Drinking Water

[Janedonna]

I am planning on walking the Camino in September. I have just registered on this site.
Could someone please let me know the availability and the quality of drinking water along the way.
Do I need to take a purifying system, or tablets?
Thanks
Jane

 

[evanlow]

Which Camino? My experience is that there are more fountains along the way in Camino Frances than the others routes.

Most fountains the water are drinkable unless it says "No Potable". My water source (excluding beverages) is either from the fountains or just from the tap. No need to use purifying tablets.

 

[CaroleH]

Hi Jane,
On the Portugues camino, I was drinking the local tap water at first, filling my bottle at bars,etc but did not feel 100%, so after a few days, changed to bottled water, and felt better. The change in water with its different minerals, salts etc can have an effect,if not used to it, so now on camino, we always buy big, inexpensive bottles and transfer this to our smaller bottles. Hardly ever drink the fountain water, unless I've run out, tho some people do, and have no problem. A young Dutch peregrino we walked with for 5 days, (to Finisterre) was often very ill, and he was constantly drinking from fountains. I wondered about that. :roll:
Hope this helps. Buen camino. Carole

 

[Jacki Dufty]

Hi Jane,
On the Camino Frances, last year, we drank from taps and fountains and had absolutely no ill effects. I have carried my water purifying tablets on many a trek now and they are looking very old and tatty - I suspect they would do me more harm than good if I used them now.
I'm not a fan of buying water in bottles.
Jacki.

 

[anniethenurse]

Tap water and water from the fountains for me in Spain- like Jacki I´m not a fan of buying water in bottles.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

The tens of thousands of plastic bottles along the Camino are mute testimony to the downside of bottled water. Even when the bottles find their way to the recycle bins, the waste is enormous. Anyone concerned about the quality of water should accept the slight additional weight of a purifying device and do their own filtering. Backpackers do it all the time when they will be drinking from streams and rivers. If the weight and bother are not worth it, then you really are not afraid of the health hazard; you are just being self-indulgent.

 

[zoebaker]

Hi Janedonna, just finished my camino, and while I also really don't like buying bottled water (hate the bottle waste and the idea of privatised water), about 2 weeks in I had severe gastroenteritis for 5 days, so took the hospital doctor and albergue owner's advice and bought water from Belorado onwards. had no more problems. Spain actually seems to have a pretty good recycling system, and you can buy bigger bottles (depending on need, I shared 5lts with another pilgrim each afternoon - post-walk drinking and filling the pack-bladder for the next day, offering any leftover to other pilgrims). You'll be able to pick up purification tabs pretty easily, I'm sure I saw them in the pharmacias. buen camino!

 

[Deleted member 3000]

There are so many causes of gastroenteritis that picking water as the source borders on medically irresponsible. With thousands of pilgrims and millions of residents drinking Spanish water, there are almost no water-borne outbreaks in Spain, and the few are usually traced to sources that have not been treated, rather than public water systems. Food is the most likely cause of digestive upset along the Camino. Sanitation and storage are sometimes compromised in restaurants, mercados, and bars. Tapas can sit around all day, often not refrigerated. Profit margins are small, so it is tempting to save costs by not discarding suspicious food stocks. Meat, dairy, cheese, sandwiches, etc. may not be getting the ideal storage environment when they are kept in a backpack. How often do pilgrim hands go unwashed after stirring up the village dust composed mostly of cow dung? Has a pilgrim ever placed a sandwich on his pack that is equally covered by the spores of the road and path?

Bottled water is endemic on the Camino, so it is in no danger of disappearing because I might wish it so. Pilgrims make lots of choices, but I would suggest that they not justify choosing bottled water because public water is "bad." It simply is not.

Evian spelled backward is naive. The U.S. had virtually no bottled water until Madison Avenue got Evian to peddle to the elite; now bottled water is as common as gasoline (petrol for the non-English speakers), and more expensive.

 

[AJ]

On the Frances there is plenty of drinking water from public fountains. I carry two half-litre bottles and fill up regularly. On other routes you might need to carry more.

 

[DylanRomero]

I had a small case of water or food poisoning a bit before Sahagun, but like others have said, there's no way to tell if it was food or water. Even with the sickness, I still felt comfortable drinking water from the many, many fountains along the Frances route. You can make sure you don't cause your own sickness by remembering to wash your water bottle every few days!

 

[Anniesantiago]

I'm with Falcon on this one. Pleased to see someone else noticing the "naive" spelling! ::laughing::

I have walked Spain several times and have drank water from the fountains on all the different "ways" with no ill effects. If the water says "non-potable" then I don't drink it, but even that is probably safe. Joe drank it and didn't get sick at all... of course, he immediately downed a few shots of whiskey!

Seriously, the water along the Camino is perfectly safe.
Save the environment... refill your bottle at fountains and don't buy into the mountain of plastic.