Skål

Unfiltered drinking water is something you expect in India or Africa, but in Norway, one of the most modern countries in the world? Last year I was floored to find out the water I had been drinking for 2 years in Bergen was unpurified... fortunately only figuratively. Over a thousand Norwegians were floored literally from the Giardia epidemic that swept the city.

Bergen has since installed filtration systems, but many other Norwegians are still drinking hazardous water, resulting in 2,600 cases of water-based infections in a country of only 4 million. Is it any wonder that Norwegians drink so heavily? Its safer!

(I should add as an aside, when Bergen was in the throes of the Giardia epidemic and warnings were going out from the government not to drink the water, English language versions of the warning were not released until a week after the Norwegians were all informed.... and this despite a large foreign population in Bergen. This should give prospective emigrants an idea of how the government values the non-Norwegian portion of its population.)