Tap water is often take for granted as clean drinking water in developed countries around the work. Is the clear tap water a real sign of clean? Is it safe as drinking water?

Yarra Valley Water, the largest tap water distributor in Melbourne, Australia on their website stated, “generally there are three common water quality problems that you may experience – colour, taste and smell ….”. Unfortunately tap water, even in developed countries around the globe often is NOT as clean as it looks.

In USA, one of the most technological advanced country in the world, there had been 780 outbreaks due to drinking water over the past 35 years period, that’s more than 20 cases each year. Yet the problems with tap water are not isolated or ancient situations, they are current and ongoing issues in almost every country around the world.

Here are a few examples of some reported incidences.

• Milwaukee outbreak in 1993 had more than 400,000 people ill which resulted in approximately 50 deaths, costs about $100 million, and again it was not an isolated or one-off case.
• 1998 in Sydney Australia, over 1.5 million residences were affected by an outbreak of parasitic protozoa - cryptosporidium and giardia in the main water supply. In fact, the problem of unclean and dangerous tap water continues to trouble Sydney residences. Even as recently as 2016 and 2017, government health officials continue to confirm there are dangerous pathogens in tap water supply.In addition to the parasitic protozoa contaminations, toxic water from old mines had been detected spilling into Sydney water catchments
• In August 2016, more than 1/3 of 14,000 residents in Havelock, New Zealand were sickened with gastrointestinal illness after drinking water contaminated with Campylobacter bacteria. It was New Zealand’s largest drinking water outbreak.
• CDC, Centers of Disease Control and Prevention in a 2017 published report stated in 2013-14 a total of 42 drinking-water-associated outbreaks caused by infectious pathogens, chemicals or toxins reported from 19 states in USA led to hospitalisations and deaths. Yet these reports do NOT include lead contaminations.

The pipe network for distributing water to consumers in most towns and cities are antique and aging system built 100+ years ago which are now leaking. Furthermore, these pipes often contain lead and copper which are now leaching out. Similarly, the galvanised pipes, soldered joints etc are all leaching heavy metals including lead, copper and unfortunately mercury in some cases directly into tap water. These dangerous chemicals are contaminating the post water treatment tap water, at locations very close to offices, schools and homes.

Furthermore, the old water pipes inside our schools and homes are also rusted and leaching heavy metals just before the tap. Most concerning is probably the water taps or faucets all over the world had been found to leach out dangerous level of lead into our drinking water continuously right in front of our eyes.