⌛ Drinking Water and Diarrhea

ooops...
I think the adjustment is a natural process, the ground water here is not too bad (if you live outside Dumaguete) In my case, I might be just a happy one, I can't remember that I had problems anywhere in the world.
When I think about my arrival here, first I only bought purified water, after that i used the normal water for coffee, sometimes not boiled, just drinkable warm, as i was short of time and can't work without 1.5 liter black strong coffee-syrup. brushing teeth with it anyway, I always used it for my ice-cubes... and when I ran out of purified, I just drink it...
so I guess that's how I "adjusted" if this adjustment was necessary.

cheers

Rhoody

 

I think we need to talk about the difference between distilled water and mineral water from an R/O (reverse osmosis system). Typically, the drinking water that you can buy from a store will say either distilled or mineral water. You should buy distilled for ironing purposes. Mineral for drinking purposes. Also, the membranes on those little 'drinking water stores' do not impede and or stop all of the minerals. So, even distilled water has minerals in it. I have personally checked this and the 'distilled water' had mineral in it.

The companies that sell drinking water (should be mineral) should have a ultra violet light system so that the bacteria in the water is killed. Anyone can put this ultra-violet light on their tap water line.

Most towns and cities chlorinate the public potable (drinking) water. I don't know about Dumaguete. I would suggest that everyone buy ultra-violet lights for any water that they intend to drink. Also, one teaspoon of chlorine to 8 gallons of water will disinfect the water.

To avoid Lapu Lapu's revenge, stay away from salads at restraunts (they usually clean the salad by spraying water from the tap) and uncooked food. You should eat food that is boiled or cooked well. Always wash your hands and use alcohol to clean them. Stay away from drinks with ice in them if you can too.

 

mineral water has no meaning. distilled, filtered, reverse osmosis, have meaning.
What is sold as "mineral" water in Dumaguete is filtered and then UV sterilized. There may be other processes as well.
Distilled water is sold to put in your car battery and cooling system. It is not neccessarily free of bacteria.

Dumaguete does nothing to its munincipal water as far as I know, certainly there is no chlorine in it.

I put an article on my blog that has a little more detail.

 

tubigboy... you just Chuck-ling me... (and not only me) see post and blog mentioned above...

ultra-violet regards

Rhoody

 

mineral water is any water with minerals in it. Most of the water in Negros has about 35 ppm of Silica, 50 ppm of calcium, and 30 ppm of magnesium. The R/O's at the mom and pop stores have small membranes and also pourous membranes. Also, if the mom and pop stores are not using a pump to increase the psi in the system then, they are just relying on the city water psi. Which i presume is around 20 psi. The R/O's at Power plants will have large and better membranes with high psi water before the membranes and this is where you will find demin water. Filters (carbon) will take out chlorine from the water. Ultra-violet light is not 100% bacteria proof. There is no residual effect with an ultra-light set up. So, I would suggest that if you want your water at your house to be bacteria free, you do the following. If you have a water tank add chlorine, (remember 8 gallons of water to 1 teaspoon of chlorine). The next thing that you do is put a ultra-violet light near your tap or sink. Finally, place the carbon filter after the ultra-violet light. This is just a suggestion.

When I get down there in March. We can test the city water for chlorine and test the demin water and mineral water.

 

RHB, nice blog!

Rhoody, no, I am just trying to help. Who wants to p*ss out their @ss?!

 

Tubig,
help is always appreciated. I life here in the PI 7 years, 3+ in Duma, working with Tourists and locals, The "action" you mentioned above does not happen more often than in any of our countries of origin. And if there is no problem, there is no need for help.
Sure I can build a "Berlin wall" around my house to make it "safer", but there is no need for that, because it is already safe...

Rhoody

 

"mineral" water is just a name here, like "spring water", or "purified water". it's more or less a marketing gamut. Certainly by definition mineral water should have minerals in it. The filtered water here has trace mineral content I am told. ? The filtering system out lined in my post is not a mom pop store, not sure to what you are refering here., they do have a pump to pressurize their system. No need to have residual bacteria kill in your lets call it "bottled" water, its overkill. The "bottled" water here is very safe. unless you plan on keeping it around a month or so, there is no danger.

The proof is in the doing and drinking not only the theory. I have drunk many companies "mineral" water with no ill effects. And so does most everyone in dumaguete.The problems will be in the untreated city water or well water. I have not seen, (I admit I have not really looked) for under sink carbon filters here, or faucet type filters. there might be a market for same if they can effectively filter the munincipal/well water of harmful bacteria and heavy metals.

All bacteria are not bad, just different than what might be in you gut, Acidopholus for example, is something very benificial to human digestion, I take the cultured milk products here because there is a dirth of good cultured dairy products, and the low fiber content of my diet here. Of course it depends on your genetic make up, some human populations are entirely lacto intolerant.

Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel is an excellent read on the subject of cross cultural contamination. Sounds dry, but it's not, honest.
PS
Thanks for the complement.

Okay, now I am officially bored of water talk, how about a beer thread?

 

OK, I am hooked on Red horse beer, I tried drinking San mig, but can't
get pissed from it.

What should I do ?

 

jimeve, san mig is in my opinion inconsistent. every now and then, I will get a san mig and it tastes different (in a bad way). If the taste is inconsitent maybe the alcohol content is too. Stick with Red Horse. In makati/manila, some of the bars are serving Coors Silver bullet and Heineken. I remember Colt 45 having a good kick to it too. That was 25 years ago back in Boston. Don't know what it is like here.