Water from wells in Warsaw

vndunneThreads: 72 Posts: 340 Joined: Jan 12, 07 ♂	May 6, 11, 16:58 #1
Hi. There is a little building near me where i always see people filling up their water bottles. Someone tol me that the water is probably from a well? Would this be so? And if yes, i assume it is ok to drink? Vincent

antheadsThreads: 13 Posts: 306 Joined: Jan 21, 11 ♂	May 6, 11, 17:44 #2
you sure it is not backyard distilery? :)

vndunneThreads: 72 Posts: 340 Joined: Jan 12, 07 ♂	May 6, 11, 17:56 #3
No No..Defintely not. :-) It is located in Zoliborz and there are people up there filling up their bottles.

HarryThreads: 62 Posts: 8,508 Joined: May 2, 07 ♂ [Suspended]	May 6, 11, 18:02 #4
vndunne: Hi. There is a little building near me where i always see people filling up their water bottles. Someone tol me that the water is probably from a well? Would this be so? And if yes, i assume it is ok to drink? Unlikely to be a well, most probably a borehole. Yes it is perfectly safe to drink. Although tap water in Warsaw is fine to drink too.

vndunneThreads: 72 Posts: 340 Joined: Jan 12, 07 ♂	May 6, 11, 18:24 #5
A borehole?! I see. Was just going to give it a go as the tap water seems to leave a very nice 'film' in your cup of tea. i know i should buy a filter....its on the list.

♂

Edited by: gumishu May 6, 11, 19:30 #6

vndunne:

A borehole?! I see. Was just going to give it a go as the tap water seems to leave a very nice 'film' in your cup of tea. i know i should buy a filter....its on the list

it's 1) more convenient 2) more hygienic 3) not overly expensive to buy drinking (it comes from deep wells - the water is tested for contamination) water in 5 litre bottles in a supermarket (should cost below 2 złoty) - tap water is not drinkable (or hardly drinkable) in many cities and towns in Poland

EnglishpoznanThreads: 14 Posts: 152 Joined: Apr 21, 09 ♂	May 6, 11, 20:18 #7
tap water is not drinkable (or hardly drinkable) in many cities and towns in Poland Rubbish I've been drinking the stuff for six years and never had any problems

HarryThreads: 62 Posts: 8,508 Joined: May 2, 07 ♂ [Suspended]	May 6, 11, 20:20 #8
gumishu: tap water is not drinkable (or hardly drinkable) in many cities and towns in Poland I have never ever had a problem from drinking tap water in any city or town in Poland and I've been here more than 15 years and traveled round quite a bit.

MaaarysiaThreads: 3 Posts: 541 Joined: Feb 27, 10 ♀	May 6, 11, 20:26 #9
Harry: than 15 years and traveled round quite a bit. That's weird because in 90s tap water was of poor quality in many places. It changed now but still many people in Poland think that tap water is drinkable only after boiling.

THE HITMANThreads: 1 Posts: 416 Joined: Jun 15, 10 ♂	May 6, 11, 21:29 #10
Water paranoia .... a Polish thing.

Piotr123Threads: 2 Posts: 57 Joined: Sep 11, 10 ♂	May 6, 11, 22:57 #11
gumishu: ve to buy drinking (it comes from deep wells - the water is tested for contamination) water in 5 litre bottles in a supermarket (should cost below 2 złoty) - tap water is not drinkable (or hardly drinkable) in many cities and towns in Poland It was a necessity to boil the tap water in the past, now however it is quite safe to drink.

isthatu2Threads: 13 Posts: 5,225 Joined: Apr 3, 08 ♂	May 7, 11, 01:04 #12
THE HITMAN: Water paranoia .... a Polish thing Glad you said that not me...........seems all the brits who go to warsaw see no problem with the Tap water while the locals act like Chernobyl went off again...........it makes me laugh that even people in brand new buildings still struggle home looking like mamas in an african famine zone with huge bottles of water.

♂

Oct 12, 11, 23:06 #13

On my first trip to Poland we stayed with my wife's Aunt and Uncle. When I said I was going to the kitchen for a glass of water Ciocia offered me tea, coffee, soda, milk, hot chocolate, and anything else she had in the house or could send Wujek out to buy. When I said "No Thanks, just a glass of water." and continued toward the sink she (5'3"?) tried to wrestle me (6'6") to the ground while yelling for my wife to come talk some sense into my head.
This was in Chorzów, near Katowice. Maybe all the mining and heavy industry in the area had something to do with it.

♂

Oct 13, 11, 02:21 #14

I have just read an article on that well water in Warsaw - firstly it is much better for drinking and cooking than the tap water which is just full of toxic chemicals and heavily chlorinated, secondly it comes from pretty deep wells that reach the oligocene layers that are mostly well insulated from the surface (and thus are protected from contamination) - the only serious problem with the oligocene well water is that it has pretty big iron content (even up to 0.2 mg/l) - this drawback can be addressed with using various filtres

beckskiThreads: 19 Posts: 2,148 Joined: May 15, 07 MEMBER ♀	Oct 14, 11, 05:27 #15
gumishu: tap water which is just full of toxic chemicals and heavily chlorinated That's what I was told by relatives, before I visited Poland. I was advised to only drink bottled water, along with boiled water in hot tea or coffee. A sincere thanks PF, for putting up with me FIVE terrific years, muah!

delphiandomineThreads: 42 Posts: 9,954 Joined: Nov 25, 08 ♂ [Suspended]	Oct 14, 11, 15:30 #16
beckski: That's what I was told by relatives, before I visited Poland. I was advised to only drink bottled water, along with boiled water in hot tea or coffee. Gotta love how they managed to convince an entire nation that bottled water was somehow better for you than tap water.

♂

Oct 14, 11, 15:38 #17

delphiandomine:

Gotta love how they managed to convince an entire nation that bottled water was somehow better for you than tap water.

you can't convince people in Częstochowa that bottled water (save for true mineral water) is better than the tap water for their tap water is really excellent (coming from deep wells and ozonated instead of chlorinated) - some cities do have excellent tap water - but those that draw the bulk of their tap water from rivers tend to have really bad water - they say tap water in Wrocław is much better now cause they use active coal filters and ozonate it now (it was really bad before) - but it's still water coming from Odra and Oława - would you drink the water from Odra???

pipThreads: 11 Posts: 1,293 Joined: Jul 4, 11 ♀	Oct 14, 11, 20:47 #18
the water in my area of warsaw is safe to drink, however the problem is not that the water isn't safe- the problem is that by the time the water gets from the the company to the house- the dirty old pipes have tainted the water.

WroclawThreads: 77 Posts: 7,404 Joined: Apr 1, 06 ♂ [Moderator]	Oct 14, 11, 20:57 #19
pip: the problem is that by the time the water gets from the the company to the house- the dirty old pipes have tainted the water. all the old (german) pipes are being changed or relined in wroclaw. it is a process of change that has been going on for a few years now. also, some old houses still have some lead pipework.

MEMBER ♀

Oct 15, 11, 05:31 #20

delphiandomine:

Gotta love how they managed to convince an entire nation that bottled water was somehow better for you than tap water

I don't consider my personal preferences, to represent the preferences of an entire nation. In the United States, I prefer drinking tap h2o, as opposed to bottled. In the past, I've become very ill from drinking tap h2o, while visiting other countries. As a rule, I now drink only bottled h2o, while traveling out of the US.

Wroclaw:

also, some old houses still have some lead pipework

This is the scenario for many of my relative's home in Poland.

A sincere thanks PF, for putting up with me FIVE terrific years, muah!

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Water from wells in Warsaw - Safe to drink?