Filtered, unfiltered, bitter, pure – What’s on tap in your home?

EWTechnologies in the Irish Independent Healthy Living Section

WHAT helps you lose weight, improves brain function, eases digestion, prevents sprains by lubricating joints, keeps you youthful and boosts energy during exercise? Water, that’s what. Plain old tap juice – and it’s free. But problems such as the outbreak of the parasite cryptosporidium in Galway, which left residents without tap water for weeks, mean a growing number of people are concerned about the quality of what comes out of our taps. One solution is to install a water filter at home. We tried out the reverse osmosis system supplied by European Water Technologies (EWT), an Irish company with 60,000 customers providing water treatment for leading organisations including the HSE and Dunnes Stores. Reverse osmosis might sound like something from an episode of ‘Doctor Who’, but this advanced purification method was originally developed by the US navy to produce good quality drinking water from the sea for its submarine crews. “Our filters provide better tasting and better smelling drinking water by removing chlorine and over 50 other contaminants that may be in tap water,” says EWT representative Oliver Ginty. The Environmental Protection Agency says the water in Ireland meets European Union standards, and regular testing is done to make sure our supplies are safe. What the experts do agree on is that we all need to drink plenty of water – at least two litres a day can provide you with numerous health benefits, including more energy, clearer skin and better digestion.

Supplies That makes the taste important, and if you think the taste of tap water varies depending on where you live, you are right. EPA inspector Darragh Page says local water can be hard or soft, depending on where it comes from. For example, north Dublin has the harder stuff, because the supplies are sourced from the upper reaches of the Liffey, whereas the southside sup is softer because it comes from the Wicklow hills. Limescale build-up from the water is common in many homes, leaving a white residue on kettles and pots, and this factor, as well as the taste, means many are opting to install filters. The reverse osmosis method uses a filter that forces water under pressure through the tiny pores of a semi-permeable membrane, combined with carbon and mechanical filtration. That’s the technical description. What it means is that an extra tap is added to your sink, with a couple of small white cylinders containing the filter system set below. From then on you have a steady supply of drinking water that tastes of, well, nothing, which is how you want your water to taste – just cool and clear, and not a chemical anywhere. The price – at around €350 for the unit and installation – seems expensive, but when I tallied up how many bottles of branded water we buy at restaurants, supermarkets and the gym, the cost doesn’t seem as high. Get one good water holder to carry round with you, and the refills from the filter are free. Four weeks into having our reverse osmosis system installed, family and friends tend to drink more water and it’s a big hit with the youngsters, who say they can taste the difference (a test where the filtered stuff is put up against unfiltered tap water proves them right).

However, the EPA says reverse osmosis can remove everything from your water, including beneficial ingredients such as calcium, which Darragh Page says has been shown to help prevent cancer. “We have 48 tests to make sure our drinking water is safe,” says the inspector. Darragh swears by the tap juice from his local area. “I’m lucky because I live in Wicklow and I love our water – can’t get enough of it.” But for Ollie Ginty and his customers, pure will always be best. Most people taking the taste test at our house agree with him. Whatever your selection, we are pretty lucky with the choices we face. There are many areas of the world stricken by searing drought, where supplies of good clean drinking water are literally a matter of life and death. According to the Global Water Project, safe drinking water is scarce for a billion people in the world today. So while we might suffer from the odd outbreak of contamination, overall we have it pretty good.