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Can anyone give me an honest reason why we should be buying bottled water here in Dubai? The water supply here is (To the best of my knowledge) treated by reverse osmosis. A processs that passes sea water through organic filters that removes contaminents and solida >1 micron. Effectively, it removes all bacteria and particulate. So why are people banging on my door every second night selling me bottled water??? In most cases, treated through the same process at their own factory! WTF is going on here?

It's largely a matter of taste personally. The water that comes out of the tap whilst perfectly safe to drink... tastes pretty awful when compared to bottled water.

The water here also causes all types of skin, scalp and hair problems, so it is not without it's heavy elements. It is quite HARD or HEAVY in terms of salinity and mineral count.

do you drink from the tap?

craig, just because the water is treated through reverse ozmosis doesnt mean that the pipes they're going through isnt adding crap back into it.


i didnt drink tap water even in oz.

I hear the argument about the water "hardness" and yes, the pipes can add particulate to teh water (As can the pipes in the factories that produce water). But I'm not seeing any reason as to why the water is bad for you.

Try looking at this..article

Another thing it taste metallic......

craigindubai wrote:I hear the argument about the water "hardness" and yes, the pipes can add particulate to teh water (As can the pipes in the factories that produce water). But I'm not seeing any reason as to why the water is bad for you.

very little places have water which is actually bad for you - mexico and thailand come to mind.,


you'll live drinking tap water here fine - but i cant imagine it to be pleasant. even through reverse osmosis, you can still taste the salinity of purified water.

would resemble Vittel bottled water - which is TERRIBLE

The water put into supply by DEWA is perfectly safe to drink.

However the water coming out of your tap may or may not be. The problem is that whether you live in an apartment or villa the water will probably have been stored in a ground or roof tank on its way to your tap. The quality of the water coming out of your tap is highly dependent on how well these tanks have been constructed and are maintained.

I would strongly recommend against drinking the tap water directly, unless you know categorically that any storages between you and the water mains are well constructed and well looked after.

I am a water engineer

Dry as Dust wrote:The water put into supply by DEWA is perfectly safe to drink.

However the water coming out of your tap may or may not be. The problem is that whether you live in an apartment or villa the water will probably have been stored in a ground or roof tank on its way to your tap. The quality of the water coming out of your tap is highly dependent on how well these tanks have been constructed and are maintained.

I would strongly recommend against drinking the tap water directly, unless you know categorically that any storages between you and the water mains are well constructed and well looked after.

I am a water engineer

Not selling water by any chance are you?

No - I have no financial advantage to gain whether you drink tap water, bottled water or Stella.

Dry as Dust wrote:No - I have no financial advantage to gain whether you drink tap water, bottled water or Stella.

And you are working for the municipality of Dubai....

Just remember... what they called drinkable water 100 years ago goes by another name today.... mud.

using tap water in coffee and tea, then make it using bottled water and the difference in taste is evident immediately.

I just find it amazing how people purchase bottled water purely, as far as I can see, because of the clever marketing of the suppliers. If I had of said to you 15 years ago that you would pay $2AUD for 500ml of water in any westernised/developed country in the world, I would of been laughed out of town. Now look at us.

craigindubai wrote:I just find it amazing how people purchase bottled water purely, as far as I can see, because of the clever marketing of the suppliers. If I had of said to you 15 years ago that you would pay $2AUD for 500ml of water in any westernised/developed country in the world, I would of been laughed out of town. Now look at us.

OK, you can drink the tap water, and you will live... just don't invite me over for a cup of tea.

craigindubai wrote:I just find it amazing how people purchase bottled water purely, as far as I can see, because of the clever marketing of the suppliers. If I had of said to you 15 years ago that you would pay $2AUD for 500ml of water in any westernised/developed country in the world, I would of been laughed out of town. Now look at us.

So true. A friend of mine sold an acreage in B.C., Canada and he was on a well system there as there was no municipal water. As part of the terms of sale, the water needed to be tested for chemicals. Turns out it was better than the spring water he had been buying for years! Sometimes we are led to believe these things.

On the other hand, I recall an outcry a couple of years back regarding Dasani water in the U.K. Studies showed it was only filtered London tap water....Coca-Cola (owns Dasani) never disagreed. They never claimed it was spring water or anything, they just ran the tap water through a giant Brita or Pur filter I guess.

No question the water here makes your hair fall out!!

dubaidog wrote:No question the water here makes your hair fall out!!

Yep, not only that it makes your hair prone to dandruff. Thats why its best to massage your scalp while shampooing and rinsing to loosen the skin flakes brought about by hard water from the tap and a dab of of conditioner (aloe vera) 2x a week will go a long way.

Re drinking the tap water - the expression "educating pork" springs to mind - although probably inappropriate in a muslim country.

I repeat what I said earlier - unless you are absolutely certain that any storages between the water main and your tap are well constructed and well maintained then don't drink the tap water. If you do you are risking your health.

As to cost - a 20 litre bottle costs between Dh6 and Dh10 depending on where you get it from. Hardly going to break the bank! Maybe a bit expensive to wash your hair with.

Tap water is ok for taking bath, just an extra effort of massaging the scalp....

craigindubai wrote:Can anyone give me an honest reason why we should be buying bottled water here in Dubai? The water supply here is (To the best of my knowledge) treated by reverse osmosis. A processs that passes sea water through organic filters that removes contaminents and solida >1 micron. Effectively, it removes all bacteria and particulate. So why are people banging on my door every second night selling me bottled water??? In most cases, treated through the same process at their own factory! WTF is going on here?

Whilst the tap water here is bacterialogically safe to drink the Total dissolved Solids (TDS) is relatively high. I have heard it said that the amount of people that suffer from Kidney Stones is high in this region mainly due to the high TDS. Bottled water purely for drinking purposes is much better. Anything that involves boiling such as Tea / Coffee & cooking should be ok with the tap water.

Sage - there is absolutely no logic in your response.

Boiling will not reduce TDS.

Boiling for long enough will kill bacteria.

I agree the water in the mains is bacteriologically safe. However - the water at your tap may not be.

Dry as Dust wrote:Sage - there is absolutely no logic in your response.

Boiling will not reduce TDS.

Boiling for long enough will kill bacteria.

I agree the water in the mains is bacteriologically safe. However - the water at your tap may not be.

Two things.

Firstly, boiling will only increase the saturation in the water of disolved minerals thus increasing both the salinity and minerals per cubic litre.

Secondly, it's called pathogenically.

Boiling does nothing to affect the putrid taste of the water.

arniegang wrote:Boiling does nothing to affect the putrid taste of the water.

It will actually make it worse, because as the water boils off it will increase the ppm of the contaminants in the water.

Although the tap water may be ok to drink, have you ever tried it when you get a 'back wash'? Urgh - the chemical taste is ing!!!

I'll stick to the bottled stuff, even then there's only certain bottled water I will drink, a some still taste ucky.

For softening water, get one of those special thingys that you put in the shower head, they really help.

so to sum up, only those with iron deficiency should drink tap water. ..

PS: please dont call me stupid it was just a mere attempt of humour ..

Dry as Dust wrote:Re drinking the tap water - the expression "educating pork" springs to mind - although probably inappropriate in a muslim country.

I repeat what I said earlier - unless you are absolutely certain that any storages between the water main and your tap are well constructed and well maintained then don't drink the tap water. If you do you are risking your health.

As to cost - a 20 litre bottle costs between Dh6 and Dh10 depending on where you get it from. Hardly going to break the bank! Maybe a bit expensive to wash your hair with.

Not arguing about the cost. It's really pretty insignificant. I just object to being a slave to the giant marketing machines.

FWIW, it's not the pipework or storage tanks that are really the issue. If you're worried about the pipes, etc adding contaminants, you're wasting your time. As for the tanks withing multi storey dwellings, well I wouldn't worry about that too much either as the water is constantly moving. i.e. It doesn't stagnate which is really what is required for bacterias and CFU's to grow and develop. i.e. legionaires disease (Which is everywhere anyway but don't get me started on that one!)

As has been stated, the only real issue is possibly the cleaning and maintenance regime of the storage facilities. To be perfectly honest, they probably do more damage than good when they flush and chemically clean the systems as they not only introduce chemicals that weren't previously there, they breakdown the structure of the pipes, pumps and tanks thus adding more impurities to the water.

Taste is a matter of personal opinion so no point debating that one. Though if you've ever been to Perth or Adelaide, the water here is awesome!

Water "hardness" is a factor that can cause skin reactions, etc as well as drying of hair and in some cases, rashes and outbreaks but it won't kill you.

I guess I really started this thread because I wanted to know if there was any real reason not to drink the tap water. I don't see any of the previous statements providing anything but speculation as to why the water is unfit for human consumption.

craigindubai wrote:I guess I really started this thread because I wanted to know if there was any real reason not to drink the tap water. I don't see any of the previous statements providing anything but speculation as to why the water is unfit for human consumption.

Most people have agreed it is perfectly safe to drink, but it really really does take like sh|t especially in tea or coffee.

A bird fell into the water tank on top of a friends building that was not covered. It died in there and more than 200 magots grew here when i went up to check why the water had a funny taste to it.

Luckily we reached in time to stop the infestation before anything could seriously happen.

Are you willing take the risk? of drinking water that may be contaminated in some way? It may cost u ur life....