Water from wells in Warsaw - Safe to drink?

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

you sure it is not backyard distilery? :)

No No..Defintely not. :-) It is located in Zoliborz and there are people up there filling up their bottles.

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.

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

Rubbish I've been drinking the stuff for six years and never had any problems

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.

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.

Water paranoia .... a Polish thing.

It was a necessity to boil the tap water in the past, now however it is quite safe to drink.

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.

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.

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

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.

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???

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.

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.

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.


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

I lived in Warsaw from 1989 to 1991. I remember as a kid that our family we go someplace in Warsaw to fill up water for drinking. Every other weekend we would take 10-15 bottles to fill up water from this natural spring. I remember there used to be farm land near this spring as well as a forest where one could take a walk in. Can anyone tell me where exactly this spring might have been? I've been trying to find it on a map but have had no luck. Any help would be appreciated.

@turbocat8

Not enough precision in your post. In principle, many possible solutions. For example, on the southern outskirts of Warsaw - Kabaty (several oligocene wells and popular area for suburban tours). Or, on the north - Kampinos (situation as above). These were the two most popular in the 80-90's recreation areas. But also several other possible solutions. To determine for sure, you must give more informations.

@ WulfrunianbBoy

Thanks for your response! I remember it wasn't a well. It was definitely from a river or spring. I think it could be Powsin. Do you know if there is one there?

@turbocat8

Generally, Powsin and Kabaty are two areas the same forest-recreation complex. Therefore is true, what I wrote earlier. I suppose also that rather it was oligocene well (or spring), not the river. I think that a good way to correctly identify place would be any photos (if it's important matter, of course). Please, review the Google Maps for keywords "Warsaw - Powsin" and "Warsaw - Kabaty" and especially Google Street View for that area. Please look also on the net photos for "powsinski park kultury". Maybe something will be reminded.