How safe is river water?

[blacktimberwolf]

All those against say aie, So far, the for's have it, from what I can gather, if you see a corpse bobbing about, face down, in an obvious state of decomposition or you find footprints of the monster from the black lagoon along the banks, then keep on walking, but if you happen to stumble upon a babbling brook, with the birds singing & the fish a jumping then plunge your mugs.............
Sound advice,..........I do hope I can remember which is which, next time I'm out & about.

 

[johnboy]

Aluminium whatsit contamination of water supplies - by the water supply company in the SW of the UK a few years back...

John

The Camelford Alumium Sulphate incident was in 1988 so some 23 years ago... Time flies.....

 

[John Fenna]

John

The Camelford Alumium Sulphate incident was in 1988 so some 23 years ago... Time flies.....

OK - a FAIR few years.... all I am pointing out is that tap water aint perfect and can be heavily poluted too!
In SA the kids in one of my teams would not use the river water for anything - not even washing their socks but trusted the tap water.
The tap water was collected and came to the taps, untreated except for settling tanks, from a few meters upstream!
Do your research and treat water as you find needed - from any source!

 

[poddle]

In some countries tap water can be your downfall, as you assume it to be clean. as John quite rightly said, DO YOUR HOMEWORK, my girlfriend caught typhoid from the water in the hotel we were at, and nearly died, a week after her very slow recovery she then contracted Malaria.

Water is essential, but it can kill you faster than not having it at all, and I regard it ALL as toxic.

 

[bearman]

It would be interesting to see this thread with a poll attached to see how many people on here do-or dont drink from rivers streams etc... Not that it would settle any argument over the matter, I'm just curious of the general consensus now!!

 

[poddle]

It would be interesting to see this thread with a poll attached to see how many people on here do-or dont drink from rivers streams etc... Not that it would settle any argument over the matter, I'm just curious of the general consensus now!!

Discussion Bearman, not Argument

 

[blacktimberwolf]

Aluminium whatsit contamination of water supplies - by the water supply company in the SW of the UK a few years back...me, the severe squits from poluted water from our tap water (Welsh Water)2 years ago - me, vomitting and the squits from our tap water 5 years ago due to chemical over dosing of the water supply at the treatment works (the water smelt like Jayes fluid but I have a poor sense of smell) several times in the past 35 years the water in our area has been heavily over chlorinated to the point it made me feel sick to smell it.

Some people are just unlucky, of course there will be sporadic "incidents" but I don't think you can claim this as a generality & some water companies are better than others. Dosing water supplies is a delicate process & sometimes they get it wrong, Also since the "invasion" of Afghanistan, the participating countries are obliged to increase their chemical input , notably chlorine, due to the potential threat of terrorist germ war fare................
Chlorine is a problem from time to time, no one likes to drink from a swimming pool, but it is air soluable & if you let it stand a few hours the smell (& taste) will disappear.............also if really your common sense says no, then don't drink it & call your water co...................
I don't believe ( only my opinion) that any problems you may have had ( or will have) with tap water, will lead to any serious long term health issues, which may not be the case with river ingestion.

 

[bearman]

Discussion Bearman, not Argument

Yep, point taken Poddle, it was a poor choice of vocab. on my part.

 

[blacktimberwolf]

It would be interesting to see this thread with a poll attached to see how many people on here do-or dont drink from rivers streams etc... Not that it would settle any argument over the matter, I'm just curious of the general consensus now!!

I think the majority are for it, after all; they've been "doing it for years with no ill effects"

 

[John Fenna]

Some people are just unlucky, of course there will be sporadic "incidents" but I don't think you can claim this as a generality & some water companies are better than others. Dosing water supplies is a delicate process & sometimes they get it wrong, Also since the "invasion" of Afghanistan, the participating countries are obliged to increase their chemical input , notably chlorine, due to the potential threat of terrorist germ war fare................
Chlorine is a problem from time to time, no one likes to drink from a swimming pool, but it is air soluable & if you let it stand a few hours the smell (& taste) will disappear.............also if really your common sense says no, then don't drink it & call your water co...................
I don't believe ( only my opinion) that any problems you may have had ( or will have) with tap water, will lead to any serios long term health issues, which may not be the case with river ingestion.

Our tap water is taken from a river, filtered and treated...how does that differ from my taking water from the river filtering and treating it?

 

[poddle]

Yep, point taken Poddle, it was a poor choice of vocab. on my part.

I would rather have a slight overdose of chlorine than even a remote chance of Typhoid, remember water is not only used by us chaps for washing and drinking, other chaps like to live in it, crap in it and for want a a better word... breed in it.

Its not just our domain
:yikes:

 

[poddle]

Our tap water is taken from a river, filtered and treated...how does that differ from my taking water from the river filtering and treating it?

It does not John, its down to how good a job you make of doing it.

The product that I sell and install in Nigeria will take raw sewerage and make it fit for drinking in just two hours, without using any additive

 

[Nagual]

Lets not forget that in many places throughout the UK the house water is supplied from a wee blue pipe running down from the hills. Not a jot of chemical treatment. Up to the folks to boil it before use. So there really isn't too much difference with going camping is there?

 

[Toddy]

Our water comes out of the Lanark moorlands. It's filtered, after it's been treated to flocculate (think clump together and settle out) the peat and clay particles, some kind of aluminium is used for that otherwise the particules clog the filters, and then it's chlorinated.

I have drunk from the burns coming out of the moors and hills for years, just you really do need to do the dead sheep and deer check upstream first (why do they always aim for the burns to croak it ?)
Anyway, surely, if I add the steritabs to the burn water, I'm not doing anything different than the waterboard does to the stuff that comes out the taps ? I filter it through a clean fine hankie and I don't add the aluminium stuff so really it's cleaner than the tap stuff

I'm not trying to be a pain, I really do understand the whole 'clean' water issue, especially in disease control in urbanisation, just genuinely interested.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[gsfgaz]

you are right enough mate ,it must be a special bit of blue hose that sterilises the water as it runs down the hill ,

 

[Toddy]

It does not John, its down to how good a job you make of doing it.

The product that I sell and install in Nigeria will take raw sewerage and make it fit for drinking in just two hours, without using any additive

That's impressive

cheers,
Toddy

 

[blacktimberwolf]

Our tap water is taken from a river, filtered and treated...how does that differ from my taking water from the river filtering and treating it?

Hopefully they analyze it regulaly & if it's too contaminated, won't pass it through your pipes, but as I said, not all water companies are the same,
Prehaps you have a relatively pollution free river, I can't believe everyone has.
I can see you've done a fair bit of wandering over this globe & drunk all kinds of water from different sources & with little or no short term effects & apparently with no long term effects either( ah, where would we be without our portable internal fatty tissue cell analyzers) but the fact remains drinking from rivers & streams in the UK is a risky venture & if we get it wrong there can be a high price to pay.....russian roulette commes to mind.

 

[poddle]

That's impressive

cheers,
Toddy

80% re usage Toddy, so can be recycled time and again,

 

[poddle]

Much of the focus here seems to be on the removal of micro organisms, when the thing that concerns me most is the content of oil (from that little Tw*t down the road stripping his car), agricultural chemicals, industrial accidents,hydraulic fluids, and god knows what from industrial fly tippers, Spirit from silage pits, all this makes its way to the water course, and non of it will be removed from the water by boiling.

You may be lucky and have a substantial impervious strata locally, but you have no evidence of that when in the field.

Drinking this stuff can sprout enormous black and grey beards... fine if you are John Fenna, but not so good for the girlies heheh

Stay Safe

 

[John Fenna]

Hopefully they analyze it regulaly & if it's too contaminated, won't pass it through your pipes, but as I said, not all water companies are the same,
Prehaps you have a relatively pollution free river, I can't believe everyone has.
I can see you've done a fair bit of wandering over this globe & drunk all kinds of water from different sources & with little or no short term effects & apparently with no long term effects either( ah, where would we be without our portable internal fatty tissue cell analyzers) but the fact remains drinking from rivers & streams in the UK is a risky venture & if we get it wrong there can be a high price to pay.....russian roulette commes to mind.

Well - if the River Tivy is NOT a relatively polution free source then half of the West Wales costal area is in trouble as the water taken from it is the domestic source for an awful lot of people in the Cardigan and South Ceredigion, North Pembrokeshire and Teifi Valley areas!
Would this have anything to do with my fast developing Moobs?