Evelin

Yes, you can drink Perth tap water but as others say, it doesn't taste pleasant. I worked in my home country (Europe) 11 years in a waterworks. The difference here to the good taste of my home country is, that here the water is chlorinated, contains fluoride, has been filtered etc. But, the taste difference comes from the very few minerals that are in the water, practical nothing much because the soil is so poor and it is mainly surface water if I'm correct. European waters contain many minerals which are good for taste and body. One of our criteria was that the water has to have a pleasant taste. We only added chlorine after the filters have been cleaned. Our water was groundwater and not like here, where most I think is surface water.

Pollyana

That's really interesting, never knew that. So does it mean that the tap water here is actually not as good for us, because of having less minerals in it? So we need to get more of those minerals from other sources?

ABCDiamond

Approximately half (35-50%) of the water supplied to Perth comes from groundwater supplies.
http://www.watercorporation.com.au/G/groundwater.cfm

mulben

Depending where in Perth you live it can be 50% artesian water /20% desal, no where is it only surface (Dam Water ).This applies all down the coast from Geraldton to Mandurah

didnt refresh quick enough -ABCDiamond

daunted

yes but it tastes disgusting so we use a fridge jug water filter

Gegsy Brown

i think i will stick to the bottled water.

HelenTD

Our water is pretty good, comes mainly from the Hills, with a bit of groundwater from an artesian bore. Summer is the only time they chuck in a bit of desalinated water. We don't need to use a filter or to chill the water. I have noticed when visiting suburbs further north, that the water tastes very chlorinated.

HazBean

I live in the Northen suburbs and have to agree with the above. Sometimes when we run a bath the smell of chlorine is very stong, stronger than our swimming pool. I think I might test the tap water with the pool testing kit to see how stong the chlorine is. We just use a jug filter for the water we drink.

Stu