Water services in Netherlands

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Dutch water without chlorine

The Netherlands distributes drinking water with no chlorine in it at all, neither to disinfect it at the works nor to keep a residual in the pipes. Almost no other country does this. It works because the water is treated and distributed to stay biologically stable, in pipe materials chosen not to feed growth, with the last chlorine step replaced by ultraviolet treatment in 2005.

The practical consequence for a visitor is taste. Dutch tap water does not carry the swimming-pool note people from chlorinated networks expect, which is part of why public refill points are worth using here rather than working around.

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