Do people in most European cities have to boil their water for drinking? This morning just before nine I was listening to Morning Ireland and Conor Hayes from Galway City Council was saying that this was the norm in Europe. Personally it left me with the impression that he and the rest of the council were happy enough to have everyone boil water and they were lucky to have it so good for so long. Does anyone have any experience of having to boil water for domestic purposes while in the UK or on mainland Europe or was he just chancing his arm having been fed up with the water saga?

In alot of continental areas you would buy bottled drinking water. Southern Spain is a particular example.

Originally Posted by renewal

Do people in most European cities have to boil their water for drinking? This morning just before nine I was listening to Morning Ireland and Conor Hayes from Galway City Council was saying that this was the norm in Europe. Personally it left me with the impression that he and the rest of the council were happy enough to have everyone boil water and they were lucky to have it so good for so long. Does anyone have any experience of having to boil water for domestic purposes while in the UK or on mainland Europe or was he just chancing his arm having been fed up with the water saga?

Speaking for Belgium and Luxembourg, absolutely no bloody way!

Boiling kettles is for making coffee!

A lot of people do buy bottled water. But for no other reason than they prefer the taste, or want sparkling. Tap water is absolutely safe.

You would buy bottled water rather than from the tap, you wouldnt really boil it, however it is much cheaper than here, you can buy it in supermarkets in large amounts for about a tenth of what you will pay for water here which in a lot of cases is dearer than petrol per litre.

They don't in France. Methinks this gentleman is just trying to pass the buck for the council's failure to invest in the water infrastructure which resulted in the contamination.

If you're talking about the Balkans, the fromer Soviet Union and maybe Iberia, but I hoped we aspired to more than that.

Whatever about drinking water but I don't know of anywhere that boils their water just so they can brush their teeth.

While I was away earlier this year I was shocked to find that where I was water was more expensive than petrol.
While you could drink the tap water it was desalinised and didn't taste very good.
Having said that, petrol was around 28c a litre so being more expensive that that isn't a hard task.

However at home we live in a hard water area and it's necessary to boil the water before drinking. It's not necessary for health reasons though.
In my Dad's old place in Portugal boiling the water (or buying it) was necessary for health reasons and he lived near a major city too.

If you have to boil your water before using it then you have arrived in the second world with inadequate infrastructure, in the third world there is no infrastructure.

In most places in Europe where people buy their water it's a taste issue. They can at least brush their teeth with what comes out of the tap, unlike Galway obviously...

This is a continuing outrage.

I heard the interview. The point made by the Director of Services (whose first name is Kieran) was that people in other Irish cities and in European cities routinely buy water.

That is true, but it sure ain't the whole truth.

I am glad I do not depend for my drinking water on the authorities 'responsible' for the Galway outrage. I do not understand the continuing patience of the people who do but I am sure that's my failing not theirs. Meanwhile the word 'responsible' has to have quotes around it.