We all need water to live, and with a growing population, we need a lot of it. Beyond its health benefits, your body simply can’t function without it. But what if your tap water tastes off? Would you still drink it, especially if it might make you sick? More than half of Americans wouldn’t.

Take Peggy Schwartz, 56, from Phoenix. She told Lucy Schouten from the Christian Science Monitor, “I use, for drinking, all bottled water and have forever.” Ms. Schwartz added, “But I have never had anything tested, I don’t know statistically if it’s good, bad or what.” This shift happened after her tap water suddenly tasted wrong one day.

Americans don’t trust their tap water

After the Flint water crisis grabbed headlines worldwide, NSF International, a public health and safety group, did a survey. It found that while 71% of Americans drink tap water,

More than half (55%) of us worry about contaminants in our drinking water.

All cities are supposed to give you water quality reports. But after Boston, few cities have actually mapped where their lead pipes are. Before 1950, we used lead pipes to bring water from treatment plants to homes and businesses. Now, most pipes are copper, but cities often don’t know which old lead ones got replaced.

Recently, Andrew Flett quit his job as an assistant operator at the Garden Hill First Nation water treatment plant to become a cargo driver. He told CBC News exclusively that he was confident the water was safe and drinkable when it left the plant.

“It was severe with my daughter and my wife because when they would eat they couldn’t keep anything down. So I started boiling the water from our tap. They seemed fine after that.”

This experience made his family, and hundreds of others like them, remove their home plumbing. Now, his pipes don’t connect to the treatment plant. Instead, they draw water from storage tanks, which trucks refill with water from the plant.

“There’s like a film that settles at the bottom of every tank. It’s full of bacteria and you can get sick. It causes diarrhea, eating problems and all that,” Flett added.

Water quality often worse for lower-income families

It seems water quality, like many public services, isn’t the same for everyone. A poll by AP/GfK showed Americans know this. In households earning over $100,000 annually, 6 out of 10 people trusted their tap water. But for households making less than $50,000, that number dropped to 4 out of 10.

 

Judging if water tastes good is tricky. Even Boston, a city with some of the oldest pipes in the country, won the 2014 “Tastiest Tap Water” title from the American Water Works Association. Many cities like Boston use corrosion control chemicals to purify the water flowing through lead pipes. Flint, however, skipped this crucial step for three years. Over time, lead mixes with the water, poisoning those who drink it.

Schools aren’t checking their water

While the country reeled from the horror of poisoned lead water in Flint, even scarier news came out from NBC earlier this month. A report from the Government Accountability Office found that 41 percent of the country’s schools hadn’t tested for lead in their water, and 37 percent found high lead levels in their school drinking water.

Even small amounts of lead in water are dangerous. It causes irreversible nerve damage and permanent brain damage in babies and children. Adults can face high blood pressure and other issues from drinking it. The Food and Drug Administration doesn’t even allow more than 5 parts per billion for bottled water.

With so much happening, authorities really need to look at water supply safety standards in every city to prevent another Flint crisis. Will citizens ever truly trust their tap water again?

 

Related reading: Why Are The Residents Of This Nation Afraid To Drink Tap Water?, Water Crisis Everywhere, Not A Drop To Drink – World Water Day, Water is Essential for Seniors- Here’s How to Get Them to Drink More.