Kids,
We take things for granted back in the states. One of them is the availability and quality of our tap water. Here in India this is very far from the same. While living in India we have three distinctive types of water. Tap water, RO water, and bottled water all have their specific uses in our day to day lives.
There are many different systems supplying water to both urban and rural communities in India. I’m told that the same issues plagues both, old out dated infrastructure and poor sanitary sewer systems. Because of this, the quality of the tap water is very poor. Locals who are accustomed to the bacteria in the water are less effected by the quality than say an expat who’s used to higher quality water. So for us tap water is only used for the basics of showering, cleaning, and washing dishes.
A method of improving water quality is Reverse Osmosis, or RO. Home RO Systems have really taken off here in India and you can get one from any electronics store we’ve been in. Pricing isn’t to bad, around $200-$300. We have an RO unit, featured image, included in our flat that uses tap water as it’s feed and stores purified water in a tank on the wall. Although we could work to getting used to this type of water for drinking we’ve decided to leave this water for only cooking, which gets boiled before consumption.
The last option for water is bottled water. Bisleri is a very popular brand here in Mumbai and is comparable to Culligan in the states. 
We have a Water Machine that we use to fill up water bottles for consumption and brushing our teeth. We never had a bottle water service when we were in the states so I can’t compare pricing. We pay around rp 80, or $1.23 at the current exchange rate.
Changing our mentality to three different water sources took a little time, but overall it wasn’t that bad. What’s more ironic is that it only took three months to solidify this way of life that when I went back to the US it felt weird using the tap water to brush my teeth.
Mom & Dad
The Hotovec's 