Many Americans that PCS to Europe are concerned about water quality. When we lived in Germany from 1988-1992 we needed to filter our water. The high mineral content in Stuttgart caused nodules to form in the pipes and they would eventually break loose and flow with the water. You would see tiny grains of black mineral sand in your water. It was sterile and not dangerous to drink but the little chunks would be like eating sand; tough on the teeth. But The Netherlands has great water and home filtering is not needed. The Netherlands has one of the cleanest and modern water systems in the world. The quality of water here is as good if not better than the water you drink in the states.
Water is an ever-present entity in The Netherlands and so it is natural that they have developed considerable expertise in managing it. This small country is criss-crossed with a seemingly endless number of canals, rivers, and streams. There are a large number of government institutions responsible for managing water, providing drinking water and sanitation services. There are 10 regional water companies that provide drinking water, 431 municipalities that are in charge of sewers, and 27 water boards that manage treatment of wastewater. Two federal Ministries share responsibility for policy-making in the water sector. The drinking water network is in such good shape that there is no need to chlorinate treated water to prevent recontamination in the network, so that water reaches the end consumer without a taste or smell of chlorine.
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| State of the Art Water Treatment plant in Southern Netherlands |
60% of Dutch drinking water comes from groundwater supplies, mainly in the eastern part of the Netherlands. The remaining 40% comes from surface water, mainly in the West where water utilities pump from the Rhine because groundwater is brackish. The soil in The Netherlands is an almost perfect, natural filter. Most of the country sits on an alluvial plain and therefore the soil is mainly sand and silt sediments. There is a high level of chalk and other limestone formations as well. These are the same materials used in modern water filtration plants. So groundwater is naturally filtered and very pure. In some areas though, this leads to hard water. In the southern part of the country the the underlying bedrock is a type called marl (mergle in Dutch). This is almost pure calcium limestone and the water here in South Limburg is especially hard. Schinnen and Brunssum both are located in this region.
What does it mean to have "Hard Water"? Well health-wise, it means you are getting all the calcium you need in your diet through your water. But it also means that you will have an almost constant battle with hard water stains and lime deposits. If you were to boil a pot of water until all the water was gone you would see a white powdery residue; this is the calcium and other minerals left behind. There is no danger, the water is perfectly safe to drink as is. But you do have to do some things to make cleaning, especially in the kitchen and bathrooms, easier. If you drink coffee and have a coffee machine you will have to "de-lime" it every once in a while. Most people just use a commercial coffee machine cleaning product but you can also use vinegar.
Schinnen commissary carries a product to clean and sanitize your dishwasher. I usually do this once every six months to clean the calcium out. You also need to add rock salt to your dishwasher to "soften" the water so it cleans better. The Dutch stores carry many products for cleaning and removing hard water stains in the bathroom. Most of them are weak solutions of Murric acid, which is a swimming pool chemical in the states. Lime-a-Way also works pretty good. The key is to not wait until the stain or build-up gets severe. Include your "de-liming" cleaning products in your normal house cleaning and it never becomes a problem. We keep a small window squeegee in the shower stall to squeegee all the water off the glass and tile walls of the shower stall. This prevents hard water build-up from happening. Saves a whole lot of cleaning time.
The The Schinnen PX (I think at the car care center) sells Culligan Water systems and the commissary sells bottled water up to one gallon sized bottles. Hey, if you feel better drinking expensive bottled water, go for it. But in The Netherlands it is a complete waste of money. Use that saved money to go see the sights and have a nice meal.
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