Don't Drink the water and other digestive issues

Never.
Always use bottled water from a reliable outlet.
There will be larger, home sized bottles available to use with a water dispenser.

You can also boil tap water but its a very tiring process. Alternatively you can buy a water purifier if you have plans to stay for long. 

northst wrote:

Hello!
In my travels to India in the past (I live in the US) the rule was always bottled water only and no raw fruits or veg. I am now taking a long term assignment in Hyderabad and would like any information on how long it would take to adapt to local water etc.

You can not become accustomed or used to local water. Cryptosporidium and giardia will equally harm any human; it doesn't matter where you are. You can't become immune to these kinds of bacteria. Get a pitcher water filer for your refrigerator. I've been to Mumbai many times and have drunk from many taps of friends who do not have filters.

Your probably better off drinking your own urine than drinking any water source from this awful place!

Drinkin it every day  all day long

Hello northst,

I came back from India last year after a 2 year stay there. I confirm everything here, do not drink the tap water. It is very risky. Always keep to mineral water. Even the Indians do. Actually it was an Indian who confirmed this information for me when I reached India in 2012.

Cheers,

Shaazia

the bug you get from water is typhiod . Either type O,H,B     once you are in india for two months. You will become very ill with a bug. Take doscyince 100 mg 7 days.once you are over this bug . Feel free to eat anything.but the water is tained with chennmials

Here for 20 days now. Drinking gallons. Eating all sorts of street food. Maybe I'm just lucky, huh?

Been here 16 years. And I am watching a dumbass getting ready to be sick as a dog..lol you were warned . But hey you know it all.

Well never mind my degree in biochemistry with focus on microbiology, but if that is aimed at me, I would point out that people here filter, filter, filter and buy bottled water. Yet they take showers and if it's contaminated it's contaminated; you "will" get it in your mouth. Brushing their teeth in tap water; you "can't" avoid swallowing it. And then there are the "experts" that think you can get "used" to it [water]/food. Look folks, giardia and cryptosporidium affect humans, period. You can't get used to them, but don't take my word; I'm sure you'll look it up. Unless microbiology has changed in thirty years. Besides, the street food'll kill ya. It's good, but that's where you're going to get sick (no food gloves here). Like I said, I'm sure most of you know more about micro-B than I do, but that's my 2 cents from the peanut gallery. How many of you "dumbasses" have your required shots? That's what I thought. Not sure what a cheninmlals is, however. Mr Ph.D.

last year I change my water to kangen water, just to avoid acidic RO (dead water) and unhealthy water bottle.. and this happen not only in India but all over the world.. if your immune system weak no matter the place.. microbug will win the battle in your body..

As I said in an earlier post, I have a degree in microbiology and chemistry. Kangen "adds" / increases alkalinity to the water. This is about as bad a thing one can do, but I'm sure Pat Boone, their spokesman knows more than someone who spent five years doing nothing but chemistry. Better read up on alkaline just for fun. It's a $4000 can of snake oil. The only thing that has changed is the marketing. Used to be covered wagons, now it's parties and infomercials. Hope your money was well-spent, sucker.

What a positive words comes from a people with a degree... education should show some attitude.. nice talking with a skeptic degree..

Like they say, it's your body. Don't take my word for it, take your own course or take the sample to a local lab. They can test it in an hour or so and being Mumbai, probably pretty cheap. Just a guy with a cheap degree.

"The world's a very scary place if you don't have chemistry...chemistry 101." Doctor Neil deGrasse Tyson

When this smartass/dumbass post that he is sick. I will never stop with . I told you so..

So direct it at the sick dumb-ass...you have the wrong guy here if it's directed at me. Doctor.

Not skeptic degree. They're just classes which you've never heard of or weren't offered in your local hometown votech college. If I had said cosmology, you probably would have thought me a hairdresser. Skeptic; at least you spelled it correctly.

I got it now. Just re-read your original note in the bright light of night. The one that is replete with spelling errors. I got it now. Glad I cleared that up. " the water is tained with chennmials" refers.

Could we all just perhaps tone it down a couple of notches here please! We're here to offer help and advice, not to get into heated arguments.

Dennis, as you state you're there only for a couple of weeks now. Why is it, do you think, that all those hundreds of thousands of Indians are drinking bottled water? They aren't the Perrier Sparkling Water set you know!

The overwhelming consensus even of the locals is DON'T DRINK THE WATER. That said, if you wish to ignore that advice and risk your health, far be it from us to stop you. Just make sure to show your degrees to the Emergency Ward medical staff when you're there, I'm sure they'll find them quite interesting.

Cheers,
James
Expat-blog Experts Team

You're right. Never mind the other sixty-five countries I've lived in and/or visited extensively, most of which makes Mumbai look like a Pasteur lab. And the locals will go home and brush their teeth with...tap water. Got it. Thanks.

Dennis,

It really appears that you're posting here just to stir the pot. Not a wise thing for a relatively new member to be doing, especially after a direct request from a member of Expat-blog Team and Expat-blog Experts Team to tone things down. I'd suggest strongly you re-evaluate your reasons for being here on the blog.

If it is your intention to make contacts here, do some networking and perhaps make a few friends along the way, it's not going to happen if you just raise everybody's hackles.

Cheers,
James     Expat-blog Experts Team

I was just speaking as an expert in biochemistry. I'll not trouble the post again; sorry for the trouble.

Foremost regards,
DT

You maybe expert in your field. Then please listen to experts living in I.N.D.I.A.

The thread is full of insults and general slagging people off, so getting a bit pointless, not to mention way off reality.

http://www.nbr.org/research/activity.aspx?id=356

The World Health Organization estimates that 97 million Indians lack access to safe water today, second only to China. As a result, the World Bank estimates that 21% of communicable diseases in India are related to unsafe water.

Many countries have poor water treatment, India being one of them.
Stick to drinking processed water.

Fred wrote:

Never.
Always use bottled water from a reliable outlet.
There will be larger, home sized bottles available to use with a water dispenser.

Dennis Tedder wrote:

I was just speaking as an expert in biochemistry. I'll not trouble the post again; sorry for the trouble.

Foremost regards,
DT

Not really.
You may well be an expert as you claim, but 454,367 people will disagree with your suggestion.



The ONLY sound advice here is - Don't drink tap water  -It might very well kill you.

Dennis Tedder wrote:

I was just speaking as an expert in biochemistry. I'll not trouble the post again; sorry for the trouble.

Foremost regards,
DT

I'm sorry, but for one who claims to be an "expert" in biochemistry to counsel anybody to drink tap water in any developing nation (politically correct term) is completely irresponsible.

Cheers,
James        Expat-blog Experts Team

I do prefer bottled or RO-processed water like most indians do.
However I drank sugarcane juice, ate any fruits sold on the market after washing them with tap water, and no problem. Street food is 100% safe, as it's freshly boiled.
Ah, yeah, I brush my teeth with tap water and nothing happens.
What bothers me more about tap water is what chemicals they might put into it to kill the bacteria - it's supposed to be unhealthy in big quantities. That's why RO water is better.

I caught stomach bugs twice, but the first time I literally swallowed some water from the toilet floor (I dropped earphones and without thinking much, tried to save them by sucking out water), and the second time I ate dirty mulberry from the tree at the roadside of a busy road (mulberry from the tree in a cleaner residential place was safe). So don't lick the toilet floor and keep your mulberry tree clean

Those stomach bugs are mild, although weird to a european... They happily go away with 2-3 days of antibiotic (in fact they went away with one dosage of antibiotic, I just kept taking it for 3 days for safety... it was Bactrim, but only because I had this one among my medication... any other would work too).

PS: I drink a lot of water in form of tea, so I could probably use tap water for it, it's anyway boiled... but it never made any sense - RO water is easily available either free of charge from society, or at a tiny price.

As was mentioned before, drinking tap water in countries without a guaranteed clean supply is a bad idea.
The risk is simply too great.
Of course, most will just get a bad stomach for a couple of days, but some will experience far worse, right up to death.

Our foul mouthed, now banned,  biochemistry expert was talking out of his arse.

Death hardly... there are lots of private hospitals and doctors seem to be highly professional there (I got my gallbladder removed in November in Noida).

India is the center of "medical tourism".

What can you really get from water that's not curable? Some trouble, maybe yes... if you make sure to only drink tap water in great quantities. But I never do it even in first-world countries - it stinks of desinfectant.

PS: my experience is based on Delhi NCR, and I only lived in gated societies.

Use a reverse osmosis water purifier. It will make tap water pure enough for drinking.
Slightly expensive but nonetheless, the best way to purify water. Connect the purifier to your kitchen sink tap and drink the water.

yea for drinking, a water dispenser will do but what about cooking?

We were given the free RO water by the society RO mini-plant in the latest society where I was living.

In the previous one, there was no RO plant, but the water providers were cheap and many (like some 15 or 30 INR for 20 liters of water, not worth talking about).

For that money, I did not see any point to cook from tap water.

I hope you do live in some more or less civilised place - so if you dont have any of those paper ads from "paani waalas", just visit a couple of neighbours and ask them where they get RO water from.

Personally, I don´t see any need to BUY a RO purifier...

When you get RO purified water from other suppliers, it passes through two to three more steps until it reaches your home. There is a good probability of recontamination in those stages.
Better have a RO purifier at home and use the same purified water for drinking and cooking.