Is It Safe To Drink Tap Water? - Pureit Water

If you’re living in, moving to, or even visiting India and wondering whether you can drink tap water or not, then you’re at the right place.

Most people will say that water filtration might be overrated, but it’s a little bit more complicated than that. Let’s check out whether it is safe to drink tap water or not and what kind of tap water purifiers are good for you.

What kind of contaminants could be in tap water?

According to research, drinking water might contain small amounts of contaminants. But the presence of contaminants doesn’t necessarily mean the water you’re drinking poses any health risk. But with the regular consumption of these contaminants can cause skin or tooth discoloration changes in the taste, odor, or color of the water.

Where does the tap water come from?

It is complicated to talk about tap water in India. Here the water might come from pristine springs in the Himalayas, groundwater in Chennai, aquifers in Kerala, or the river Ganges for many communities. However, unfortunately, humans have managed to pollute almost every source of freshwater. Along with this, there is a major water shortage in some places and constant flooding in others.

Why do I need a water filter?

A water filter is highly recommended for drinking water. Filtered tap water is mostly safer, cheaper, more convenient, and even environmentally friendly.

Choosing a water filter can also be difficult. Due to the sheer amounts of potential pollutants, technology like activated carbon, reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration, UV light, or ion exchange is needed. Sometimes even the combination is much better. A combination of two is best for treated public tap water and three or more for untreated water.

Activated Carbon + Ultrafiltration

It is the simplest, most affordable, and even potentially safest activated carbon combined with ultrafiltration. Activated carbon can remove up to 70+ contaminants, and ultrafiltration helps to remove most pathogens, like bacteria, Giardia, etc. Remember that it needs to be catalyzed activated carbon in order to remove heavy metals.

Activated Carbon + UV light

As ultrafiltration helps in removing most pathogens, UV light is the best bacteria and virus killing technology. The only negative aspect is that it requires electricity and the lamps need proper maintenance.

Reverse Osmosis + Activated Carbon

Reverse Osmosis or RO is even the most promoted filtering technology for under-the-sink filters. The biggest advantage is that they filter nano-size particles and remove all good and bad minerals, pathogens, and even contaminants. To complement it, Activated carbon is used to remove larger particles as well as chlorine that can damage the filter. The only disadvantage is that it also removes healthy minerals that require maintenance and wastes a lot of water. So in order to add more minerals, you can shop for Pureit copper water filters.