London Water Is Now Free For Travellers… to Drink or for Hair Loss?

Thanks to the Thames Water authority and Mayor of London, Boris Johnson’s pledge to promote drinking fountains across the capital of UK, budget travellers to Trafalgar Square of London city centre can now quench their thirst for free at a newly restored drinking water fountain! There are more water fountain coming up in the near future. So, by the time I visit London in May next year, I would be able to save some money on buying bottled waters in London!

However, there are some guides here of the ‘famous issues’ on London tap water for travellers to think over before drinking it…

Source of London tap water is mainly from Thames River and being recycled and treated to become tap drinking water. From my previous experience staying in London, tap water in London is quite hard with natural deposits of Calsium and Magnesium. Though these concentrations present in water do not present any risk to health, according to their authorities, hard water can cause scale formation in kettles and hot water systems. It will also waste more of your shampoo or cleanser which you brought from Malaysia because hard water produce less foam and you will need more soap!

If you were to boil some hot water for your coffee, don’t worry if you see some white substance floating top of your boiled water. They are sodium chloride or, salt!

On top of the above, though I didn’t experience it myself, many of my friends, as well as online forums, who has been staying or studying there to have experienced hair loss! According to specialists, hard water can cause your hair to drop faster than it normally do.

So, though we can drink pure and cool water right from the public water fountain, travellers should consider the above characteristics of London tap water before you decided to bring along some empty bottles there to fill them up… – Travel Feeder.