[jfoster]

It's interesting how many places have contradictory advice depending on who you're listening to.

Eg. Hong Kong: WHO says it's safe. CDC says it isn't.

One suggestion: If the top-level advice is that water from a country (eg. Japan) is that it's safe, it would be useful to call out particular places in that country where it isn't. (eg. Fukushima in the case of Japan)

[drdaeman]

WHO's index of 96/100 for Russia (contradicting all other sources) makes me question WHO methodology or sources. I get that my personal experience cannot be authoritative source (except for myself) and is purely a single data point at best, but still...

Russia is a vast country, but as a former local (north-west region) I'd say that it's generally not a good idea to drink tap water there. I haven't talked much about water quality intentionally, but I believe everyone I know holds a similar opinion, and doesn't drink unboiled tap water.

It could be "safe" in a sense that one probably won't get sick from occasionally drinking it, but anecdotally - in comparison to bottled water, tap water is of questionable quality just about everywhere in Russia.

Unless we talk about separate kitchen taps with reverse osmosis systems. Even then, most people I know, don't drink that water directly but only use that to fill the kettle for boiling.

[Assadi]

A lot of Russians also believe things like drinking water with ice cubes will give you a sore throat. I wouldn't put too much stock in something just because the locals believe it.

Personally, I think the water boiling thing is one of the dumber things they do because, at least in most of the big cities, the thing that is most likely to be wrong with the water is not bacteria and other things that would be killed by boiling your water but rather heavy metals (and, last I checked, boiling my water does not remove lead!).

Also, anecdotally, I've yet to die from drinking from drinking unfiltered Tomsk tap water & never noticed abnormal levels of anything nasty during blood work. I think there is a lot of paranoia about the water system here that has generally been undeserved over the past decade or so.