BLUEMOMENT

No need to worry, it is 99.97% safe and ranks the most clean in the world, at least in England and Wales.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... -tap-water

In conclusion, then: get your water from the tap, filter it if you like, buy the fancy kind if you prefer the taste, and check the label if you suspect the supermarket is selling the standard stuff at a 2,000% markup.

It caught my eye because a crew member insisted on bringing a big slab of bottled water from Cosco on the boat. He could not be persuaded that the tank water was safe to drink. The chap does not drink from tap water at all and believes it is unclean.

Chlorine residue can be smelt, but it evaporates out the water after a while if stored in tanks.

Slightly OT, but I was in Italy for a wedding in June this year. Amazed at the quantities, variety, and price of bottled water in the supermarket. IIRC a big 2.5 l bottle was under 50 cents. I cannot believe that the bottling cost is so much lower in Italy, so it does rather suggests that those with a taste for such things in the UK are getting ripped off.

Perhaps what they are selling so low cost in Italy is just tap water? The article in my OP states that it is legal to sell tap water so long as it is not marketed as something else. Mineral water on the other hand could command a premium price. Selling, "Fresh, Soft, Healthy, Refreshing Scottish Water" in bottles that you have filled from the kitchen sink could be low cost and legal in this country, but if you stated that it was "Fresh, Soft, Spring Water from Loch Katrine", then you would probably fall foul of the law.

It would not surprise me if we are being ripped off in this country for bottled tap water, or even mineral, spring water. A google search identified many news reports, earliest I saw was 2007, claiming UK bottled water is a rip off. Likely a good business model that is very profitable.

I've thought for some time that there's possibly money to be made from selling tap water - clearly labelled as such with the place of bottling clearly shown. There's often discussion or downright argument about where the best tap water is to be obtained, so being able to buy bottles of water from, say, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee (for starters) would allow proper tasting and comparison - could be the basis of the odd party, or just to provide an alternative to those not enamoured with their own tap water.