Yes, you can drink water from the canals of Amsterdam

DutchAmsterdam.nl — The ambition of Waternet, Amsterdam’s water authority, is to someday have the water in the canals of Amsterdam clean enough for people to swim in.

But what if they go one step further — and make it clean enough to drink?

Well, that’s already been done:

Here’s what the video says:

The Netherlands has the best drinking water in the world. And it simply comes from the faucet.

We find that quite normal but it is actually very special.

But how do you relate that?

By showing where the water comes from? Where the water catchments are?

How the water filters into the ground? And how the water companies purify that water day after day?

No. We do it by showing that in the Netherlands we can purify any water.

Even the water from the canals of Amsterdam.

During the International Water Week water from the canals of Amsterdam was purified on the spot — using a mini water purification machine.

And we called it, the “Canal Water Bar.”

Drink water from the canals? That made people pay attention.

And hopefully they now also think: for the best drinking water you don’t have to go to the supermarket, because the best source is your own faucet.

The Canal Water Bar ad was created by Amsterdam-based advertising agency Dawn. It was commissioned by Waternet: Amsterdam’s water authority, Vewin: the association of drinking water companies in the Netherlands, and PWN: Water Supply Company Noord-Holland.

The event shown in the video took place on October 30, 2011, during the International Water Week in Amsterdam.

Oudezijds Voorburgwal, Amsterdam

The purification plant was set up in the center of Amsterdam at Koningsplein, on the bridge across Singel canal. [More about the canals of Amsterdam]

Incidentally, we feel compelled to share a salient detail: in 2009 Project ‘Schoonschip’ (Clean Ship) was started: an effort to connect all of Amsterdam’s 3.000+ houseboats to the sewer system. Target date for completion of the project was January, 2018. By then 97% of houseboats in Amsterdam was indeed connected.

See Also:

Water in Amsterdam’s canals quite salty