How Safe Is Ba Tap Water ???

[TomAtAlki]

safe

 

[Ries]

I drink it all the time, seems fine to me.
I believe the part about the cold and hot coming from two different pipes, though- the pump to the tank on our roof broke this week, and we had no hot water one day, but plenty of cold. No logical way that could happen if it was all one pipe. Crazy way to do things, but, in the past, the tank, up on the roof, would naturally get hot from the heat of the sun- free hot water, before the age of hot water heaters being cheap and available.

 

[Rich One]

Older tanks that had wooden interior lining can be dangerous due to fungus and rotten woods, algae, etc. Happened to my apt in California.. Legionary's Disease.!!!!

 

[BaltRochGirl]

I agree about the different input for hot and cold, at least for our building they are completely different shut-offs for the portero. Also the tap water is fine to drink, although I use a filter for taste and to keep the coffee machine cleaner.

 

[Joe]

The tank at the top of the building is for both hot and cold water. If the apartment building has central water heating then there will be two pipes coming into your apartment. Many apartments may have had central water heating in the past so one of the pipes would be capped. My recollection of my 25+ apartments in BA is that maybe 15% had central water heating.

The cleanliest of the tank may be an issue in some buildings, e.g. gaps or cracks allowing vermin in...

Last summer when I rented Matias's apartment, the water tank was so hot on a couple of days, I was taking hot showers from the cold water tap only.

 

[jp]

The water is fine, but depending on your building it might get pumped into a tank on the roof. Then the quality of the water depends on how long it sits in this tank, and how clean the tank is.

We bought a water filter that connects direct to the tap, and we change the filter once a year. It costs a few hundred pesos, water tastes noticeably better and it's saved us a fortune in bottled water. Everyone should have one.

 

[nlaruccia]

safe

There was a an article in the Clarin a few years ago about the unsafe level of metal in tap water in Buenos Aires and that it was reported of having too high levels for consumption. I'm not sure I trust that PSA can filter out all the metal and who knows where the bottled water actually comes from.

 

[Joe]

This is another reason to move to Patagonia - the drinking water.

All those people that said they drank from the tap when this same topic was discussed three years ago - now not a peep.

Why? They died of cancer last year.

 

[ElQueso]

Well, I must be the statistical fluke (as related to cancer and three years ago - although I probably didn't comment back then). I drink at least a couple of liters of iced tea a day while I sit at my desk and work. Steeped in hot water in a pitcher and filled later with cold water to top it off. All from the pipes in the apartment. Two different buildings in the last 5 years.

I was a little worried about the tail I was growing, but my wife doesn't mind, so I stopped worrying...

 

[Crema Americana]

I feel guilty about the amount of plastic water bottles we throw away, but I don't really trust our tap water. The water gets cut off a lot or has issues with low pressure and I'm not sure filters clean out everything, so bottled water just seems like the safer option.
The rhyme "if it's brown, drink it down -- if it's black, send it back" just doesn't seem right to me.
I realize the bottled water I'm drinking is probably just from another tap, but I'm hoping there's some testing measures in place.