When you’re travelling or you’ve moved home how do you know it’s safe to drink the tap water? I absolutely hate buying bottled water when I can avoid it because it contributes to environmental pollution through both plastic waste and emissions, costs an enormous amount of energy to produce and transport. Generally isn’t actually more healthy or better for you in most places around the world. Some bottled water when tested has even been found to have negative health effects.
Nice idea @PaulPavlinovich and I support using less plastic bottles. I drink tap water as much as I can.
In saying that, local people from different countries and cities can tolerate things that they have been used to. If they add to your suggested map idea, it could be misleading to others. I know people that live in countries that can tolerate water from taps and street food, but a visitor would definitely get sick.
Putting a marker on maps would be very misleading in my mind.
Now that you’ve mentioned, I don’t know if the water is safe, so I always buy bottled water wherever I travel. Somehow I do not trust the local tap water. Even where I live, water is not suitable for drinking and people are obliged to buy bottled mineral water which is not only bad for the environment but it can get expensive too.
It is an interesting thought @TheEagleEye I’ve drunk tap water anywhere in the world that the locals do and haven’t had an issue, granted I could have been lucky. Even in some countries where they don’t I’ve used a life straw https://www.lifestraw.com/ which will get rid of nearly anything from water.
Indeed @MoniDi it is interesting that people will pay $5 for less than 1 litre where they could have it for free or nearly (tap water is $3 for 1000 litres here).
Some mineral waters have very low pH which can make them dangerous to health.
Thanks for reply @PaulPavlinovich and I had never heard of the Lifestraw. I’ve travelled 63 countries and drink tap water (try at least) and got very sick in Thailand. I’ve drunk tap water throughout the Middle East but some of my colleagues haven’t tolerated it.
I support anything that gets rid of plastic bottles and other waste.
In regards to your initial idea, it is good idea although I’m unsure Google Maps would want to litigate themselves if people did get sick or worse.
I imagine Google would protect themselves in the same way they protect themselves from our reviews - it is User Contributed Content the ultimate responsibility is ours @TheEagleEye
Dear @PaulPavlinovich your post reminded me of my recent visit to Burliyar, Coonoor, Tamilnadu. It is located on mountain top, most tourist do trucking.
Here I tasted mountain springs, very pure and taste natural sweet. The best water I have ever taste. I live in Chennai, metropolitan city but we have water scarcity we buy bottle water for cooking and drinking. We know it’s not tasty and healthy. As of now we have no other alternative.
So my recommendation is if you are on a mountain and found a spring. Without any second thought you can drink. Because they are pure and not polluted.
Hi @JohnPeter yes I used bottled water when I visited Chennai because locals had warned me.
I’ve been known to drink from wilderness rivers and streams too. In some places parasites likes Giardia duodenalis can cause internal infection if you ingest it.
It was 2006 (I think) when I went to Chennai, a little before Local Guides was a thing. I mostly worked while I was there (a bit of a reversal - an Aussie coming to India to work in IT) but did get time to explore parts of the city and even some temples. It was a really interesting cultural experience @JohnPeter .