Drinking water in Scotland
 

Will it pose any problem for someone with a sensitive tummy? Would I be better off just buying bottled water instead of risking the tap water? I'll be in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

The water in Scotland is very safe. What makes you think it will be unsafe? Where are you travelling from? Depending on the mineral content that you are used to, you might find it has a slightly different taste, thats all.

I live in Nevada where the water supply is very pure, from Sierra snow melt. My concern is becoming greater (maybe unwarranted) after following the news in Scotland and learning how bad the water supply really is there. Last week, 150,000 households in Glasgow had to boil their water. After reading the lead story on www.scotlandonsunday.com it makes me question how wise it is to drink the water.

I see! I'm sorry, I live in southern England and didnt realise the problems they are having up there, please forgive! Its an unusual situation, as the water supplied in UK generally are usually very safe. In that case, if it were me, I would buy bottled mineral water just to be on the safe side.

I've survived more than (not gonna tell you!!) years on Scottish water! No, seriously, they've been having a some problems with contamination of the water supply in parts of Glasgow and Edinburgh. If there is a problem, you can bet the public will be alerted very quickly and will be advised to take the appropriate precautions. Generally though, Scottish water is safe and nice to drink.

Rose,<BR>The problem in Glasgow only affected a relatively small part of the city, and appeared to have been blown out of proportion by the media. The all clear has now been given.<BR>Enjoy your stay.

ANOTHER reason to stay out of Glasgow and concentrate on the beautiful parts of Scotland.

As with Sydney when I was there in 1998, the alert in Glasgow could be seen as a sign of why the water is safe - constant monitoring and testing, picking up potential problems before they make anyone ill. The water in Glasgow, I believe, actually comes from the beautiful parts of Scotland...

The water alert was political - a pressure group of nimbys are trying to stop modernisation of the water supplies.By incredible coincidence the council decided to shut down the supply at the exact time that the matter was being decided.Nobody fell ill, the cause was an brief increase in the count due to flooding.Bottled water has a higher bug count than tap water.The probs with low level chloro-organics are trivial and reported to so as to increase funding.<BR>Glasgow water comes from Highland lochs.It is used once only, never recycled & is hormone free.(London water is passed back to the supply after being used & cleaned up.Average use 7 passes) <BR>Scotlandonsunday is an Edinburgh based paper which has its own agenda, as does xxx.<BR>Please be careful about listening to panic reports from biassed observers.In particular, UK newspapers are not to be trusted, they all have their own peculiar axe to grind.Here in Scotland you can get just about anything put on the front page if you know a few journos & buy them lunch.<BR>I should add that I spent years in the past analysing water quality.I drink it.

Frank, don't know where you got your info that "nobody fell ill" - this wasn't what I heard from more reputable sources than Scotland on Sunday.<BR><BR>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/2173780.stm<BR><BR>http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/archive/12-8-19102-1-1-42.html<BR><BR>All that said, the alert is now officially over and the water is "safe" again.

Hi<BR><BR>On the other hand ............ I don't think I've ever seen a scotsman drink water !<BR><BR>Peter<BR>

just sterilize the water with a few wee drops of some good Scotch Whisky and all is fine....

Keith<BR><BR>Isn't it strange that the only person that appears to have been 'affected' by the problem is a journalist? Makes great copy I suppose.<BR><BR>Not surprisingly, I can't seem to find any other folks who became ill due to this incident.

We did not have any problem with the water when we visited, and I tend to have a sensitive stomach in that regard. Hope this helps:)