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by foobaw 2997 days ago
When I visited India, the locals recommended me to always drink bottled water or else I'd get really sick.

Maybe in the US, it can be solved on a city-by-city basis. For some other countries, I think it's a much more complex problem.
3 comments
petre 2997 days ago
Morocco as well. Be sure to check the seal because they refill them with tap water and sell it on the street. You can get sick even from washing your teeth with tap water. Sick as in ruin your vacation, not sick as in really sick.
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chimeracoder 2997 days ago
> You can get sick even from washing your teeth with tap water. Sick as in ruin your vacation, not sick as in really sick.

I mean, I'd call HAV "really sick". Even for people who clear the infection without assistance and no long-term complications, it's rather involved and goes far beyond simply "ruin your vacation".

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petre 2997 days ago
Not HAV but other stuff that's prevalent and they're quite immune to it while westeners are not. Of course you can also get HAV as well if you aren't careful.
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marcosdumay 2997 days ago
How much is it because of reality and how much is because pf propaganda?

People on Brazil will always tell you to drink bottled water too, yet all the safety issues that make into news (always a very small note at the end of the news) are with bottled water and the sanitary standards are much more strict with tap water.

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sametmax 2997 days ago
Indian waters are very, very polluted. And the pipes are in bad shape, so when the rain season arrives, a lot of dirty stuff get inside.

I drink a little bit of public water in asia or africa from time to time because I'm lazy. 99% of the time it's fine. But when it's not, it's heavy brown pants time, and I'm much, MUCH more tolerant than the average white guy when it comes to food poisoning because I traveled so much. In some countries (E.G venezuala), you can get amoebas out of it. And it's really annoying.

So basically yes, bottled water (and check the seal), or soda.

In some countries (e.g mali, sri lanka), they have water pockets, basically small plastic "balloons" of water than you bite then drink from. It uses less plastic than bottles, but yeah, it still finds it's way into the sea.

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cosmie 2997 days ago
At least in many cases, it's grounded in reality. For example, traveler's diarrhea[1] and hepatitis A[2] are fairly common for Westerns traveling. Hep A isn't a serious issue for locals, because of exposure from childhood - it's similar to how Westerners (in the US, at least) get the chickenpox as children, then rarely have it again in adulthood. But if they get it in adulthood, it's usually far more serious/complicated than the childhood variant. You're very likely to get exposure to Hep A if traveling to many countries, and if you haven't had a vaccination for it then you'll have a pretty crappy time of things as your body gets introduced to something that historically your body has been around since birth.

Hence recommending bottled water, as a precaution to prevent exposure. However, in reality everything around you has been washed, cleaned, laundered, or cooked in local water. And your shower/bath will not be in bottled water. So your exposure is still there, just lessened. Not to mention people that drink bottled water, but poor it into a glass of ice (which was created from non-bottled, local water).

[1] https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/travelers-dia... [2] https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/diseases/hepatitis-a

[1] https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/travelers-dia...

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rayiner 2997 days ago
> How much is it because of reality and how much is because pf propaganda?

Being from that neck of the woods, it's reality. My brother (coming from the U.S. to visit) was hospitalized for days when he was 5-6 because he ate some food off a plate that had been washed in the local water.

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Panoramix 2997 days ago
Why do you blame the water and not the food?
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rayiner 2997 days ago
Hospital diagnosis.
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jandrese 2997 days ago
I think some of that is that you're only spending a week or two in the country and they don't want you to remember it as the time you were stuck on the toilet with a constantly exploding ass. Even if it is not likely that you'll get sick, the potential is high enough that it's better to just buy some bottled water instead.
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