I Dream of Safe Drinking Water for Travel

Andy,
Do you drink the water straight from the tap in Togo and elsewhere?

There are mainly 3 ways to drink tap water: straight from the tap, boiled, or filtered.

I think i prefer the boiled option, for example with an immersion heater, as such a device can also be used for taking a hot bath.

I have also been thinking about using a ceramic filter (can be taken anywhere and is not dependent on electricity) for my next trip, but they are quite heavy and can not be used for other purposes.

The safest decision is to buy purified water, boil it, then filter it.

I am sitting in Togo, I see no testing of water done by any Governmental or Non-Governmental sources saying the water is safe or not safe. I drink water from a governmental run public water source, I want to know where safe water is for sure, the only way I feel safe is to send to the USA, as I do not trust the government of Togo to say it is good, and I not trust and NGO to say it is bad.

If the locals drink it, then I drink it.

The better decision is to have Andy a.k.a. ME, send two samples and send to two labs in the USA, or Europe and have it tested. The trade-off of risk to amount of work will be reduced and I or you can stop sitting around boiling, buying and filtering water that is safe to drink or not safe.

This is the problem, everyone assumes it is not safe. A total group-think problem here and there and everywhere, nobody knows, then we label water, which I think the water in Lome is about the best in the under-developed world, we stop insulting their water.

I drink water from a enclosed public system that is probably pumped out a deep well to a very large city tower or tank, then come to my room in pipe.

Depending on how the water works there, you could have several variables. It could be that many different places have different wells and every well will be different building to building or area to area. It is not really a matter of where you are in the world though since nastiness is everywhere.
My brother in law has gross water at his house and come to find out, his well is only 60 feet deep and only about 50 feet from the neighbors septic system! That is in the U.S. too...
Stupidity is universal and not solely subject to the poverty of a place.

When I enter a Hotel, I start to figure out the water system. Hot Water, Drinking water, running out of water, there are many reasons to understand how my new home water system works.

I do not feel the majority of people have any awareness of how the water gets to their home, therefore the majority would not know how to survey a hotel.

Here is a list of sources of drinking water I am collecting.


List of Water Sources