Is tap water safe to drink in Tenerife and the Canary Islands in general?
Many first-time visitors to the Canary Islands are wondering if the tap water on the islands is safe to drink and brush their teeth with, as they may be accustomed to these types of restrictions based on their past experience from visiting other tourist destinations.
Can you drink tap water in Tenerife and the Canary Islands in general?
Yes, according to local authorities, it is safe to drink tap water in the Canary Islands.
In the Canary Islands, tap water is safe to drink and of quality thanks to work in which several administrative institutions intervene (Government of the Canary Islands, through the General Directorate of Public Health, Directorates of Health Areas, City Councils and Island Councils, among others.
Through the Canary Islands Drinking Water Health Surveillance Program, and tools such as the SINAC National Drinking Water Information System, the maintenance of the quality criteria of the water distributed to the population is monitored.
Despite the fact that tap water is safe to drink in the Canary Islands, most residents and visitors don't drink it because it has a taste that not many people like or at least they are not accustomed to. Also, although the techniques used by desalination plants are safe in making the seawater drinkable, the unfortunate truth is that the infrastructure that goes from the desalination plant to the urban areas is very old and affects the water quality that comes out of the tap in your home.
Bottled water is cheap in the Canary Islands and can be found in any shop or supermarket, either big or small. In bigger shops like Mercadona and Lidl you can even buy 5L bottles for around 1 Euro, so most people choose to buy water from supermarkets.
Some people only use tap water when boiling it to make tea or coffee and only buy bottled water when drinking it directly, without boiling it first.
The trend in the Canary Islands, with the lack of rain and the need to supply up to 2 and 3 times the demand due to tourism, has been to opt for desalination.
The main source of water is underground water. Tenerife is the island with the most water resources, but despite this, 47% of household consumption comes from desalination. The process by which seawater is transformed into drinking water is called reversible electrodialysis.
All the water consumed on islands like Lanzarote and Fuerteventura comes from desalination. In Gran Canaria, 86% of the water for human consumption is desalinated. The more than 45 desalination plants that Gran Canaria has contribute nearly 80 hm3 of water to the island's systems each year, a considerable volume
Our advice for visitors would be to just buy bottled water from supermarkets, as it is cheap and easy to find everywhere, so you don't have to carry it for a long distance.
