What's the deal with tap/drinking water in Delhi?

newyorker23

I've recently moved into the southern edge of Rohini, and I've got 2 taps in my kitchen---according to my landlord, one is "tap water" and one is "city water". The "city water" is supposedly for drinking and after 2 weeks of living on it my husband and I are both fine, so it's clearly filtered fairly well. Does anybody know the story on this? I'm curious to know where the water comes from, who filters it, who has access to this water, etc.?

jituyadav

The city water is the government supplied water that is cleaned, filtered etc and made fit to drink at government water treatment plants. The other water is usually the bore well or ground water that is locally taken out and no processing done. In certain circumstances if the bore well is deep or in fourth water level of the ground, it is better than the government supplied water.

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mridula

And many of us even use a purifier for the 'city' water! But good to hear that both of you are keeping well.

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Mridula

Travel Tales from India

jituyadav

Yes Mridula, that should be done and almost everybody uses some kind of purifier. And rightly so, with pipelines broken and poor maintenance of water supply infrastructure, it is a must.

Haylo

I have not yet met a single person in Delhi* who drinks tap water, and some members on here have said that they have never in their lives drunk tap water.

You are taking a huge risk in doing so.

Yes, it is treated water, and I am happy to believe that it is safe to drink when it leaves the water filtration plant. However, unlike the UK and the US, Indian water mains are not pressurised; they have so many breaks they cannot be. This means that wherever there is a break in the pipe, instead of the mains water jetting out, groundwater can seep into the water mains. You might think that "groundwater" doesn't sound so bad, but there are also many breaks in the sewage pipes which run parallel...

If you do not want to buy bottled water, which is available in HUGE (20 litre?) bottles for Rs 40 including delivery, I urge you to have a water filter fitted to your supply.

You say you presume that it is filtered in your home, but if that is the case, you need to know about it because those filters require maintenance to remain effective.

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capt_mahajan

Agree absolutely with Haylo. You are risking many things, including typhoid, amoebiasis, giardia and cholera.

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PeakXV

.... jaundice,

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Don't go to India ~ Pre-trip Warnings & Misconceptions?

newyorker23

Thanks jituyadav for your helpful explanation. Perhaps I'll think about an additional water filter after all.

As for the rest--this type of alarmism that one will die or at the very least contract some awful sickness if one drinks Indian water is not particularly helpful. I know there are many (upper class?) Indians who have never drunk tap water here (or eaten street food, ridden in a non-AC train, etc.). Believe it or not, some of us Westerners may actually have developed better immune systems and general tolerance for such things. As I said before, two of us have been drinking this water for 2 weeks and are fine (perhaps I should also note, just as a point of shock, that I drank the tap water in Pakistan when I lived there a few years back). I'm not saying this means the city water is pure or that we'll always be healthy drinking it, certainly precautions are in order, but my experience does perhaps negate the "one strike and you're out, how dare you even think about it" response that one often gets in India.

capt_mahajan

Highly unlikely. Some may be just lucky, so far.

Very few.

It may interest you to know that many of the lower middle class (and some even lower) boil water before drinking it.

Some of us here are giving their opinions based on experience far far longer than two weeks.

Aishah

I have stayed in two homes at different times in Delhi and both had this two pipeline system. However both purified the 'city drinking water' one as well - one lot boiled, and the others had an Aquagard contraption. I would not risk drinking directly from any tap so-called 'drinking water' in Delhi, or for that matter anywhere in India.

There are several threads in Health and Safety issues forum re how to have drinkable pure water. I suggest you take a look there too.

New Yorker - none of the responses here are alarmist - they are all perfectly true and rational, it may just be the 'luck of the draw' that you are still alright. I have lived here for ten years now, and everyday I still purify my drinking water (in fact everyone living with me here does) and brush my teeth with this. I have had no water borne disease problems in this time, but my husband who frequently goes out to his village, attends marriages and dying ritual gatherings, and drinks the water out there without purifying it first nearly every week has some water borne problem of one sort or another. I have never known anyone to have such frequent stomach upsets etc. and I put it down to his drinking unpurified water.


(cross-posted with Captain) your comment re immune systems is spot on! An immune system that might work in one country, or more so a local area, may not work in another I have always thought.

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dzibead

The instant expert speaks ... after two whole weeks of experience! The incubation period for typhoid can actually be several weeks.

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Amalfi

I think the quality of water you get in your taps is hugely dependent on the condition of the pipes carrying them rather than the quality of water supplied from the Govt filtration plants. Rohini is a relatively newer area , so my guess is that the water pipes would be in good condition.

Also, falling ill has a lot to do with immune system of a person. How many percentage of households in Delhi have water filters ? Are the rest all suffering from Cholera, Typhoid etc. There were no water filters in India 20 years back. I don't recall the concept of bottled mineral water so rampant even a decade back. First came Zero B filters , then AquaGuard now it's RO and Bottled water. But I doubt whether public health has improved hugely in the past decades nor the cases of typhoid and diahrrea.It's just that people have more money and can afford them and has become more of a class thing. Very often bottled water is now a major chunk of a restaurant bill eventho most decent restaurants serve filtered water. Taking the cake are outlets in posher markets seving Gol Gappas made from filtered water.

Having said that , since most filtration systems are pretty reasonably priced , no harm in installing them if you are in for a long haul. Just don't get paranoid of water quality and end up washing your teeth in mineral water , which a lot of tourists end up doing in India.

newyorker23

Thank you Amalfi--very helpful thoughts!

zsonia2993

Boiling the tap/filtered water before using it, would be my advice. Simple, cheap, clean and effective.

This is what we always did at home in India. Sure we ate outside, street food and all, but majority of your water consumption will come from home and you can maximize your chances of avoiding diseases by making sure at least your home water is safe to consume. We even tried to carry home water with us as much as we could.

The city water may be good today, tomorrow or next week. But there is no warranty/guarantee that some day it wont have some crap seeping into it at some point. Also, there is no guarantee that the city authorities will identify the leaky pipe immediately and fix it.

I am not a big fan of bottled water. I dont know what people do with all their plastic containers leftover from bottled water consumption... are there any recycling programs in India these days???

Nick-H

The potential dangers of Indian tap water cannot be overstated.

Those with macho attitudes towards their immune systems, and those that cry that it is a big fuss and, after all, their grandparents didn't die of typhoid are giving a helping hand towards, at least, some days of considerable discomfort in the toilet, and, at worst, a hospital bed.and thats crap, literally. Water processed in the metros leaves the processing plants fit to drink. The authorities give no guarantee that it arrives fit to drink. It is piped at low pressures, which facilitates seepage inwards. London's water mains might be as leaky as Chennai's (a few years back I think 1/3rd was lost to leakage) but the pressure is high, which keeps the leakage outwards.

Yes, one becomes immune to the minor bugs in one's home water, but even then, as zsonia says, what was safe last week may not be safe this. Our water is salty sometimes, even.

It is also true that random sweeps of bottled water show up an unhealthy percentage that doesn't meet the quality norms, and that includes big-name makes, but, apart from carrying expensive equipment, it is the best thing the visitor has --- and also the best thing that a resident, who does not want, or can't afford, filtration, can have too.

If you find an Indian family drinking their own tap water, chances are they won't drink anybody else's!