I was actually fairly surprised how good the water here tastes. I would not drink whatever comes out of the sinks here, though the signs all say that it is potable (drinkable). What we do get in abundance here is bottled water here and it tastes pretty good.
Wherever you go you see a huge pallets with hundreds of clear 1 litre plastic bottles of water. People just take a 12-pack back to their room every now and then. Most of the offices have these pallets nearby and they restock whenever they run out. The DFACs have refrigerators full. Many office refrigerators have signs that tell you to take water and replace it with one that is not cold. A forklift comes by every now and then and drops off new pallets of water whenever they run out. The water is stored in this big lot that I pass by every now and then that just has acres of pallets of water. I have a feeling that we have been consuming more water here than Iraq has consumed in its whole history.
Rumor has it that the water we shower with comes from a rather ugly looking river just near JBB and it is cleaned. But that is just a rumor. I am not sure I believe it though. I have seen what they call "reverse osmosis water filters" that make the water we use here.
Oddly enough, you can actually purchase water in the PX too. It cost something like $0.68 for a one litre bottle, though I can't imagine who buys it when you can just take as much as you want from what is laying around.
