Potable water government scam

[er2]

What pisses me off is the government claiming that TAP WATER is 100% potable in HK when it's only the SUPPLIED WATER that is, and actual potability depends on said pipes and tanks that nobody supervises for cleanliness.

As if any private land owner would let the government „inspect“ anything on their property. I’m not saying I wouldn’t prefer a different system of governance but if you believe that the villagers wouldn’t find tooth and nail to prevent the government from having any more authority over anything, I have a bridge to Zhuhai to sell you…

[Elegiaque]

I always found the water in Hong Kong to be great. Even better on the outlying islands. I trust it's safe. Think it's ridiculous to boil it -- and concentrate the potential metals you're concerned about?! The pipes to the building -- well, the pressure is *so* high do you think water is really stagnating there and collecting plastic or metal particles? Well, I'm no scientist, and I don't know, but I always felt safe. I think worrying will do more harm to your health.

For water I want to drink, I do let the water run a little from the tap.

[newhkpr]

I always found the water in Hong Kong to be great. Even better on the outlying islands. I trust it's safe. Think it's ridiculous to boil it -- and concentrate the potential metals you're concerned about?! The pipes to the building -- well, the pressure is *so* high do you think water is really stagnating there and collecting plastic or metal particles? Well, I'm no scientist, and I don't know, but I always felt safe. I think worrying will do more harm to your health.

For water I want to drink, I do let the water run a little from the tap.

I find people the funniest who go through all the filtration and boiling and god knows what else but then order 'tap water' from restaurants. Like they would do any proper care....

[paddylast]

I find people the funniest who go through all the filtration and boiling and god knows what else but then order 'tap water' from restaurants. Like they would do any proper care....

Are they not just using that to wash their chopsticks one last time?

[newhkpr]

Are they not just using that to wash their chopsticks one last time?

Na, that's what tea is for

[Zelensky2]

I always found the water in Hong Kong to be great. Even better on the outlying islands. I trust it's safe. Think it's ridiculous to boil it -- and concentrate the potential metals you're concerned about?! The pipes to the building -- well, the pressure is *so* high do you think water is really stagnating there and collecting plastic or metal particles? Well, I'm no scientist, and I don't know, but I always felt safe. I think worrying will do more harm to your health.

For water I want to drink, I do let the water run a little from the tap.

You're right that water in HK is generally safe, but Ellenna is right that some buildings have problem water supplies beacause of their building piping - You can thank the developers for that.

Very little reason to think the outlying islands have better quality water. I would suspect that being less regulated generally, developers are more likely to cut costs on new build (whether new 5 years ago or 50 years ago).

As for the rest, Boiling water doesn't concentrate metals as no signifcant evaporation occurs during boiling. And water pressure has nothing to do with flow. The amount of water that moves through a pipe is a function of how much one draws from the system, which at least for drinking water has zero to do with pressure.

Flow is a little more significant. But the ammount of exposure to lead solder joints is more a function of the complexity of the piping and the chemical composition of the water along with the diligence of the user in wasting water through "running the tap". So what matters is:

1) the material that was used to join the pipes when built (lead solder on copper piping is the principle issue)- In the past even lead piping was used.

2) The age of those pipes (older building are more likely to have degraded materials). However, conversely, the materials used in piping is 'often' (depends where in the world you are) of a higher quality in 'older' buildings which results in less risk of fracture (a significant source of contamination)

Boiling water is a good way to get rid of chlorine and if you do have some minor pipe damage so that waste water is finding it's way into the inlet supply (not common thankfully), then boiling will kill all those little pathogens normally skipping around in your neighbours shit. ;-)