If you go to any public place in the UK and want a drink of water, don’t be surprised if you see a server giving you water straight from the tap because tap water in the UK is drinkable. Tap water, as the name suggests, is water from a hose. In the UK, water comes from the tap, is drinkable, and is served free of charge in restaurants and pubs. Many people may wonder how water from the tap can be drunk directly.
Can I drink tap water directly?
Tap water in the UK can be drunk straight from the tap, but only in kitchens and cold water. The British Government has permanently attached great importance to the hygiene and safety of drinking water. Since the middle of the last century, the UK has been formulating laws on drinking water safety. Regulators set drinking water quality standards to protect public health. In 1990, the Drinking Water Surveillance Committee was set up. In addition to its own rules and regulations, the UK also implements the World Health Organisation’s Guidelines for Drinking-water Hygiene and relevant EU regulations, mainly the EU Drinking-water Regulations, to ensure safe drinking water and high-quality water services in the UK. These standards are updated and revised at least once every five years to ensure that they align with the latest WHO and EU guidelines and technological advances.
In addition to a well-established legal framework, a mature regulatory framework is essential to ensure safe drinking water and high-quality water services in the UK. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is the UK’s central government department responsible for water resources and related industries, and it provides macro-management of water regulators. In addition, the Drinking Water Monitoring Board (DWMB) was established in 1990 to provide independent oversight of drinking water safety.
In addition, water privatisation reforms since the 1990s have further improved the efficiency and competitiveness of the water industry and ensured the quality of piped water and related services. The UK water regulator has also paid attention to business disclosure and publicity to build a lasting and reliable relationship of trust with the public.
In addition to drinking water from the ground in the UK, water from rivers is also essential. The Thames is the most famous river in the UK, a 402-kilometre-long river that runs through the capital city of London and more than ten cities along the river. The UK’s “Mother River” provides a stable and reliable water supply to 13 million people and many industrial organisations along its length every year.
To ensure the safety of the water supply, the Thames Basin has built 476 sewage treatment plants. All sewage in the Thames basin must be treated before it is allowed to be discharged into the river or injected into the ground. The UK Drinking Water Regulatory Authority report shows that after rigorous testing, the water quality flowing through the Thames area is 99.98 per cent satisfactory.
Why are hot and cold taps separate?
Most taps worldwide have one hose with hot and cold water, making it easy to regulate the water temperature. The water in UK bathrooms is the same. Cold and hot water can be mixed. Hot and cold water come from separate hoses in other parts of the UK. One dispenses cold water, the other boiling. Sometimes, you need to move quickly between the two taps to get warm water.
Hot and cold taps have been in fashion since the Second World War, but the British still need to follow the historic trend in plumbing. Even when they need to renovate an old house, many opt for twin taps, and builders prioritise twin taps in newer, less expensive homes.
Some people think it’s because the British love to wash their hands in cold water to help with character-building. Post-WWII British homes often featured a small water storage tank in the attic. Typically tucked away in the roof, these tanks held around 250 litres of water. The hot water system served the entire house. It included the radiators and the hot water taps in the kitchen and toilets. Water was drawn from a central tank. Then, it was heated up slowly, providing warmth and comfort throughout the home. So this hot water is not connected to your mains water.
This hot water could be cleaner. The storage tank often lacks regular maintenance. Its open design invites outside elements. Dust, rust, and bugs commonly mix into it. This situation calls for closer attention and improved care. Therefore, only cold water from the kitchen is hygienically acceptable for direct drinking.
Does hard water cause hair loss?
Hard water contains high concentrations of minerals and exceptionally high concentrations of calcium, magnesium, iron, and manganese ions. In much of England and Ireland, the water used is hard.
Is hard water bad for your health?
The answer is simple: of course, it is harmless. Although hard water is harmless, it does add a lot of trouble to people’s use. Firstly, hard water reacts with alkali and produces a precipitate, sodium stearate, which is unsightly on clothes and cannot be washed off. The second one is that when hard water is boiled, it will have a severe scale. Therefore, hard water is harmless; it will just damage boilers and pipes in the industry.
Does hard water cause hair loss?
First of all, there are many causes of hair loss, including neurological hair loss, endocrine hair loss, nutritional hair loss, physical hair loss, chemical hair loss, seasonal hair loss and so on.
More common is nutritional alopecia, where only carbohydrates are supplemented, and protein and essential fatty acids are lacking. The advice is to increase nutritional knowledge and supplement with protein, crucial fatty acids, etc.
Hair loss is relatively profound among British people, predominantly middle-aged men. In fact, it is because most British boys love to wear hairspray, starting in their teens, and hairspray is very damaging to the hair, so most of them start to go bald in their thirties. No study has yet proved that the hard water in the UK causes severe hair loss.
FAQ
Is hard water bad for your health?
Hard water has no known adverse health effects, WHO says at its Geneva Conference. In addition, hard water, particularly very hard water, could provide an important supplementary contribution to total calcium and magnesium intake.
What makes UK tap water safe to drink?
The UK has strict regulations and standards for drinking water set by the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI). These regulations ensure that tap water is regularly tested for a wide range of contaminants and is treated with various processes to remove any potentially harmful bacteria or chemicals.
How often is UK tap water tested?
UK tap water is tested hundreds of thousands of times yearly to ensure it meets the standards set by the DWI. This rigorous testing process includes monitoring potential contaminants like bacteria, pesticides, and heavy metals.
