mev

In general, I'll drink what other people drink, but treat or filter wild water.

A good example came when spent six months crossing Russia. There were lots of little villages and close to end of each day came what I called our "water ritual". We'd stop in at a village and fill up with water for bathing, cooking and drinking. Sometimes that water would come from a well, sometimes someone would go back in their house and come back with our water bladders filled. Rather than spend six months drinking chemicalized water, thought it was better to just drink it if the locals drank it. Only times we treated was (rarer) occasions where there were no villages and we fetched water from streams.

Cycling through India and developing countries, a little more inclined to buy bottled water for drinking though even then occasionally I'll just drink what the locals drink (particularly in larger developed cities like Bangalore).

Riding around Australia, I was more inclined to just drink water from tanks and even streams as I came across them. Again, I didn't want to drink treated water for months. I was also under [mistaken] impression that giardia wasn't as prevalent.

stevage

Must be a cultural thing. I'm in Australia. Standard rule I go by is if there are farms around or upstream, don't drink it. If not, do. If cautious, treat with chlorine tablets.

Our bigger issue is all the huts that have water tanks labelled "Untreated water - do not drink". In practice, they're rainwater, and fine to drink - they're just not tested.

Never bothered with filters - I'm not sure what they do that purification tablets don't.

Recently did the 900 kilometre Mawson Trail through the South Australian outback. I brought a big pack of Puritabs, but didn't use a single one.

Walter S

I don't trust chemicals. The safest things to put in your body have been in food and water for millions of years rather than the last hundred. Filters don't put anything into the water. They just take stuff out.