Polish water safe to drink?

Hi I live in Gdansk and when I first came to the dorms my manager said that the water was not safe to drink and that I had to buy bottled water. Is this true? I have heard rumours of there being lead in teh water? I would really appreciate it if someone knew this answer because I am tired of carrying 10L of water up a slope every week.

It's a lie.There is no lead in water in Gdansk only some uranium and plutonium,but not much just a little bit for a flavor.

hahahah that actually makes it worse but thanks a lot!! Now I know i have to struggle up with 10 L of water!

Nah,people in Poland simply have fixation regarding quality of tap water.I do too,even in the US I only drink bottled water.Tap water in Gdansk is safe to drink,that's for sure though I don't know about the taste.

ok thanks a lot. I have been worried because quite a lot of people have said the water is not good. Because some times I have even found the water to be a slight brownish in colour which is what freaked me out a lot.

Most likely iron,nothing to worry about.

tap water is not good in every average city in Poland - I wouldn't drink tap water in those areas of Gdańsk that draw water out of shallow Wisła valley wells (you of course guess that the water in fact comes from Wisła and is only filtrated naturally through the ground which doesn;t eliminate chemical contamination mostly) - and I think it is most of Gdańsk that has water from Wisła - I know Wrocław invested heavily in carbon filters and extensive installation to ozonate water and in the result tap water in Wrocław at least tastes good (but I still wouldn't drink the water on regular base - I have reasons enough to believe it is not even enough to clean water of most chemicals for it to be really good for your health) - however AFAIK Wrocław is the only city in Poland to have serious carbon filtering installation

your manager already advised you tap water in the dormitory is not good drinking water - and occasional brown coloration is not your most concern (though it is of health concern as the porous and geleaous iron hydroxides that form this coloration are like a sponge and harbour a lot of chemical impurities the water carries) - if I were you I would definitely go for buying my drinking water in 5 litre bottles in supermarkets (it's plain water not carbonated) - the bottled water comes from areas where there are no major pollution sources that are outside of major river valleys - in fact most of that plain table water sold in supermarkets comes from deep wells - and the price of that water is not a real burden too - a 5 litre bottle costs around 3 PLN and for a single person it's enough for some 3-4 days (even more if you drink less) - if you want to stay on even healthier side buy a small (max. 1l) bottle of mineral water every day - there is a good variety of mineral water in Poland - you can have only mildly mineralised waters or water really loaded with minerals of various composition - suit your tastes

you can drink the water after boiling- ie. tea and coffee. do not drink the water straight from the tap. the problem is that the water starts out clean but as it makes its way to you it picks up stuff because the pipes are so old. I believe there is a story about this in the warsaw voice - but I am too lazy to look for it.

that's not true, make labor analysis of the tap water in Poland and you will find pure poision


you cannot remove the hazardous chemicals just by ''boiling'' the water

Mostly tap water in Poland is safe to drink, the only thing might be diferent taste in different regions etc. due to different composition of minerals. It is always good to filter the water before drinking, but often bottled water is not better than the tap one (in some areas) so why pay and carry those bottles. That's no sense in most regions of Poland. Many people are fixating on this. When I had doubts, I contacted my local water supplier and asked for opinion and current tests results. All was fine and I can drink water from the tap in Krakow. Same was in Poznan.

in some cities yes - but not all cities - some cities have excellent tap water (Częstochowa, Opole, Olsztyn, Bielsko-Biała) - the worst thing is when a city draws it's watter supply from a major river by filtering through the valley sediments


exactly

pip
Is this the article?

True, but it's unlikely to be contaminated.


Er...and you doubt him/her? Why would he/she lie to you?
Why don't you contact one of the companies which deliver water to offices? They could bring you a regular supply, say 25l/week.


What the hell would you know about the tap water in Gdańsk?

hmmm....no I don't thinks so- but it works just as well, for Warsaw anyway. Thanks for looking btw.


got a source for that?

Just as tap water. It's controlled and tested. And I would never drink e.g. Kropla Beskidu, or former Bonaqa but would not have doubts to drink most tap water. Never got sick after tap water.


Often it's just some unbiased prejudice that "tpa water isn't safe". It used to be like that but it was many years ago.


Well, even I can check it online from Krakow. There are often tests published. Here it says something about water in Gdansk being one of the best in Poland:

sng.com.pl/page.php?anim=2&page=38
tester.brita-polska.pl/gdanska-woda-pod-kontrola,artykul,51

i hope this clears out the superstitions about "contaminated" or "unhealthy" tap water. The only thing might be different taste, some people may not like it, depends on region.

Neither have I. The water in my region is fine. In fact my mother-in-law lives around the corner from a Hoop factory, and the water from her well comes from the same aquifer as theirs. The only difference is that they bottle and sell it as Arctic; we drink it for free.

Blondie should asked around a bit more. Or just drink a few glasses (when she doesn't have to go anywhere one day) and see what happens!

Exactly, common sense goes a longer way also here:)


Hah! Good one! I will consider moving close to a brewery then;)

I didn't write that!!

if she used to live in London drank water froms Thames water and was alright she can probably be perfectly fine on Gdańsk water ;)


you did :P go figure ;)

and seriously - the quote utility sometimes wrongly attributes user name's - it used to very common before

i don't doubt my manager. It is just 10 L of water a week is a big pain to carry up a slope!! Being a little bit lazy that is all!!

It's probably quite OK if you are used to it, I think we all adjust to our own horrible water.

Though there is rather no Polonium in Polish tap water I use to drink bottled one. I learned it from my teachers (mostly from US) on the business courses in Cracow in early 90. They used to carry at last one bottle with theirself mandatory. Before it I tried to use pure spring water because tap water wasn't good for my health or at last self-feeling as for many people too. Water conditioning works very good now, but still it is a chemical process. I use myself and can give you advice to use a spring, not mineral, water for everyday use. It has a proper ratio of minerals to water. Below 500mg/1cm3. That water is bottled in Zywiec county by many companies. It has names like Zywiec Zdroj, Krysztal Zywiecki, etc.

I used to drink the tap water for years, then i stopped and my toilet requirements became less frequent. Another thing that put me off was when i saw the state of my water pipes. Lets face it theres all kinds of faults with those undeground pipes, anything could be contaminating the water especially if you live out of town.

Once we had the water board round handing out free bottled Ziwiec Droj water, they gave us about 50 x 5 litre bottles because they found a serious contamination. If the Polish water company is giving away free water you know there is a real problem!!

I drank tap water in Warsaw for six weeks then moved to Gdansk almost 4 1/2 years ago and have continued to do so. No problems. But if my tap water were brown, I'd buy bottled water at Biedronka. The only time I buy bottled water now now is if I want lemon or apple flavored water for an occasional change.

Blondie, where's this slope you have to walk up? Be grateful for the exercise.

According to a raport from October on city's site, the water can be drinked.

the Slope is right from the tram station to our dorms. The one near Medical University of Gdansk.

Have you thought about buying something like a Brita water filter? Either one that fits on the tap or one that filters water into a special carafe?

it's not really an option in a dormitory, you see

I get your point about not installing a filter on a communal water tap, but maybe a water filter pitcher would work.

After decades of poor quality water running in home taps the situation has improved to the extent that many Poles started drinking it again.
(Bottled water is not as safe as it is cracked up to be either, if you tested it, especially if those plastic bottles have been exposed to sun light.)

Nice to see that kind of new infrastructure improving Poland.