Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Gary-Korea]

Ive been in Korea for a month now and had the same question when I arrived. I tried the tap water in Suwon and it really does taste like crap! I bought a Britta filter and it tastes so much better. My friend drinks it straight form the tap and hasn't beeen ill. For me its more a matter of taste.

[Ramen]

Try drinking water in the dark and watch it glow.

With all the underground nuke test that Norks are conducting, the water in the south should start glowing now.

[Burndog]

[sojusucks]

In Korea, all you need is coffee, cigarettes, and soju ...

[byrddogs]

I wouldn't drink it personally, but I have been told that just like all things in Korea that it is the best (very clean and actually good for you), . Good on the Koreans and their sense of pride.

[Kenny Kimchee]

I live in an older villa. I used to use the tap water for my coffee, to make ice, and I would also drink it in a pinch when I ran out of bottled water.

One day my girlfriend noticed brown streaks in the ice cubes. Looks like I've been ingesting rust from the pipes. No more tap water for me.

[chris_J2]

I've also read in Lonely Planet, that tap water in Korea is contaminated with low levels of heavy metals & pesticides. And before anyone races to ridicule LP as a source, many of the authors & editors have degrees, the same as us. Check a LP guidebook for proof.

It's okay to brush your teeth with, or shower in water here, but if you drink 5 litres of water a day (not hard to do in summer) or more, then you really should consider bottled water from the supermarket, instead. I drink as little Korean tap water as possible.

And Melbourne tapwater is the best in Australia. I'd also agree that Adelaide water is the worst. Brisbane & Sydney are intermediate quality, although with the new fluoride additions, there was a recent case this year of residents of Joyner (a northern suburb) receiving 13x the permissable level of fluoride in the water.

[i]

I saw a TV report in the past year that the government claims the tap water in Seoul is safe to drink, but that only about 1% of Koreans drink it. I drink bottles or filtered water, but often wonder if I'm just drinking the same thing. Even in the US, companies sold bottled tap water. And I've seen water machines where I never witnessed a filter change.

[bobbybigfoot]

I live in Seoul and I just got some government mail stating that the tap water is safe to drink. It showed an analysis of what's in the water. My girlfriend looked it over but had difficulty translating it into English. We ended with "the water is safe to drink."

I'll boil my pasta using tap water but that's as far as I go. I drink the filtered water from my school. Saves me 30,000 a month in water.

But it's all nonsense. Bottled water is often no cleaner than tap water. And I have no idea how effective the filters are at my school. For all I know I could be taking home tap water from my school. Penn and Teller did a show about bottled water in the US and found that people are throwing away their money. I'm assuming it's the same sort of thing in Korea.

Since it's doesn't cost me to do what I do and I feel better thinking I'm drinking cleaner water, I figure I'll keep doing it. If ever a supervisor objects to me filling up my daily 2L bottle of water then I'll get a Brita and be done with it.

[katepult]

I figure that if no Korean people drink tap water, I won't either. It tastes pretty bad, too. I do use tap water for cooking, tea and coffee. I know Seoul's tap water is safe to drink, but I wouldn't be too sure of rural areas. I don't worry about showering or brushing my teeth either. Some countries I brush my teeth and rinse the toothbrush with bottled water, but Korea is too developed for that.

I heard recently on either BBC or the Discovery channel that chemicals start to leach from plastic water bottles after one use. The chemical that leaches has effects similar to estrogen.

[nobbyken]

Try drinking about 500ml or more each day for a week. If you feel OK at the end of the week, probably ok for you.

I drink my friends tap water in Gangnam, it's delicious.

I drank from my home for a week and got a dose of the runs, so I figure I can't stomach our local tapwater.

There has been contamination scares as highlighted in the excellent post above, I knew the recent one was South somewhere, but not exactly where.
My wife is convinced that it's same supply serving all of Korea , so she takes precautions as if she was a Daegu resident.

I drink all my water from the Britta, and I take a frozen bottle from the freezer and put it in a ziplock for trips on hot days.

[harlowethrombey]

[jonbowman88]

What I want to know is where does the water served at lunch time at Public Schools come from? And why the frick is it always hot even during the summer?

[winterfall]

The water itself isn't bad. It's just the pipes are too old. I recommend cooking it. Got a stomach virus last time I drank it straight.

[joshua7choi]

Korean people are very sensitive about drinking tap water especially in big cities like Seoul. In spite of the govt's effort still people don't accept that drinking water without filtering is safe. Based on below info, however, the tap water is not too bad to drink at home.

<World Health Organisation>
http://www.searo.who.int/EN/Section313/Section1518_6793.htm

For me, I only drink water after boiling but there is a fact that even boiling water is not safe to drink any longer. That's quite sad. From my past experience in Europe(U.K.) I used to drink with Brita's filter but still remember that the water was not clean. And in Thailand it was clear to see that drinking water was crazy to kill yourself. My point is to consider drink of filtering or boiling water whenver possible.

note: Until now there are no particulary cases that people were suffering from drinking tap water in Korea.