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walterbyrd
Junior Nomad
Posts: 70
Registered: 6-26-2009
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How safe is tap water for cleaning and cooking?
Everybody knows you are not supposed to drink the tap water.
What about for washing vegitables? Or cooking food?
What about filtering water, instead of using bottled?
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mtgoat666
Platinum Nomad
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Location: San Diego
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Mood: Hot n spicy
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| Quote: | Originally posted by walterbyrd
Everybody knows you are not supposed to drink the tap water.
What about for washing vegitables? Or cooking food?
What about filtering water, instead of using bottled? |
depends on where you are. the penninsula is 1,000 miles long and has many, many water systems, which one are you asking about??
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Pompano
Elite Nomad
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Registered: 11-14-2004
Location: Bay of Conception and Up North
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For as many years as I can remember, whoever washed the dishes en mi casa used a few drops of bleach..chlorine..as a disinfectant. Seems to have
worked as I am still kicking around.
I do what the voices in my tackle box tell me.
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vandenberg
Elite Nomad
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Location: Nopolo
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I drink our tapwater all the time without any problems. Seems to me that you do worry a little excessively, like being scared of your own shadow. 
Not recommended for the pioneer spirit.
[Edited on 3-7-2013 by vandenberg]
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DENNIS
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 29510
Registered: 9-2-2006
Location: Punta Banda
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| Quote: | Originally posted by walterbyrd
What about filtering water, instead of using bottled? |
It's only as good as the filter you use. Bottled water is filtered water.
You can buy a water test kit if it will give you any peace of mind.
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MitchMan
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The following is not scientific.
In La Paz, I shower in tap water, I wash dishes in tap water and always allow the dishes to completely dry before using utensils or dishes. I always
and only use the hot water tap for washing dishes as that water source has past through the hotwater heater.
I only use bottled water for drinking and cooking and for rinsing and washing fruits and vegetables and poultry and fish and even pork and red meat.
For washing fruits and vegetables, I use bottled water with bit of bleach and dish washing soap and let the fruits and veggies soak in that solution
for at least 5 minutes, rotating frequently, then rinse with bottled water and let air dry on the counter. Consider washing oranges and mangoes and
avocados even though you remove the skins/pealings to get to the fruit as those items may well come into contact with other fruits and vegetables that
you do eat without pealing. Also, you may cut up these items and the knife blade and juices may run over the skin and onto what you eat.
Always rub and rinse any and all meats well in bottled water and then wrap tightly in plastic wrap for cold storage.
Also, I have frequently gotten cuts and scrapes while working in the yard and I wash those wounds with tap water and soap, and then alcohol.
Six years, no problems, no Montezumas revenge.
[Edited on 3-7-2013 by MitchMan]
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mulegemichael
Super Nomad
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Location: sequim,wa. and mulege
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lots of folks here in our little community drink water from the tap but it tastes like crap!....we use it to brush our teeth, wash the dishes and
veggies but bottled water for drinking, cooking and coffee..
dyslexia is never having to say you\'re yrros.
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willardguy
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good question. goat is right, everywhere you go the quality of water will be different. at gonzaga the water we use from the old spanish well is
practically saltwater but across the bay the well water is drinkable.
I would think just by rinsing dishes and showering you're gonna ingest enough bad water to build up a resistance to it. yvon chouinard (of patagonia
fame) since he was a little boy has made a habit of drinking water from every river he has ever fished and claims now he can eat anything from any
street vendor in the world without a problem.
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walterbyrd
Junior Nomad
Posts: 70
Registered: 6-26-2009
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| Quote: | Originally posted by vandenberg
I drink our tapwater all the time without any problems. Seems to me that you do worry a little excessively, like being scared of your own shadow.
Not recommended for the pioneer spirit.
[Edited on 3-7-2013 by vandenberg] |
Not sure what your problem is.
I have never in Baja. It is that ridiculous for me to ask such a question? Isn't that the sort of question anybody should ask?
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David K
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Location: San Diego County
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Not a bad question, but you need to ask where. Baja California is 800 miles long (California and Oregon together)... just skinnier. So just like San
Diego is different than Mt. Shasta and Portland is different than Death Valley... You have to understand in the dozens of cities and hundreds of towns
on the peninsula, there are going to be different conditions.
To be a safe traveler, until your stomach is used to the local water, use only bottled water for drinking... We only drink bottled water where we live
(in the USA), have you tasted San Diego water? LOL
As for washing dished or other cleaning... that sounds like you are not vacationing, so see what the neighbors do, but I bet if they have plumbing,
they use the water.
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comitan
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Location: La Paz
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Every time you eat out ask them what water they use, if they use tap water you might as well. You can be super safe at home and blow it all when you
eat out.
Strive For The Ideal, But Deal With What\'s Real.
Every day is a new day, better than the day before.(from some song)
Lord, Keep your arm around my shoulder and your hand over my mouth.
“The sincere pursuit of truth requires you to entertain the possibility that everything you believe to be true may in fact be false”
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J.P.
Super Nomad
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Registered: 7-8-2010
Location: Punta Banda
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Mexico spent a lot of money seversl years ago on water clean up. In most major city's the water is said to be Potable. The problem was and is the
poluted delivery system, Roof top storage in metal tanks with no covering on them and worse. in some areas things are getting better. I think it's
still aginst the law to serve tap water in resturants .
Like every where else the Masses have been sold a bill of goods about Purified water.
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mcfez
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I have never drank bottle water in Mexico. Never had a issue.
Funniest thing to watch is when in a restaurant where folks are ordering bottle water ....which I assume is to avoid the bacterium. Then that nice
fresh salad comes along.....that was washed down from the kitchen's tap water :-)
You may feel a mildly sickly for the first day or so.....as in any other country...if you just eat and drink as the natives do.
My two cents worth..........
Old people are like the old cars, made of some tough stuff. May show a little rust, but good as gold on the inside.
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Barry A.
Select Nomad
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Location: Redding, Northern CA
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| Quote: | Originally posted by mcfez
I have never drank bottle water in Mexico. Never had a issue.
Funniest thing to watch is when in a restaurant where folks are ordering bottle water ....which I assume is to avoid the bacterium. Then that nice
fresh salad comes along.....that was washed down from the kitchen's tap water :-)
You may feel a mildly sickly for the first day or so.....as in any other country...if you just eat and drink as the natives do.
My two cents worth.......... |
To back you up here, I moved a lot when working for the Government-----many new homes in many new places. 100% of the time it took me a few weeks or
months to get use to the new water (felt nauseated, diarea, sometimes even thru-up) but when I did all was just fine, and I became acclimated the new
makeup of the local water, and I drink a LOT of water, and always have.
Barry
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BajaBlanca
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Location: La Bocana, BCS
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to beo nt he safe side, when eating fresh veggies that you have washed in tp water, put a little vinegar in it - natural disinfectant.
One gring who used to live inour village had the water here tested in the States and discovered that it was perfectly good to drink.
that being said, JP has a VERY valid piont. Storage is the pits.
Now that we are getting water delivered form Vizcaino, maybe Asuncioners can give us their take on this ? It is a first for us ....
Right now we shower, wash dishes and fruits/veggies with tap water - have done so from day 1 - have never gotten ill. We do drink bottled water that
comes from san ignacio and then is filtered.
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Alm
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Registered: 5-10-2011
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Bottled water is not just a "filtered water". It's a purified water, filtered usually through the osmotic membrane similar to that in desalinators. As
such, it doesn't contain ANYTHING but water. In fact, it is so void of anything that sometimes I feel a need to add a drop of salt into it, especially
when it's hot or when my diet wasn't quite perfect.
OTH, filters like Brita are fine coal filters and filter MOST impurities but not all, and it won't remove the bacteria if there is any. They won't
make a salty taste - present in many places in Baja tap water - to disappear. But they are perfectly OK for filtering a) water for washing whatever
you have, or b) filtering a tap water that doesn't taste bad to begin with, for use as a potable water. In case A I wouldn't bother at all - fruits,
meat etc don't need perfectly clean water. In case B keep in mind that you still have to boil it if you are going to drink it rather than cook in it.
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TMW
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Location: Bakersfield, CA
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Never drink anything that doesn't go pzzzz when you open it.
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Marinero
Nomad
Posts: 419
Registered: 11-4-2003
Location: Los Barriles, BCS
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In Los Barriles our Muni water is pretty hard, but has always seemed safe. I have a three stage filter system that seems pretty clean when the
elements are changed out. It is not bad tasting, just not spring fresh.
Having said that, I also have an R/O system which gives bottled water taste and purity which we drink, used for cooking, coffee and make up water for
the icemakers.
Locals drink it straight from the pipes. Never heard of any problem
Si estás buscando la person que cambiará su vida, échale una mirada en el espejo.
Fish logo from www.usafishing.com, used w/permission.
But Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man
That he didn't, didn't already have..... |
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J.P.
Super Nomad
Posts: 1673
Registered: 7-8-2010
Location: Punta Banda
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Alm
Bottled water is not just a "filtered water". It's a purified water, filtered usually through the osmotic membrane similar to that in desalinators. As
such, it doesn't contain ANYTHING but water. In fact, it is so void of anything that sometimes I feel a need to add a drop of salt into it, especially
when it's hot or when my diet wasn't quite perfect.
OTH, filters like Brita are fine coal filters and filter MOST impurities but not all, and it won't remove the bacteria if there is any. They won't
make a salty taste - present in many places in Baja tap water - to disappear. But they are perfectly OK for filtering a) water for washing whatever
you have, or b) filtering a tap water that doesn't taste bad to begin with, for use as a potable water. In case A I wouldn't bother at all - fruits,
meat etc don't need perfectly clean water. In case B keep in mind that you still have to boil it if you are going to drink it rather than cook in it.
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In theroy you are correct. but there is no control on the production of bottled water. A lot of it is just tap water run through filters with no
certification of mineral content or any other element
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MitchMan
Super Nomad
Posts: 1856
Registered: 3-9-2009
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Anybody have any comments on La Paz tap water, that is, does anybody drink it straight out of the tap? If so, what part of La Paz?
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