On social media you see more and more videos of influencers who claim that our drinking water is not safe and that a water filter is necessary. Nothing of this is right, says Brabant Water, responsible for the drinking water in Brabant. “We test it 600,000 times a year. Our water is safe and tasty.”
A glass of water that suddenly turns brown when a test device is put in. A meter that turns red. Lately, more and more films of influencers are trying to show that the water that comes out of the tap at your home is not safe on social media. And they try to seduce you to install a special water filter.
Brabants Water is very old
Brabant Water, responsible for drinking water in Brabant, says that our drinking water is very clean. “In Brabant the water comes very deep out of the ground, up to a length of two football fields. There is water that is thousands of years old. At that time there was no contamination and that is not in drinking water,” explains Pyter Hiemstra, spokesperson for Brabant Water.
“In the Netherlands we have the most beautiful drinking water from all over the world. You sometimes hear from drug dumps and that people are afraid that it will be in their drinking water, but those currents will not touch each other at all. The Netherlands is one of the few places where just clean drinking water comes out of the tap. It is very unfortunate that people want to put filters among them,” says Hiemstra.
Testing 600,000 times per year
In order to actually show that the Brabant water is safe to drink, the water is tested daily. Aqualab Zuid in Werkendam test 600,000 samples annually for three different drinking water companies, including Brabant Water. “A robot tests the water on pesticides, medicine residues, cloudness, oxygen and bacteria that can immediately get sick of people who are weakened,” explains Merel Kooij of Aqualab Zuid.
According to Kooij, it rarely happens that a sample is tested that does not meet the legal standards. “If this is the case, we will ring the bell at the water company.”
Last year, for example, the e-coli bacterium was in the water in Boxtel. “That is found here. The water where it comes from is isolated and we no longer use that. We give a cooking advice for the water and ensure that the bacterium disappears,” says Hiemstra, who has experienced only once in his years at Brabant Water that this happened.
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Hiemstra says that placing a drinking water filter such as influencers claim is not necessary at all. “Certainly when it is talking about the safety of drinking water, because that is checked super well, that’s why we do all those tests every year. You don’t have to put a filter in between for your health.”
Ignorance and making money
But why do many influencers now suddenly promote those water filters? Hiemstra: “You have people who don’t understand what they say themselves, and there are people who deliberately talk to you in order to be able to sell a filter.”
Hiemstra understands that the filters are nevertheless popular. “Abroad, drinking water is less good and influencers proclaim whole and half untruths to talk to you a fear of fear. But our tap water is just tasty and safe.”