How safe is river water?

[Harley]

You may be right about Tower Bridge! Best wishes!

 

[trekkingnut]

Hmmm... what have you used for the basis for these assertions my good chap, early Sanskrit writings refer to filtration of water sources, which Hippocrates further developed centuries later in the form of a cloth sleeve (and modern special forces operate from vehicles to be resupplied by air by the way).
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As for the filter I was refering to a pocket or portable filter often used by bushcrafters, as that was the object discussed...but prehaps Hippocrates did have one, tucked under his chiton,....... I stand corrected...
True fish are caught & eaten from the Thames, there are even a few restuarants I believe that have them on their menu, but these are caught nearer it's source, Oxford way, with little or no industry upstream, you are right one should always clarify. I admit my knowledge is limited as to the current comestabilty of the Thames fish, but I would be most surprized if you or anyone else would tuck into a smelt caught under tower bridge.......but you have incited me to update my info, & to be more cautious with my outdated affirmations....thanks.

Ive fished and eaten from Mile End section of the canal with no long term health issues....

 

[blacktimberwolf]

Billions of people around the globe rely on rivers as their source of water, food, transport, communication and spiritual fulfilment, please don't tell me they're all wrong and we're all being slowly poisoned!

No you're not wrong, Billions of people around the world do rely on rivers for water, some have safe, clean water, many unfortunatly, do not, Water born diseases kill millions of people every year & I'm sure given the choice, they would have prefered to have drunk our tap water.

 

[blacktimberwolf]

Ive fished and eaten from Mile End section of the canal with no long term health issues....

...........as far as you know............

 

[trekkingnut]

...........as far as you know............

hahah yes so far as i know.... well ive eaten out of a river from just about every continent in fairness, still yet to go antartica and the only river ive come across that i wouldnt touch was in jakarta and there were still people fishing in that... just about....

im sure there was a lot more stuff being pumped into the river during the victorian age, look at all the old paintings showing how much it smelt and i bet there were still people eating out of it then.

the thread question is about drinking from it though i guess.... im not fussy... if i was desperate, id filter it best i could and then boil it, same as any water source!

 

[poddle]

Billions of people around the globe rely on rivers as their source of water, food, transport, communication and spiritual fulfilment, please don't tell me they're all wrong and we're all being slowly poisoned!

Quite correct Harley, but most of these folk have built an immunity to those waters and suffer no ill effects against natural bugs and germs. I live in Nigeria, Lagos actually , where typhoid and cholera kill hundreds of people every day and for the first four months of me being there, I was very ill. Only my inoculations saved me. I was even bleeding out of my a*rse, I do know a little bit about water, its what I do there, clean it and purify it as best we can. All these people are dying from ground water, sourced from so called safe boreholes. Turned out that the outlet from our Septic Tank had a far safer reading than the tap from the water corporations kitchen sink, again source was borehole ground water

Bad water is a global problem, the days of being able to dip your cup into any bubbling stream for a refreshing drink went at the start of the industrial revolution. Modern farming chemicals have also dramatically changed the drain off from the fields.

My girlfriends house is on the Mendip hills and the water from the spring that rises and supplies the house has been condemned year after year, as toxic and unfit to drink. There are no building or factories above the level of that spring, so agriculture has to be at fault.

If that spring is dangerous, then I cannot imagine what kind of analysis would come back from a river surrounded by or passing through several towns.

I come from the country Harley, not London and know the countryside very well, and there is no way that I would drink from a river unless it was totally unavoidable. even boiling it would not convince me that it was safe.
Your choice though, just don't say that you were not warned

 

[blacktimberwolf]

hahah yes so far as i know.... well ive eaten out of a river from just about every continent in fairness, still yet to go antartica and the only river ive come across that i wouldnt touch was in jakarta and there were still people fishing in that... just about....

im sure there was a lot more stuff being pumped into the river during the victorian age, look at all the old paintings showing how much it smelt and i bet there were still people eating out of it then.

the thread question is about drinking from it though i guess.... im not fussy... if i was desperate, id filter it best i could and then boil it, same as any water source!

I think you will find that the quantity & toxicity of the polluants, generously poured & leached into our rivers has greatly increased since the victorian period,

 

[trekkingnut]

I think you will find that the quantity & toxicity of the polluats, generously poured into & leached into the rivers has greatly increased sinced the victorian period,

fair enough. o well.

 

[bearman]

I think you will find that the quantity & toxicity of the polluats, generously poured into & leached into our rivers has greatly increased sinced the victorian period,

Unfortunately I have to disagree with you there chap, i've just wrote a thesis on the impact of the industrial revolution on social development and public health, out rivers are currently the cleanest they have been for a hundred years and chemicals such as mercury sulphates used extensively during the 1700-early 1900's which were previously dumped into watercourses are not tightly controlled

 

[bearman]

Unfortunately I have to disagree with you there chap, i've just wrote a thesis on the impact of the industrial revolution on social development and public health, out rivers are currently the cleanest they have been for a hundred years and chemicals such as mercury sulphates used extensively during the 1700-early 1900's which were previously dumped into watercourses are not tightly controlled

that was meant to be-are NOW tightly controlled!!!

 

[trekkingnut]

Unfortunately I have to disagree with you there chap, i've just wrote a thesis on the impact of the industrial revolution on social development and public health, out rivers are currently the cleanest they have been for a hundred years and chemicals such as mercury sulphates used extensively during the 1700-early 1900's which were previously dumped into watercourses are not tightly controlled

hah, i give up. im going to carry on doing what ive always been doing regardless. everyone is entitled to make up their own opinion and decisions based on what they feel is right eh.

 

[blacktimberwolf]

Unfortunately I have to disagree with you there chap, i've just wrote a thesis on the impact of the industrial revolution on social development and public health, out rivers are currently the cleanest they have been for a hundred years and chemicals such as mercury sulphates used extensively during the 1700-early 1900's which were previously dumped into watercourses are not tightly controlled

I often hear the phrase the rivers are cleaner now than they have been for a century & I don't really know on what criteria this is based upon........does it mean there are less or no floating bodies & debris or are we to conclude that the concentration of chemical & bio-hazardous waste which has been & continues to be versed into the waterways has somehow dissapated & that the water is now safe to drink..................................tricky one.

 

[blacktimberwolf]

that was meant to be-are NOW tightly controlled!!!

& I've just written.

 

[blacktimberwolf]

hah, i give up. im going to carry on doing what ive always been doing regardless. everyone is entitled to make up their own opinion and decisions based on what they feel is right eh.

Absolutly, we all have to die of something, & if it's a painful, long drawn out affair, well I'm sorry , thats just life.

 

[bearman]

I often hear the phrase the rivers are cleaner now than they have been for a century & I don't really know on what criteria this is based upon........does it mean there are less or no floating bodies & debris or are we to conclude that the concentration of chemical & bio-hazardous waste which has been & continues to be versed into the waterways has somehow dissapated & that the water is now save to drink..................................tricky one.

Im not a chemist or biologist but a lot of the information I referenced was to do with tonnage of untreated human waste being emptied into rivers, and the impact of the clean air act, reducing air pollution and in turn reducing rainwater pollution. Although the rivers are cleaner than they have been for many years, i still wouldnt drink from large slow running rivers in industrialised areas, but the smaller faster running rivers around where i live have been fine so far...

 

[blacktimberwolf]

Im not a chemist or biologist but a lot of the information I referenced was to do with tonnage of untreated human waste being emptied into rivers, and the impact of the clean air act, reducing air pollution and in turn reducing rainwater pollution. Although the rivers are cleaner than they have been for many years, i still wouldnt drink from large slow running rivers in industrialised areas, but the smaller faster running rivers around where i live have been fine so far...

I would prefer to have drunk from a victorian river full of human sewage ( filtered & boiled) rather than drink from one nowadays,.........at least you knew what was in it.
Personally I don't think the speed at which a river flows, is an indication as to it's " drinkability"

 

[bearman]

I would prefer to have drunk from a victorian river full of human sewage ( filtered & boiled) rather than drink from one nowadays,.........at least you knew what was in it.
Personally I don't think the speed at which a river flows, is an indication as to it's " drinkability"

Really, I always thought that bacteria growth occurred at greater rates in slow moving or still water-perhaps i'm wrong though

 

[blacktimberwolf]

Really, I always thought that bacteria growth occurred at greater rates in slow moving or still water-perhaps i'm wrong though

bacteria can be killed by boiling, it's not microbes that are the problem..........................

 

[WeThePeoplexfbm]

i just boil my water....and im still alive and coooking


-----
Skipp

 

[John Fenna]

Tap water has to be tested continuously, when was the last you heard of anyone in the UK contracting an illness from the water?

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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.