Korean Job Discussion Forums

jhuntingtonus · Joined: 09 Dec 2008 Location: Jeonju

Earlier this month, in my second year here, a Korean friend suggested I avoid the tap water, and to my surprise, my guidebook agreed! I was surprised, since the public works here seem excellent, and I have drank an average of 3-4 liters of it each day for 15 months without any known ill effects. (For one thing, I NEVER seem to get indigestion, and amazingly enough the next Xylitol I take will be my first.) I know some people don't like minerals in their water, but most are healthy in reasonable amounts, I have no complaints with the taste, and have heard so many stories about bottled water being stripped of nutrients and often even tap water itself.

So what do you think? If you think it's dangerous, what specifically is the problem, and would it be damaging over, say, a two-year stay? Could there be regional differences (I'm in the provinces)?

Thanks!

Caffeinated · Joined: 11 Feb 2010

I drink it all the time from the fountain at school but I do admit that it is tasting like algae at the moment. No sickness. At home I mostly boil water for barley tea so I don't notice the taste so much. If I got a bit more paranoid I'd buy a Brita filter.

dumpring · Joined: 06 Apr 2010 Location: Auckland, NZ

I don't know if it's cause my apartment block is on the old side, but just drinking the tap water made me a bit ill so I stick with the bottled stuff. If I boil the tap water then there are no problems.

air76 · Joined: 13 Nov 2007

We use it for coffee, tea, and ice cubes (after it's been boiled)....but it tastes gross to drink it on its own. I think that the tap water is "mostly" safe in Korea now, but it tastes pretty bad.

If it really weren't safe, people would be getting sick from washing their vegetables for salads and whatnot.

There are a lot of places in the world where the water is safe now but it wasn't for so long that the locals still assume it isn't. For example, most of the water is actually safe to drink now in Mexico, but for so long it wasn't so almost nobody drinks it.

If you've been drinking it for more than a week and haven't gotten sick, then it's safe. If the water is bad you find out REAL quick that this is the case.

jhuntingtonus · Joined: 09 Dec 2008 Location: Jeonju

Thanks! I think the Mexico analogy is most likely - Korea has changed so much people may not realize that things like the water are fine. And I'm well over a week drinking lots of it - over 70 weeks, in fact...

MalFSU1 · Joined: 27 Jan 2009

I was making a cup of coffee in between camp classes today, and the water boiler thing was empty, so I went to fill it up with water from the sink in the teachers room....the office "attendant" or whatever her job is sprang up and darted all the way across the room freaking out and acting like I was trying to fill it up with my piss or something. I mean really how scared are they of the water, if they don't even feel comfortable drinking it after it's been boiled?

It's probably because I'm three days away from vacation, bu t I got annoyed. They acted like I was an idiot for using tap water.

OK Rant over!

Globutron · Joined: 13 Feb 2010 Location: England/Anyang

The only time it goes in my mouth without flavouring (hot chocolate, soup or whatever) is when brushing my teeth, and it tastes just like water to me... (technically water itself is tasteless). But a bit mintier. A little on the warmish side too.

Still, I don't drink it because occasionally I see some black thing drop out from within the tap. Not gonna trust that.

oldfatfarang · Joined: 19 May 2005 Location: On the road to somewhere.

I think the tap water is safe in most of Korea. However, their plumbing/pipes aren't always up to scratch. Where ever I've lived in Korea I've seen really old, rusty, unhygenic pipes being replaced with new nylon/plastic ones.

In fact, the've been digging up the pipes around my apartment block area for the past 2 weeks.

Good luck drinking straight from the tap. I don't, and neither do many locals.

PigeonFart · Joined: 27 Apr 2006

It's dangerous. One of our 9 year old students died from drinking it. The prinicpal just lied and told the media he was "attacked by monkeys." The journalists didn't ask any further questions. Case closed.

Captain Corea · Joined: 28 Feb 2005 Location: Seoul

It's fine at the source, but for every 50 year old building it passes by on its way to your gutt, it takes away a year of your life.

thegadfly · Joined: 01 Feb 2003

When I lived in Houston, very few people I knew drank tap water -- it was clean and sanitary-ish, but it tasted too chemical-ly or metallic, so they filtered it or drank bottled water.

I think it is similar here -- I have been filtering the tap water (Brita pitcher) for years, mainly for the taste. I used to drink it, and had no adverse effects, except, as I said, that it tastes bad. The water from the fountain in Norita airport in Tokyo is also pretty nasty-tasting, but is likely safe for consumption....

The water won't give you the plague, and I have never even heard of anyone getting the runs from it...and for me, it has never done anything worse than taste nasty....

rowdie3 · Joined: 22 Sep 2003 Location: Itaewon, Seoul

Only use it for boiling and brushing my teeth.

I got a Brita-like filter at Costco for drinking.

If the locals don't drink it, then I don't either.

laguna · Joined: 27 Jun 2010

laguna · Joined: 27 Jun 2010

thegadfly · Joined: 01 Feb 2003

Yeah, laguna, but I bet you can't smell the chlorine coming out of the bottle in those videos -- I can smell the chlorine a few steps away at Norita...same deal in Houston...then again, I am a non-smoker, I do not wear cologne or aftershave, and all of my toiletries are of the "Arm and Hammer" unscented variety...I have a sensitive schnozz, not a pretentious palate....