Negros Oriental water quality-Dumag and surrounds

The last thread on water quality pretty much concluded you must buy your drinking water here.

Is anyone using a Brita filter or similar and boiling there water? A Brita filter is not perfect but worked pretty well for US water that is mostly pure itself. I am thinking the amount of gas used boiling the water might offset the savings in not buying it.

We pay P25 for a 5 gal jug now. And the other question is, has anyone ever had the water tested from these water stations? I wonder just how pure it actually is?
Also what the hell is alkaline water and why is that a selling point?

Just wondering the relative costs of buying your water vs filtering/boiling?

I am not going to buy an expensive filtration system-the good ones cost alot and require maintenance. I will either buy it or filter/boil my own.

Very little data online for either Dumag or Sibulan.

 

Water is a toss up here depending where you live. Dumaguete itself, along with some other "larger" Philippine cities "treat" their water (chlorinate). I've drank Dumaguete water for months with no ill effects. No 3rd eye growing out of my forehead and no instances of the runs or stomach upset.

Bottled water IS extremely cheap here though and having it delivered makes it extremely easy. You WILL NOT get a straight answer about what is in or not in the water here by most cities that provide water let alone an independent water "station". If one knew what equipment they were using and how it was maintained they could breath easier but it would be doubtful that anyone you would come in contact with that worked there would know, or be honest with that info.

RO filters will take out just about anything in water except certain dissolved chemicals. Activated carbon will absorb most chemicals though. UV filters will kill any pathogens if it is properly maintained and the flow is correct for the size filter.

Boiling all of you water kills any pathogens, but it does not chemically alter it much. You may boil off some pollutants that evaporate easily, but that is about it chemically. It is also not cost effective to boil it compared to buying it in my opinion.

Bring a microscope and see if anything is living in you water. Nitrate and pH test kits are readily available in most Tropical Fish stores in the U.S.

As far as alkaline water being healthier that would depend on what pH it is and just how alkaline it is. Acidic water, such as from acid rain is definitely not healthy to drink. Some acidic water is acidic due to pollutants too, so if you want to know which is healthier, generally speaking alkaline or neutral water is.

My 2 cents and I'm sticking to it! :D

 

I have a TDS meter (total dissolved solids) The bottled water measures around 4 to 6 ppm and my public water reads between 215 and 400ppm.

 

I am getting my drinking water from a spring in Valencia (Balugo), that is being used by a lot of Philipinos since 80 years+, it's become difficult to access now and I have to carry the 5 Gallon container for about 100 meters but it's the best "sweet" water I have tasted here.
My wife and the others just drink the chlorinated stuff straight from the tap...

 

Another consideration is that depending where you live your public water may not be running. In fact, as I'm writing this my barangay water is not running and hasn't run all night. Hopefully, maintenance is being performed and the water will be back on later this am. So we use delivered bottle water and also have a backup tank of local water in the back.
Knowdafish mentioned he doesn't have a third eye growing in his forehead; I don't want my third eye affected by water... lol

 

I'm from the U S...Lived in Manila and now Dumaquete...been buying bottled water 7 years and no problems whatsoever...Why fight it????????

 

With TDS that low your bottled water has definitely gone through reverse osmosis (RO). That is what most bottled water suppliers here use for at least one step of their filtration, or at least say they do.

 

As I posted in another thread. When the water pressure drops or goes off, there are thousands of illegal pumps turned on that creates a vacuum in the leaky pipe that runs past piggeries, contaminated canals, septic tanks, wall's used as a urinal and what ever else, sucking sludge (to put it mild) into the pipe.. Local people have grown up drinking this water and have built up a strong immunity against the pollutants. Any foreigner that drinks public water from a pipe is playing Russian Roulette and wanting a shorter life span.

This isn't just my opinion, it came from a Government Doctor who travels the country educating people on water born bacteria and diseases.

For that reason I pay P35 per delivered bottle and monitor the quality with my TDS meter. Boiling the water from a tap is out of the question for me, the cost of propane would probably be more expensive and won't remove a lot of the solids in the water, not to mention the time involved and the heat in the kitchen.

That part is just my opinion.
Ron