For context, I live in Hong Kong where most people drink tap water after boiling first. Some may install water filter but may still boil the water. Very few drink bottle water unless they're outside and too lazy to bring their own bottles.
Now, I'm researching whether I can drink tap water in Iceland (I'm going there in August), and while it looks like the answer is affirmative, almost no web article mention whether I need to boil the water first. People in Japan (a country I've visited a few times) also seems to be used to drink tap water directly without boiling.
The further I searched, the more it seems to me that in developed countries (like US, Canada and the above examples), tap water is safe to drink directly. Is that true? Do you drink tap water without boiling?
It sounds like a stupid question but I just can't believe what I saw. I think I experienced a cultural shock.
Edit: wow, thanks so much for the responses and sorry if I didnt reply to each one of you but I'll upvote as much as as I can. Never thought so many would reply and Lemmy is a really great community.
2nd Edit: So in conclusion, people from everywhere basically just drink water straight out of tap. And to my surprise, I checked the Water Supplies Department website and notice it asserts that tap water in Hong Kong is potable, like many well-developed countries and regions.
However, as the majority of Hong Kong people are living in high-rise buildings, a small amount of residual chlorine is maintained in the water to keep it free from bacterial infection during its journey in the distribution system. Therefore it is recommended to boil the water so that chlorine dissipates.
So, in short, I actually do not need to boil the water unless I hate chlorine smell and taste. But I guess I'll just continue this old habit/tradition as there's no harm in doing so.
A brit I knew was was appalled to find out in the US mixed the hot and cold in the same tap. He was disgusted and figured that made even the cold un drinkable. With US plumbing the hot is mostly safe, just the fact that hot water may leach more minerals from the pipes, or your old water heater might be gunked up. Whereas, in the uk they were actually doing something really bad with the hot, so it had to be stricktly kept separate.
It's not a huge issue these days as far as I know. You will see some old plumbing systems have signs next to the tap saying 'not drinking water' but I can't remember the last time I saw one like that.
It's not really bad, it's just designed to store the hot water for longer using less energy. The side effect of that was that it could become contaminated. Not sure why you would want to drink from the hot tap anyway?
I was told contaminated hot meant that you couldn’t have a single tap to mix the two safely. That makes washing your hands unpleasant as you can’t adjust the temperature.
Yes that is right, that's why we have separate taps and yes it does suck sometimes