Merida Drinking Water Quality, Kidney Stones, and Staying Healthy in the Tropics

Dec. 29, 2024

Merida Drinking Water Quality, Kidney Stones, and Staying Healthy in the Tropics

Helpful … Factual … Practical advice on Merida tap water?

The issue of Merida’s JAPAY drinking water keeps coming up on expat forums … yet most of the supposed ‘information’ & internet comments are completely factually false – and some are even destructively misleading (though well-intentioned).

Consider a series of 12 simple facts on Merida’s drinking water:

~ Pro Hint:
IF you are on Merida City tapwater, (JAPAY) or on SMAPAP city water at the beach – then test your incoming water for Free Chlorine, using just a simple swimming pool chlorine test kit.

IF your incoming JAPAY or SMAPAP water still has measureable free chlorine levels, then it’s safe.

~ The last independent scientific study reported that over 97% of 364 Merida homes were found to have very clean, very safe drinking water at their meters, where the water enters their house.

~ We really must drink healthful amounts of water … to stay healthy … especially in our hot humid Yucatan climate.

~ Drinking enough water to stay hydrated, is the BEST antidote to all 4 kinds of kidney stones …

~ Readers should monitor the intensity of the color of their urine in the toilet bowl … as a constant monitor of their hydration levels…

~ Our urine in the bowl has only the color of light-straw, when we are sufficiently hydrated.

~ People here should trust 97% of Merida’s tap water from our very clean 160 ft deep wells- because it is so much better quality & safer than typical USA drinking water from contaminated USA rivers & lakes.

Data & Facts versus Myths & Personal Imaginings:
~ Reader`s should NOT drink the toxic lead-contaminated water of the over 5,000 US water districts (consistently failing US EPA standards every year since 2005) … because toxic lead … and other heavy metals …. accumulate toxic lead & heavy metals in our bodies throughout our lives
… so even small regular ingestions of toxic lead & heavy metals (like Nickel, Chromium & Mercury) add up to health problems over time.

~ Merida’s tap water has no toxic lead & no toxic heavy metals that are present in over 10,000 USA Drinking Water districts.

~ Don’t stress over all the fake claims and false opinions … of non-scientists … … Brush your teeth with Merida’s tap water … Drink healthy tap water & eat healthy foods, prepared in our Merida tap water, with confidence … versus the fear-mongoring, worry & fake claims of so many of the internet’s non-scientists.

~ Note that the rumor that drinking hard tap-water magically supposedly causes “kidney stones”… is completely FALSE … because each glass of Merida tap water contains just a trivial 3 mg of Ca.

~ Remember that a glass of milk has 220X times more Calcium than a whole LITER of Merida tap water. … and a small slice of cheese has 145X times MORE Calcium than a WHOLE liter of Merida tap water.

~ Realize the fact that 3 out of 4 kidney stones have ZERO CALCIUM in them. … Drinking water does NOT cause kidney stones – Instead … it is the best defense AGAINST them.

~ Just 1 vitamin-mineral daily supplement pill has more Calcium than 44 glasses of Merida tap water.

. . .

Sadly … too many internet comments *trick* readers into ignoring those 12 pieces of …. helpful … practical … useful … FACTUAL advice.

THE NEXT CHAPTER in this saga?

There have been some GREAT questions … coming in about the quality of water in the No. Yucatan Coast beach areas.

At first glance, I can’t tell if the quesitions are asked about personal well water or personal Ojo de Agua water in Chicxulub or Progreso … or whether they are asking about SMAPAP water quality there?

In either case … Great question !

1. Ignore the non-scientist’s unscientific, non-factual internet comments.

2. Most of Yucatan’s north coast beach communities are built on ‘permanent’ sand bars that sit on top of an AQUATARD (water-proof geological barrier) down at between 18 ft – 24 ft below the sandy surfaces.

3. … The PURE rainwater that on the north Yucatan beach areas percolates through the sand, and accumulates on top of this aquatard … creating small “perched aquifiers” of fairly pure rainwater.

4. They are called -> “Agua dulce” in Spanish … and sometimes the Yucatan’s north coast has natural springs of this pure rainwater … and near-surface pools of pure rainwater … in the form “Ojo’s de Agua” … that are proven FAR FAR CLEANER than most USA tapwater.

5. The question of purity of your personal well water from either Ojo’s de Agua … or from 18 ft – 24 ft deep wells (where the well driller does NOT penetrate the aquatard) …depends on:

~ The cleanliness of the sand in your area** …

~ The proximity of asphalt & concrete roadways (and their awful polluted runoff) ..

~ The proximity of your septic system …

~ The proximity of your neighbors’ septic systems …

~ and the occasional incursions of sea water (that makes the well water taste salty.

~ ~ ~ ~

FORTUNATELY, I have personally had “Agua Dulce ” and water from “Ojos de Agua” … tested … and those samples have tested clean, just like the rainwater that they come from.

~ ~ ~ ~

IF… however … somebody changed their motor-oil and dumped the oil onto the sand … or

IF your well / Ojo de Agua are near some septic system, or old gas station

… or some auto body shop where they spilled & dumped solvent or paint

… or some past dry-cleaners shop … or some guy who washes his dirty oily auto parts in solvent

or … IF your well / Ojo de Agua are contaminated by some fool using heavy amounts of pesticides or herbicides near your well …

then, in those cases … your well water may be contaminated …

but those instances are generally unusual in rural beach areas.

. . .

Still … there will be non-scientific naysayer internet commentors … who believe that … beach sand is somehow toxic** … and that pure rainwater is somehow toxic** …

**yet … what readers seeing this … are

~ AFRAID to walk on the beach sand?

~ Afraid of sea water ?

~ Afraid of the salt that crystalizes out as ocean wave spray droplets drying out …?

~ Afraid of sea sal ….?

and even

~ Afraid of rain water.

. . .

IOW. …

IF I lived in downtown Progreso … I would NOT drink the well water …

… But I would be happy filling my swimming pool with it … and chlorinating that pool water.

SO …

This is one of those questions/issues where a mix of facts, science and COMMON SENSE … can work superbly well …

Dr. Steven M. Fry

Ph.D. in Env. Health & Public Health

Dr. Steven M. Fry

Ph.D. in Env. Health & Public Health

. .
Sadly … Facts … and reality … so often carry little weight … and have little value … in the personal imaginings of so many people on the internet…

Go with FACTS … Be Healthy !

Follow good practical, factual advice … from talented well-trained professionals.

Dr. sez: Don’t worry … Be HAPPY ! 😉

https://yucalandia.com/2019/11/20/drinking-water-quality-in-merida/

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Read on, MacDuff.

1 Response to Merida Drinking Water Quality, Kidney Stones, and Staying Healthy in the Tropics

Eric C. says:

December 29, 2024 at 11:05 am

I routinely brush my teeth with Merida tap water. My reasoning: it’s good practice to inoculate immune systems against that 3% possibility mentioned above. But I drink from a garrafón delivered by e-pura (processed by Pepsi). Reasoning: the interior pipes in our home flow into a cistern of suspicious quality, and then get pumped up to the tinaco, which surely collects windblown polvo and pollen. As Tom Leherer sang, in his ditty titled Pollution: “Don’t drink the water, and don’t breathe the air!” (see Youtube for the complete experience)

Up north I made a rural town board very unhappy by defeating municipal water districts into town from Lake Erie. I debunked positions taken by a county water scientist using evidence from a Canadian water scientist about the toxic condition of Erie’s water. As Mark Twain once said: “Whiskey’s for drinkin’; but water’s for fightin’. ~eric. MeridaGOround dot com.