Is the Water Safe to Drink in Tonga?

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Is it Easy to Access Safe Drinking Water in Tonga?

Safe drinking water is not as easy to access in Tonga as it is in more developed countries. If visitors don’t take their own precautions, like using purification bottles, boiling the water or using purification tablets, then they tend to only have their resort’s filtered drinking water and bottled water to rely on.

Tap water is available in Tonga in urban areas and villages through groundwater and/or rainwater systems. Resorts and accommodations that are “off-the-grid” will have their own water system. While some locals drink tap water in Tonga, it’s advised for visitors to treat tap water before drinking.

Alternatively, bottled water is often delivered to rooms with room service in Tonga’s hotels and resorts. Bottled water is otherwise readily available in supermarkets and fale koloa (convenience stores), as well as restaurants. Make sure to dispose of your plastic waste responsibly after use and reuse it if possible.

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Is the Water Treated in Tonga?

Water in urban areas is typically treated through a chlorination chamber before reaching consumers. However, Tonga’s water quality can be affected by a lack of safe water storage, old pipes, outdated treatment systems, outdated sanitation infrastructure, agricultural run-off and weather-related events like flooding. That’s why it’s recommended that visitors to Tonga treat water themselves before drinking tap water in Tonga. Although the locals find the water safe to drink, there may be higher concentrations or unfamiliar strains of bacteria, like E.coli, present in the water. It’s unlikely that visitors will have built up an immunity to particular bacterial strains, which can cause traveller’s diarrhoea.

Water in rural areas is typically collected rainwater which does not always go through a filtration system. Depending on the condition of the pipes, water storage tanks and a few other factors, the quality of rainwater is variable and should be treated before consumption.

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The Best Ways to Make Sure Water is Safe to Drink in Tonga

As we’ve established, treating drinking water in Tonga is a good idea for travellers. Due to the serious negative impacts that bottled water has on the environment, we would only recommend buying bottled water as a last resort for drinking water in Tonga. They are much more environmentally friendly ways to ensure water is safer to drink in Tonga.

Boil the Water

Bringing the water to a boil for 10 minutes is probably the best-known method of purifying water. It kills parasites, bacteria and even viruses and ensures that it is fully safe to drink. Plus, it is the cheapest water purifying method out there. Note that boiling water in a kettle won’t effectively kill bacteria; water must be boiled for several minutes.

If you want to ensure you can use this method to treat water, check out accommodations with kitchen facilities in the 10 Best Self-Catering Accommodations in Nuku’alofa & Tongatapu, ‘Eua, Ha’apai and Vava’u.

Use Water Purification Tablets

Use your own water bottle, drop a water purifying tablet and “voila!” This method has been trialled and tested for years and despite the fact that it gives a bit of a weird taste to the water, it is widely used by travellers around the globe.

If the taste is an issue for you, try a water-purifying solution. Although a bit more expensive, it offers better taste and water clarity than tablets. Price-wise, this is still going to save you tens of dollars compared to buying bottled water all trip long.

Buy a Water-Purifying Water Bottle

By far our favourite solution of them all, water-purifying bottles like the Lifestraw Bottle removes 99.9999% of waterborne bacteria and 99.9% of waterborne protozoan. That means that there is no boiling necessary and that you can fill up your water bottle from any tap in Tonga and know that you have a filtration system with you. Although they are not the cheapest option, once the initial purchase is done, all you have to do is to replace the filtration cartridge when it expires.

Although there are alternative brands to Lifestraw, this is just the one that the TongaPocketGuide.com team use when travelling the Pacific, so we can recommend it with confidence. When looking for alternatives, make sure to search for “water-purifying” and not “water-filtration” as filtration only improves the taste of the water.

For more handy things to pack for Tonga, check out What to Pack for Tonga: A Full Tonga Packing List.