water in HK

[PreggerC]

moving to HK and am wondering how you all deal with water in HK. The water from the faucet isn't drinkable right? Do you have a water purification system or do you buy bottled water, or do you boil water? What about washing fruits and vegetables? Thanks!

PreggerC

[rani]

we boil water too.

Rani

[hkgirl]

We were told not to drink tap water in Hong Kong by the travel health clinic in Canada before we moved here and we don't, but it's not the water that is unsafe (it is up to WHO standards), it's the pipes in some buildings that make the water polluted.

That being said, we still drink fountain drinks and I'm sure they are not made with filtered water. We've never had a problem.

Anyway, my husband and I boil all our water to make juice and then drink bottled mineral water as does our daughter. The boiled water is safe for drinking, but it doesn't taste good.

We wash our fruits and veggies with a small amount of dish soap and then rinse with tap water and again we haven't had a problem. We used to use the fruit and veggie wash you can buy at Park n' Shop etc., but our friend who is a travel nurse said you can use dish soap and it does the same thing.

Hope this helps.

[Valencia]

The main water source of HK is from Dong Jiang, which is infamous for the toxic waste from factories and bacteria, and is getting worse and worse. You can sometimes see the video clip on TV news, which makes you sick. The rusty water pipes in some old buildings is another problem. Using a water filter may help. Don't trust those water fountains, if the water isn't boiled.

[PreggerC]

what about formula for infants? do you use (1) boiled, filtered tap water, (2) boiled distilled water or (3) boiled mineral water (I tried this yesterday and it was disgusting)... or just room temp. distilled / mineral water?

[Valencia]

First of all, I'm no water expert. I use filtered boiled tap water (it's a small filter costing about $20, not the expensive one). I live in a new building, and the water pipe is in good condition. If the water pipe is rusty, you may need an advanced filter. I prefer boiled tap water to distilled water and mineral water because distilled water lacks minerals vital to our body, and the minerals found in mineral water varies from source to source, and great amount of minerals are not suitable for babies. In fact, some mineral waters which claim to be all natural are discovered containing harmful chemicals, the most recent one being Volvic. There are several other threads about distilled and mineral water, and you may use the search engine of this forum to have a look.

[FTMummy]

With respect to distilled bottled water, I have read in the papers that incidents of infant cavities and rotting teeth has increased significantly in recent years and it's being attributed to increased usage of distilled bottled water. Tap water apparently has flouride added to it (in approved amounts, whereas distilled water is stripped of minerals and has no added flouride). After reading this, I switched back to boiled tap water, although run the water through two filters, given I live in fairly old building.

[mammalicious]

where can i buy a filter for my taps?

thanks!