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Comment by Gordonjcp | Hacker News Reader

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Gordonjcp·

If it's flowing water there is no risk.

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Hopefully you are joking because this is 100% false.

Okay then.

So what's the risk?

There are all kinds of pathogens that can live perfectly happily in flowing water.

Just because the water isn't stagnant, doesn't mean there are no bacteria or viruses (or indeed parasites like giardia or something like that)... I had to drink water from a raw source once and I wouldn't have done it if I wasn't reasonably sure I would be back in civilization within the next day. I kept an eye out for adverse effects; fortunately that time was okay. But now I don't leave without a life straw at the least, which I bought immediately after that trip.

Yeah, that's entirely paranoia on your part.

Apart from anything else the water's going to be too cold for bacteria.

Freezing temps don’t kill a lot of harmful bacteria such as E. Coli

I mean, the article highlighted the risk.

Flowing water can still contain very harmful bacteria.

Correction - if it's flowing water there is less risk than drinking from a stagnant pool of water. You should know there are plenty of rivers and streams, all flowing quite well thank you, that will make you sick should you be foolish enough to drink directly from them.

> Correction - if it's flowing water there is less risk than drinking from a stagnant pool of water.

That's what I've always thought, and it seems correct, but I'm not sure why that would be the case. Flowing water is more oxygenated which should make it easier for bacteria to survive, than in a still pool of water (getting baked by the sun's UV all day).

There is ZERO truth to this.

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