Yes, you can drink ordinary tap water connected to Lisbon’s public drinking-water supply. EPAL supplies the city with treated water that it considers safe for regular consumption. You can use a normal potable tap to fill a glass or brush your teeth, and at a restaurant, you can ask for free tap water to drink on the premises. If something seems wrong at one particular tap, treat that as a question about the property rather than assuming the whole city’s supply is affected.
Is the water safe to drink?
- Public supplier
- EPAL, through Lisbon’s treated drinking-water network
- Drinking status
- Safe for regular consumption
- Legal sampling
- Monthly, at more than 1,200 consumers’ taps across Lisbon
- Quality monitoring
- Daily monitoring and laboratory analyses
For a tap connected to the public drinking-water supply, drink the water as you would at home in the UK. EPAL directly supplies Lisbon customers and assesses its supplied water as safe for regular consumption. Its legal sampling takes place at consumers’ taps, while its daily monitoring and laboratory work are separate parts of its quality control.
That assessment is about the supplied water, not a guarantee that every pipe and fitting in every property is in good condition. A change confined to one accommodation’s tap calls for a closer look at that property, rather than a different rule for all Lisbon taps.
Taste, cloudy water and suspect taps
EPAL says you may occasionally notice a chlorine taste or smell in its drinking water. A white appearance can come from dissolved air forming tiny bubbles.
A property’s internal pipes and fittings sit between the public supply and your glass. If they have deteriorated, they can change the characteristics of water at that particular tap. A persistent change is therefore different from a brief chlorine taste or a glass that clears as bubbles escape.
If you are unsure about water quality beyond the property itself, you can raise the concern with the public water supplier or Portugal’s water regulator, ERSAR. This is particularly useful if the change does not fit either of the short-lived effects above.
When water at your tap seems different
Do
- Let water with an occasional chlorine taste or smell stand for a few minutes until it disappears.
- Leave white-looking water standing to see whether the tiny bubbles disappear.
Don’t
- Take a brief chlorine taste or clearing bubbles as evidence of a problem across Lisbon.
- Mistake a persistent unusual colour or smell for either of those short-lived changes.
Tap water in restaurants
Lisbon restaurants must make tap water free of charge for customers drinking it on the premises. The requirement covers a container of tap water and clean, reusable glasses. You do not have to choose bottled water to have water with your meal.
Ask plainly for tap water, or say água da torneira (tap water) if that helps make the request clear. If you are offered still or sparkling water instead, establish whether it is bottled before accepting it, particularly if you are expecting the free tap-water option. The free-water obligation concerns consumption there, not a bottle to take away.
Hotel taps, teeth and ice
You can drink from an ordinary hotel-room tap connected to Lisbon’s potable supply and use it to brush your teeth. The same public-water answer applies in a room as elsewhere in the city. A hotel’s own plumbing still matters: if water from your room’s tap persistently looks or smells unusual, follow the steps for that particular tap above rather than continuing to drink it.
Ice is a separate question about the premises making and handling it. Ice made with potable water and handled hygienically is suitable for a drink, but the city’s supply alone cannot tell you how any one café or hotel prepares its ice. If you are concerned about its preparation, ask for your drink without ice.
Refilling a bottle around the city
Use a public drinking fountain, rather than an ornamental fountain, to refill a bottle. EPAL and Lisbon City Council have installed public drinking fountains that dispense potable water for reusable bottles, with free access to the public supply. A fountain designed for drinking has a tap or outlet you can put a bottle under, while a decorative basin is not a refill point.
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EPAL’s free H2O Quality app shows nearby public drinking fountains on a map, so you can choose a refill point as you move around Lisbon. It also gives drinking-water quality results for your location, updated daily, and lets you search another Lisbon address. That is useful if you want to look up the water where you are staying as well as find your next refill.
Sources & fact-checking
Checks against the sources below cover: services.
- H2O Quality App
- Projeto “Rede de Bebedouros de Lisboa” arrebata o galardão “Prémios Verdes – Visão+AdP”, na categoria Água e Cidades Sustentáveis
- Consumption of Tap Water
- EPAL relembra que a água da torneira é de qualidade e segura sendo uma excelente aliada na proteção contra o calor extremo
- Controlo Legal
- H2O Quality_A nova app da EPAL
- Portuguese Parliament — service
- EPAL (Empresa Portuguesa das Águas Livres, S.A.) — service
- EPAL – Água: FAQ
- ERSAR — service
