink it?

Is it possible to filter/purify it in any way to make it safe?

My girlfriend has just moved out there for a year and wants to avoid carrying large bottles home from the shops all the time if possible.

She asked about this filtering bottle as they used to sell them at uni... www.waterbobble.com

Is it possible or would it not be advisable?

Thanks,
James

In reply to James Malloch:

Half my family are Czech and I've never heard this before. You might want to double-czech (sorry) that one.

In reply to Tall Clare: Do you mean about not drinking the tap water? If so it seems that some people say it's okay, and some say not to drink it. I think it may be location specific. Not sure if it's similar to spain where it's fine for locals...

She's in Prague if it makes a difference.

In reply to James Malloch:

My family are in Brno and surrounds - not heard of anything like this there.

In reply to James Malloch:
Might depend on whether she is in modern accomodation or not. In Russia no one drank the tap water where I was, as the pipes were all very old and degraded so had a high content of heavy metal in it. Might be similar as probably many of the buildings will be similar ex-soviet ones?

In reply to James Malloch: Never had a problem. Spain is fine too.

In reply to MG: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_water_directive

In reply to James Malloch:

In the old days when it was red Czechoslovakia we climbed with some folk from Prague. One was a dentist and thought the poor state of the teeth of children he treated was due to Aluminium in the water (if I remember correctly).
That was obviously many years ago.

In reply to Colin Moody: I am currently on skype to my friend in the czech republic who is laughing very much as she knows the water there is far better quality than that in the uk!

In reply to James Malloch: Thanks for the replies! I'll tell her to get drinking it then.

We just found some threads on the expats forum which suggested it's best not to drink it hence the waryness.

In reply to leeoftroy:

So things have changed in the last quarter of a century then?

In reply to James Malloch:

We were in Prague last month and the tap water tasted fine - certainly far better than most of the tap water in UK cities. Of course that's not necessarily an indicator of purity but my guess is that the scare reports you've been reading were written by Americans!

In reply to James Malloch:

On my two visits to that part of the world I happily drank tap water in Prague, Cesky Krumlov, Cesky Budejovice, Brno, Bratislava and some small rural towns.

In reply to James Malloch:

I live in the Czech Republic and would have absolutely no qualms about drinking tap water in Prague or nearly anywhere else in the CR either.

The only place I have had a reservation is at our country house which has a private water supply from a spring but there are other houses nearby that have shit tanks and I just know some of them will be poorly maintained. I've never actually had a problem or heard of one but it appears there is a risk. Our neighbour has drank from this supply for 40 years with no problem and laughed when I mentioned it to him, so it's probably a groundless fear.

Now, drinking cheap spirits in the CR is an altogether more risky activity!

In reply to James Malloch:

Has anyone experienced Czech tap water before? I understand you're not suppose to drink it?

She who must remain nameless (partly because she's banned, but mostly because I can't keep up with her name changes), rants that the water was by far better under the old socialist/communist regime.
Anyone living there and saying otherwise, is either a liar and/or a puppet and instrument of capitalist fascists.

In reply to Tall Clare:

I second all of this ^ apart from the pun !

The Good Lady Mrs Mux is Czech and I am fine drinking the water ... its the booze I would worry about.

In reply to James Malloch: All EU countries have to meet the same (high) standards for drinking water.

In reply to TobyA:

A bit about Scottish water.

http://www.colinmoody.com/Site/Blog/Entries/2010/5/18_The_Weekend.html

In reply to James Malloch: Water in Jaromer was fine in August if that's any help.

In reply to James Malloch: We have no problem with tap water here in Czech.
Sometimes the taste may not be perfect, because of chlorine. You should wait for few minutes till chlorine dissipate then.
http://challengeeurope.britishcouncil.org/index.php/news/580-czech-the-tap
http://www.veoliavoda.cz/en/
From my own experience I think we have better tap water than they have in south Europe and not worse than they have in Austria or Germany

In reply to Colin Moody: Nice to see you complying with the standards then!

Mistakes get made all over, not just with where Scottish dear choose to die. For example, it turns out that pumping tens of thousands of litres of sh** into a municipal water supply is a really bad idea: http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/the-nokia-virus-finnish-town-fac...

In reply to James Malloch:

Its all a conspiracy by Evian and other brands to scare you into buying their mountain mineral spring water. Which is probably straight out of a tap.

In reply to Tall Clare:

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