Water Often Unfit to Drink

Drinking water, whether directly from the tap, purified at home, or offered from machines at public places, is not trustworthy.
Due to neglected sanitary systems, the water contains high quantities of germs and bacteria.
On average, 8 out of 10 public places contain cockroaches in pipes and other purifying equipment.
JoongAng Ilbo collected drinking water from 48 public places such as restaurants, colleges and department stores and brought the samples to several research institutes for analysis.
According to the results, 20 samples exceeded standards for general germs and bacteria, and 7 samples contained an unsafe overabundance of e-coli bacteria.
Owing to seldomly-changed filters and neglected cleaning requirements, 20 out of 31 places using some kind of purifiers showed poorer water quality than regular tap water.
Doctor Song Jae Hoon of the Samsung Medical Center stated, 'If we drink water which contains excessive germs, it may lead to illnesses which feature fevers, diarrhea and abdominal pains. Frequent cleaning and the periodic replacing of filters are the only solutions to avoiding health problems.'