Opinion | Beijing researchers abstain from drinking city's 'deteriorating' tap water for 20 years

Nitrate levels in Beijing’s water system are edging dangerously close to the maximum limit set by the state, according to a Beijing couple engaged in water research, who have not drunk a single drop of local tap water for almost 20 years.

Water containing excess nitrate levels indicate a greater concentration of particles from garbage, organic pollution and even fecal matter. Higher nitrate levels are found in groundwater usually as a result of leaks from septic tanks, sewers, fertiliser runoff and erosion from natural deposits.

“This is an indisputable fact,” Zhao said. “Beijing’s tap water quality is deteriorating and not everyone needs to be a victim.”

Zhao, who heads the Beijing Health Association Professional Committee for Drinking Water and along with her husband, a member of the Industry Committee of the National Development and Reform Commission’s Public Nutrition and Development Centre, are both self-proclaimed experts in water. 

"Our family probably drinks the most water in Beijing. No other [family] is more particular about their water than ours," she said. 

The couple has abstained from drinking and even cooking with Beijing tap water for nearly two decades.