Water Water Everywhere but Not A Drop to Drink

I miss getting potable water out of the tap. In some countries the locals drink the tap water but most people advise foreigners to steer clear. In China no one drinks the tap water without at least boiling it first. As long as I've been in China though I've gotten my water from big water cooler jugs that the school has delivered to my apartment. I hadn't gotten any more in a while since when they last delivered them they brought 5 at once. A few days ago when I noticed my last jug of water was getting low I texted the foreign affairs guy here David asking for more water. He told me that he couldn't get any more because it turns out the water might be "dirty" as he put it. I'm still not sure what exactly "dirty" means, but it can't be good. What's more, when I talked to my students about this it turns out they've known for at least a month. No one though bothered to tell me. I don't blame the students, they probably assumed I knew, but no one from the administration or foreign affairs department thought to tell me that my water might not be clean. And I'm sure that if the students have known about it for a month it has been a problem much longer than that.

So now I'm stuck. The water in the cooler has some unnamed problem. On top of that my favorite brand of bottled water recently was involved in a scandal about its cleanliness. And I've ever heard that while boiling water kills the bacteria it doesn't really do much for heavy metals that might slip into the Chinese water supply. When my doctor said I should get more iron I don't think he meant and lead as well. So I've been reduced to going to the store every day and buying another brand of bottled water. If this one has problems also I don't think I even want to know at this point. I asked one of my students what she does about all this, her response was that she just drinks it anyways. I suppose that's always an option. Bottoms up!