3 Ways To Get Access To Fresh Water In Mexico

Typically, when it comes to moving to Mexico, not being able to drink the tap water is one of the major issues of culture shock Americans will come up against. That’s right folks, the tap water in Mexico can’t and shouldn’t be consumed. There’s a lot of different information out there about how purified each state’s water is or isn’t, but the general rule is to stick to purified or bottled water, just to be safe. This is kind of old hat to me, as I lived in Asia for seven years where, it was pretty much the same for similar reasons (bad pipes, poor filtration, etc etc.) Since being here in Mexico I’ve gotten water a few different ways.

1.     Picking it up at OXXO

When I first arrived in Mexico I lived a hop, skip, and a jump from an OXXO, so I took the easy way out and put my muscles to use, just buying a garaf and carrying it with all my might the 15 seconds to my doorstep. As you can imagine, that got old after a while and sometimes when I was too sluggish to carry the big ones, I got smaller ones. GASP! With the environment in mind, I soon went in search a water delivery service.

2.     I started getting my water delivered

This was a great option once it got going because I was able to have the delivery guys bring the water directly into my kitchen, none of my muscles needed! But getting here wasn’t the easiest process as, like, how do you hunt down the name of a random water delivery guy? In my online search I discovered that companies like Crystal, deliver by neighborhood, and advice was given to just try to flag a passing by truck down and ask for a bottle and get their number, which is what I tried to do. Guess what ended up not working? That shit right there.

Finally, someone who lived in my general area gave me the name of their water guy and a bish was in business. I used a manual pump for my water, which was mostly cool until getting to the tail end and then I’d have to basically pour what was left at the bottom, but small price to pay for 36 pesos filtered water delivery service.

3.     I use a public water dispenser

I started using a water dispenser out of pure happenstance and ease. One just happens to be very close to my home, so it just makes sense economically for me to rinse out some half gallons and refill then for 7 pesos a pop once a week. Check out the video below to see how easy the process is.