A child drinks from an Arisu fountain in front of City Hall / Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government



By Lee Suh-yoon



Despite the popular misgivings, Seoul's tap water may be healthier — and tastier — than bottled water.



Commonly referred to as Arisu, the Han River's old name dating back to the Goguryeo Dynasty, Seoul's tap water is meticulously filtered through one of six treatment plants along the Han River. Scientists constantly monitor the water quality for 170 variables, as the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends.



In a 2013 report by the National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER), the risk of bacterial growth was lowest in tap water. On the other hand, water that passed through household purifiers or was left inside opened bottles carried bacteria.



Tap water is also just as healthy as bottled spring water in terms of mineral content. The same NIER study showed that mineral content between the two was similar. Purified water, however, had almost zero mineral content.



Despite the scientific evidence, Koreans have not embraced tap water. Most households buy two-liter water bottles in bulk or install a purifier in their homes.



Many are put off by the smell and taste of chlorine in the tap water and consider odorless water to be cleaner. To tackle this psychological barrier, the city government spent 528.5 billion won ($472 million) on upgrades to all treatment centers in 2015, aimed specifically at improving the smell of tap water.



"By using ozone to disinfect the water, we lowered the amount of chlorine added to about one-third," said Oh Hyuk-joon, a PR official at the Office of Waterworks in the city government. "We wanted to break down the public perception of smelly tap water."



The new filtering technology also includes carbon chunks that can filter out other odor particles from the river.





New rust-proof water pipes being installed under Seoul. / Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government.