water

[Howard Mendes]

In a message dated 03/24/04 05:15:27 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
claudietta67aHOTMAIL.COM writes:
Some Italian friends of mine biked the Camino francès two years ago.
They warned me not to drink water from fountains on the road. They did it
and were sick for some days, with also slight fever.
I don't know exactly which kind of fountain they took water from, but just
to be sure, I avoided public fountains and always bought bottles of water.
We had a long debate about this subject a couple of years ago.  I believe 
that the consensus was that it is safe to drink from the public fountains except 
those that are clearly marked not to drink from and my recollection is that 
they even had a skull and crossbones as a warning.  Most of the pilgrims I 
encountered drank from public fountains all of the time with no adverse affects.  
In my opinion, bottled water in a plastic bottle that is on a shelf for an 
unknown period of time can be harboring bacterial growth more likely than running 
fresh water.  After all, from historical times, people in villages have been 
drinking this water.  I think that there are better uses for money than buying 
water.  Further, what convinces you or your Italian friends that it was the 
water that made them ill?  It reminds me of people who think that drafts give 
them colds.  Howard Mendes, NYC
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