Domestic drinking water? How safe?

The short answer is no, except if your house has a reverse osmosis filter installed (unlikely).

Thanks. You right most likely no. Is it easy to get a home filter and install?

Wastewater treatment in VN is only primary or secondary.  Get a machine. 

Don't make ice with it either.  Friend of mine was getting sick every week and saw his GF filling ice cube trays from the tap.

Home filters are not a solution, unfortunately, as the tap water is contaminated with both organic (e-coli) and inorganic (ammonia, arsenic, heavy metals) pathogens. Unless you get a reverse-osmosis system and keep it in top shape, your only option is to buy purified water (or have it delivered). Stick to reputable brands (La Vie, Aquafina, and Vinh Hao) since there have been numerous reports of unsafe bottled water and delivery services.

Tap water is not safe to drink. Also many local bottling plants provides cheap drinking water in big container. Most of them also not safe actually. Their filtering, filling and sealing of the container is not safe. Even though little more expensive, buy some popular brand drinking water or buy a water filter and make your own then boil it for drinking.

Alright, seems like if I need to buy bottled water then stick with this brands Aquifina, lavie, vin hao. But the best is get a filter and if get a filter reverse osmosis. How much is the filter and is it easy to get install and how much? much appreciate.

I drink Evervess, the fizzy water.  Filtration system only for coffee.

it's better for you to boil it before drinking. or you can buy Lavie for drinking. it costs 46k for a barrel of 20 liter because it's mineral water

Is Eva a trusted brand? I've never got sick from it (but have from tap) but didn't see it mentioned.

You must boil water to drink!

Boiling won't remove heavy metals like cadmium nor toxic semi metals like arsenic. 

Get some metazoan parasite in your liver and you'll never feel good again, ever.

I buy water in a jug and try not to drink from the tap. My housekeeper routinely rinses a glass under the tap then fills it with bottled water. Bó tay luôn!
I'm sure that all the ice used in HCMC is made from "tap water' and I'm equally sure the bottled water is "tap water" but I still drink from the jug with the hope it's well water rather than treated surface water. Many homes in Saigon have a well as well as municipal water.

It's much like the warnings against malaria; they say avoid being bit by mosquitoes; what genius wrote that warning and has he ever been to Cau Mau?
I am a licenced Water Treatment Operator from years ago and spent 6 months studying the subject. When younger I operated small waterplants and large right up to the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. I know quite a bit more than the average Joe about the problems with drinking water. Boiling water  just isn't practical so forget it---Having said all that drink bottled water and for the rest cross your fingers.

In Canada alone I would not drink from the tap. It always has to be boiled. And I never drink the tea or water they offer for free when eating/drinking out.

khanh44 wrote:

In Canada alone I would not drink from the tap. It always has to be boiled. And I never drink the tea or water they offer for free when eating/drinking out.

I also don't drink tap water in Canada but not because of bacteria, because they treat the water with Alum which is aluminum based product (linked to dementia); it's used to help solids settle in primary treatment. They also use chlorine (an insidious poison linked to increased incidents of cancer) to kill e-coli and the like after the Alum has done its job. Some municipalities like to add fluoride as well (linked to Alzheimer's and tooth damage). If one was to research the health ramifications of each of the 3 aforementioned chemicals, one might be surprised at the potent swill we drink. In all likelihood HCMC uses those chemicals as well but in the hands of poorly educated operators we are all at their mercy. Do you think that boiling is going to reduce the Alum count, the PPM of Chlorine, eliminate the heavy metals? Do you know we have bacteria that are quite happy in water hotter than 100 degrees C? Boiling the water in some situations helps but in normal living it only helps to assuage our paranoia.

For these 30 + days living here, I have been drinking Aquafina and Lavie bottled water as suggested. I am fine and no problem with these two brands. I also boil the water though but is more of a personal preference as I drink hot teas a lot. As suggested by the forum, avoiding most ice drinks serve at street vendors. Anyway, too much ice cold drinks are not beneficial for the digestive system so less is good.

We Westerners worry about what we drink and rightly so. Sometimes perhaps excessviely, our own knowledge becomes troublesome. In Canada we have people dying from drinking tap water; in Vietnam I haven't heard of that happening although it is probably happening here too. At some point we have to decide if we are engaging in overkill; in my case I try to restrict myself to bottled water (any brand) and when drinking at a cafe or restaurant, I cross my fingers and get on with it.

I do believe wrote:

We Westerners worry about what we drink and rightly so. Sometimes perhaps excessviely, our own knowledge becomes troublesome. In Canada we have people dying from drinking tap water; in Vietnam I haven't heard of that happening although it is probably happening here too. At some point we have to decide if we are engaging in overkill; in my case I try to restrict myself to bottled water (any brand) and when drinking at a cafe or restaurant, I cross my fingers and get on with it.

You might want to start insisting on a reputable brand (La Vie, Aquafina, Vinh Hao):

http://vietnamnews.vn/society/250497/si … ended.htmlhttp://www.irinnews.org/report/83965/vi … ter-unsafe

Also, some Vietnamese people have told me to avoid local brands because of the scandal from a few years ago: funny tasting bottled water turned out to be sourced from a reservoir that was near a graveyard.

To me drinking water or water awareness is very important when travelling. My experience tell me so as not here but even in Malaysia i had fell sick before from bottle drinking water. Water need to be properly treated, filtered and boiled before drinking. A lot of unethical traders are around the world trying to make a fast dollar. Not only ice but here in Vietnam eating fresh vegetables and fruits are also clean with tap water. So eat less of these initially and let the body get use to the micro organism in the water or shall we say let your stomach become iron clad from these outside contaminants.

I saw a woman at a small cafe near the royal palace in Bangkok lift the stormwater lid on the footpath and then wash her vegetables in the water that was flowing through the pipe. I decided that was not a place I would be eating.

Stick to beer, the alcohol acts as a disinfectant!

"You might want to start insisting on a reputable brand (La Vie, Aquafina, Vinh Hao):" These are not reputable brands, they are popular brands. The Vietnamese anecdotes are sometimes hilarious and are akin to superstitions. The Vietnamese public accept heresay quite readily and are not a reliable source of information. Bottled water is supposed to be filtered tap water allthough there are some claims to using spring water which is no claim of quality but people like the thought of it. When I worked in the past bottled water companies were my customers and it is quite amazing to watch how careless they are with packaging.  What I am trying to say is, do what makes you feel comfortable by all means; boil the water, buy LaVie etc. but in reality as Dannytan suggests, you have no protection at all.

simon.1711 wrote:

Stick to beer, the alcohol acts as a disinfectant!

I presume this is a tongue in cheek comment but when I am in serious doubt of the local water or there's no bottled water that's exactly what I do, stick to beer. Trouble is, tough to get it warm enough to take a shower.

In 2000, a survey of bottled drinking water discovered that some samples exceeded the Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality for total dissolved solids, chloride and lead, and also discovered inconsistent and inaccurate labelling of
products.The World Health Organization warns that bottled water can actually have a greater bacterial count than municipal water.

I do believe wrote:

"You might want to start insisting on a reputable brand (La Vie, Aquafina, Vinh Hao):" These are not reputable brands, they are popular brands. The Vietnamese anecdotes are sometimes hilarious and are akin to superstitions. The Vietnamese public accept heresay quite readily and are not a reliable source of information. Bottled water is supposed to be filtered tap water allthough there are some claims to using spring water which is no claim of quality but people like the thought of it. When I worked in the past bottled water companies were my customers and it is quite amazing to watch how careless they are with packaging.  What I am trying to say is, do what makes you feel comfortable by all means; boil the water, buy LaVie etc. but in reality as Dannytan suggests, you have no protection at all.

Fair enough, but Lavie/Aquafine/Vinh Hao are still your best bet. Because the Vietnamese like to sensationalize the news (let's face it, though, that's a human trait), I don't think the Western companies could get away with selling sub-par water: the media and PR fallout would be disastrous. As far as I understand, La Vie and Aquafina make up most of the bottled market in Vietnam, so it's in their best interest to provide a trustworthy product.

Interesting how we've been talking about bottled water and nobody's mentioned the health safety certificates so far... Goes to show how much confidence people place in them?

You could buy your own filtration system if you are living in a place for a long time.

ive never had any trouble with bottled water, just the ice although KFC ice is good, iv`e seen street vendors put the beer in an esky of ice  then get ice from the esky to put in your beer, just imagine whats on the beer bottle. check out the ice when it melts, see that black crap that comes out of the ice, MMMMMM yum 

any expert please advise of a filtration system brand that can filter those harmful chemicals before boiling water?

Hi Mark,
You are correct as I saw a few times the street vendor just pull out ice from the box which have bottle and can drinks. Do they wash them before putting it in, I doubt it. So just be careful when ordering ice drinks. Take them in a cafe and restaurant which is reputable at least.

Check out the you tube on filter water in Vietnam home.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c48nduEvufc

sensesofvietnam wrote:

Hi Mark,
You are correct as I saw a few times the street vendor just pull out ice from the box which have bottle and can drinks. Do they wash them before putting it in, I doubt it. So just be careful when ordering ice drinks. Take them in a cafe and restaurant which is reputable at least.

If your in Hoi an as pictured, then check out the vendors down by the river markets I always use puritabs or similar 1 tab to 1.25 ltr tap water over night

Dannytan wrote:

Check out the you tube on filter water in Vietnam home.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c48nduEvufc

Hey Danny, did you read all the comments, they use a magnet to attract heavy metals   

Yeah. For sure, you should put an order for 12-liter bottles bearing Lavie label. It's safe for your health.

For those of you who are paranoid about the water in HCMC, please read this thread from September 2012:

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=200174

Because I don't trust the delivery systems (i.e. the pipes, etc.), I always boil my water. But I've been drinking boiled HCMC tap water for about 2 years now, and I've not been sick, and I'm still here posting. (It even tastes much better now than when I first started drinking it, as I mentioned in my post on the original thread.)

Please note that the information in the above thread only applies to water in HCMC proper. Everywhere else, you better do as other posters on the current thread have said, and buy name-brand bottled water.

I have been using Aquafina now for 3 months and so far so good. A bottle of 5 litre is 18k and i also boiled the water.

I was wandering about D1 a couple of weeks ago and saw a tap with a sign that read "Drinking Water" above it on a wall - cant remember exactly where it was now.

Anyway, does anyone have the details of a decent filter supplier in Saigon? I bought one of those Korean table made top filters from Metro a couple of years ago and it seems to work OK for filtering crap out of the water, but we still boil after filtering. Having to boil the water is a PITA though, so I would like to buy something that actually works and doesn't need the water to be boiled afterwards. Anyone know of a good supplier here in Saigon?

I also saw a water filtration unit in METRO (the place of the plastic cheese) last night, which comes complete with an inline UV lamp for sterilisation, the cost was just over 2,000,000 Dong - anyone know if they are any good?

Water filters are available at ...... Lãnh Ward, Quan 1.

Oh, I remember, you know all about cheese. Not. So you must know all about where to buy those filters.