Of course water is not a "human right" - else whom can I sue for being thirsty?
As someone who lives across the pond, it never ceases to amaze me that this question needs to be asked at all. Is tap water safe to drink? I wouldn't take "no" as an answer unless I'm in some remote third-world country that has known issues with the availability of drinking water. And yet...
Not saying tap water here tastes great everywhere (far from that), but you can be pretty sure it won't cause you any physical harm.
> Drinking water is chlorinated and has no ill effect on the local population. However, some strains of e. coli (naturally occurring bacteria found in your gastro-intestinal system) may be present in very small concentrations in the local water supply. Some local strains are different than those that you may be used to, and may cause diarrhea in travellers since immunity is not developed as a result of short-term exposure. Using bottled water for the first few weeks will help you adjust and decrease the chance of traveller's diarrhea.
https://www.iamat.org/country/italy/risk/food-water-safety-o...
Poking around, the same warning is in place for Spain and Portugal.
I always get bottled water when travelling, although I tend to get the cheap local or store brand water. A few euros is really cheap anti-diarrhea insurance, and it tastes a lot better than chlorinated water, too.
That being said, for travelers it sure might take a while to adjust to local conditions. I never had such problems when traveling to Spain, Austria, France, Hungary and Slovenia, but I do understand that each body copes differently with things it's not used to.
I'm from the UK, and this question never comes up anywhere in the country (I'm aware of the scale differences we're talking about)- if you travel anywhere, you can drink the tap water.
While I'll never admit this in person in front of a New Yorker, water does taste better in the city.
This is not to take away from the fact that water here is mostly safe to drink. There was an incident earlier this year with a broken mains flooding Hoboken which left a little bit to be desired in terms of communication. However, overall I'm fairly satisfied with the water here. I imagine it is the same idiot antivaxxers who don't want fluoride in water but I haven't looked into it.
Fluoridation has absolutely nothing to do with taste.
The reason NYC's water tastes better than NJ's is simply that it comes from a different source.
Municipal water supply has stricter standards than bottled water.
Maps:
http://bfsweb.org/onemillion/09%20One%20in%20a%20Million%20-...