The taste, smell and clarity of your tap water
depends on where you are in the country. Your water might be hard or soft, or
contain slightly different levels of impurities.
While the levels of those
impurities all fall well within current legal limits and are classified as
safe, the overall quality of the water varies a fair bit across the four
nations.
What
makes water hard or soft?
Water quality will naturally vary across the
UK because of its different sources. The further north or west you are, the more
likely your tap water will be ‘soft’. It’ll usually come from surface water -
rivers, ponds and lakes filled with rainwater.
The further south and east you are, your tap
water is more likely to be ‘hard’ because it comes from groundwater. Groundwater
is filtered through porous underground rocks like chalk and limestone, so
there’ll be more minerals floating around in it.
While natural minerals found
in groundwater can be healthy (mineral water, anyone?) nasty old scale is
formed when magnesium and calcium bond. Hard water may contain little white
flakes and, depending on your taste buds, might seem a bit off.
However, if groundwater has only passed
through non-porous rock, like granite, it can stay soft. So water in the far
South West, where there’s a fair bit of granite, is more likely to be
soft. One way or another, the water
coming out of a tap in Inverness is going to be a wee bit different to
whatever’s coming out of a tap in Ealing.
Where
is the hardest water in the UK?
While Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales generally have
soft water, here’s where you’ll find the hardest tap water in the UK:
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Very hard tap water
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Hard tap water
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Moderately hard tap water
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Slightly hard tap water
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Bedfordshire
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Berkshire
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Hampshire
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Cheshire
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Buckinghamshire
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Bristol
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Denbighshire
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Cambridgeshire
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Hertfordshire
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Flintshire
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Essex
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Isle of Wight
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Herefordshire
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Lincolnshire
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Kent
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Wirral
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Norfolk
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Leicestershire
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Yorkshire
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Northamptonshire
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Liverpool
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Suffolk
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London
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Luton
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Oxfordshire
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Rutland
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Staffordshire
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Surrey
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Sussex
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Warwickshire
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West Midlands
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Wiltshire
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Where is the worst tasting tap water in the UK?
A panel of well-respected food and drink experts,
including chef Tom Aitken and sommelier Richard Rotti, sampled the tap water
from different UK water companies and decided who has the worst tasting water.
Here’s how they ranked them according to taste, clarity and smell:
- Wessex Water
- United Utilities
- Yorkshire Water
Wessex Water, who supply Bristol,
Somerset, Wiltshire, most of Dorset and parts of Gloucestershire and Hampshire, tasted the
worst.
The tap water from United Utilities, who cover North West England,
proved almost as bad. They supply Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire,
Merseyside, most of Cheshire and part of Derbyshire.
And the third worst proved to be
Yorkshire Water.
How to improve your
tap water
To stay healthily hydrated, the latest advice from the
government and the NHS is to drink around six to eight glasses of water a day
(or around 1.5 litres).
If your tap water doesn’t meet your preferred standards
of taste, smell and clarity then it’s tempting to opt for lots of bottled water.
But, as well as being expensive, single use plastic bottles aren’t so healthy
for the planet.
The most cost effective, convenient and eco-friendly
solution is to filter your own tap water. A decent filtration system can remove the
scaly bits from hard water as well as any dirt, rust, microplastics and any
other unwanted nasties that might have snuck in.
It’ll also remove the chlorine
added by the water treatment companies, which might improve the taste a bit.
Fill up your reusable water bottle before you head out and you’ll be doing your
bit for the planet, as well as your taste buds.
Sources:
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/the-eatwell-guide/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7534517.stm
https://www.homecureplumbers.co.uk/best-tap-water-quality-in-the-uk-study/
