Water - bottled or tablets?

Hey guys,
I don't want to drink bottled water in India for a few reasons
1) want to minimise contributing to plastic rubbish that harms the environment
2) costs add up!
3) having own drink bottle makes more sense

I'm just wondering whether firstly, you can buy water purifying tablets in India and secondly whether they are fully effective in getting rid of bacteria etc???

Thanks in advance for your responses!

Not sure about the availability or effectiveness of water tablets in India.
After much research - I recently purchased SteriPen UV filter system for my India trip from mid June to mid August. I bought it as a kit from local REI for about $65. There are several reviews and u-tube clips online showing how it works. So far, I found it easy to use and fast. If you decide to buy this, I would highly recommend to buy AA battery version (steripen classic) and buy heavy duty (above 2700 mAh) rechargeable Ni-MH batteries with an universal charger. Regular AA does not have enough power to run this system. The other versions use expensive camera type batteries - may not be easy to find in some places.

Bottles are good in that they enable a good local sterilization system for poor people. 6-10 hours in the sun & clean water. The last report I read was that the major drawback is that there aren't enough bottles. Men tend to discard the bottles instead of returning them to women for refilling.

There is some chance of reuse of bottles by tap water for sale to turistas (saw this in Mehico ciudad)..

Austraveller9 you are so right about the utterly depressing amount of plastic waste in India. However, (and here I'm assuming that this is your first trip) what is great is the amount of well-organised collection and recycling that goes on. You will see people collecting plastic water bottles everywhere, and great piles of them collected for recycling in the where-the-plastics-recyclers-live parts of most towns. It's a bit different to affluent countries where empty plastic bottles are flung away mindlessly as a matter of course. You'll get 'mineral' water thrust at you in hotels and restaurants all the time, so have your own bottle out and ready!

Agree with Stevec - the plastic bottles are recyclable - just as they are here. And drinking water is very inexpensive in India (compared to here). Buy bottled water.

Glad to see you have the right idea. I never leave home without it. I use it on bottled water as well, just in case I get a fake water fill. I have been with people who got sick just from drinking bottled water. NOT me, i used my steripen

Yes - I landed in India three days ago and the temperature and humidity is in high 80s - I have been going through several liters of water a day purified with Steripen - easy and fast (hope it does what it supposed to do!)

I would have thought that using plastic water bottles would be providing employment for the locals. Recycling etc. Am I wrong about that?

Haven't been there yet but at least theoretically you'd be right - which is why I'm planning on buying as much of what I need once I get to India rather than dragging it all across the Atlantic.

So: bottled water + Steripen = local business plus assurance of pure water. Win/win.

It all sounds sensible. But in eight six-week trips in the last eight years and umpteen gazillion bottles of water, we've never once come close to getting sick from it.

It is true that one has to be fanatical about confirming the seal on the water bottle. We once got back to the hotel with a bottle that looked suspect, and we returned it to the dealer with no problem in exchange for one with a good seal. I suspect that the bottled water industry at all levels in India has reached the point where it's more damned trouble and headache (i.e more expensive) to produce fake fills than just to go with the real thing.

Still... We did find the government rest house in Jaldapara carefully refilling bottles and providing them, firmly capped (albeit free), for guests at dinner. On the other hand, the food there was so suspect that I'd never necessarily have ascribed any illness to the water.

Saw it in Istanbul many years ago...

I am a huge advocate of recycling, it is a big part of our culture in Western Australia.
What i am talking about here is no hygene.
I have seen where the water comes from, and how the bottle is filled.
Take wort case, would you drink from a bottle of a person who has a comunicable disease? I know i dont.
This is why people get sick arround the world.
People aske why i dont get sick, however its hard to educate those who think taking safe precautions is somehow having a dig at the local culture.
My friends in India take thier own water to thier friends place. Its just a thing most ppl do.
I was just trying to share experience from around the world. It is realy hard to educate people, and they wonder why they get sick.
Strripen is just a precaution. Its like boiling water...this only works well if you cool it fast afterwards.
Take advice or dont. It keeps me in work for those that dont

I know of someone that was going to Bangalore for a long time and filled their luggage with bottled water. It's silly to me, the water there is good just go with reliable brands or vendors and check the seal. Beer is a good alternative (for me at least)....

I've had Giardia twice on my trips, once from the McDonalds in the Delhi airport (Lettuce) and the other from train food. You're more likely to get sick from vegetables so avoid them unless thorougly cooked which they won't be on top of pizzas often, etc. And NEVER eat the train food, you'll understand if you ever see them preparing it, trays covered in condensation which drips into the food, water for tea taken from the toilet faucet. Nasty food.

LJ

Lol, so true.

I've never been sick from drinking bottled water either..No doubt a tiny percentage of water bottles do get refilled but it's one of those Indian things that gets totally blown out of proportion by travelers constantly relating the story to others. I would have not trouble in recommending bottled water in India.

Just check the seal

Same for train food, I and my wife eat it all the time with no issues other than it often tastes crap..

Now shall we go down the don't eat meat road, just for old times sake LOL