Your council decides
One company serves your address. There is nothing to compare and nothing to switch.
Water guide for expats
Can you drink the tap water in Spain?
By Linus Palmqvist, Head of Operations Reviewed by Simon Nilsson Last reviewed Almost everywhere, yes. Water on the public supply is treated and tested before it reaches your tap. What changes from town to town is how it tastes and how much limescale it leaves, and those are different questions from whether it is safe.
Water in Spain: what to expect
Water works differently from every other utility here. You do not pick a company, you cannot switch, and your council decides who supplies your street. The useful questions are whether the water where you live is good, and whose name the bill is in.
Quality is local
Big cities have several supply networks. One figure for a whole city can be misleading.
The bill needs your name on it
When you move in, the contract has to move from the previous occupant to you.
Safe almost everywhere, worth checking where you live
Spain regulates drinking water nationally, and every public supply is formally classified as suitable or unsuitable. What no webpage can tell you is whether that holds at your exact address today.
Usually straightforward
- A flat or house connected to the town supply
- A building whose pipework has been looked after
Check properly first
- Older blocks, and buildings with a roof or basement water tank
- A house that has stood empty for months
- Rural homes on a private well rather than the town supply
The rules reach your tap, but your water company is only responsible as far as the pipe entering the building. Everything after that belongs to the owner or the community of owners, so the state of the plumbing matters as much as the state of the reservoir.
Check the water where you actually live
The Ministry of Health publishes every water quality result in Spain, free and without an account. Pick your municipality, pick the network serving your street, and read the latest result. Two minutes, and it beats any article including this one.
Several water companies also publish their own street-level lookup showing the current hardness, which the national database does not always carry. Where one exists we link to it from the city page.
You cannot choose your water company, and that is normal here
If you have just set up electricity or internet, you spent time comparing companies. Water does not work that way. Spanish law makes every council responsible for getting drinking water to homes in its area, so whoever serves your address is simply who you get.
There is no market
No comparison sites, no tariffs to weigh up, no switching. Anyone offering to find you a cheaper water supplier in Spain is selling something that does not exist.
Private does not mean chosen
Councils can run the service themselves, through a company they own, through one they part-own, or by contracting it out. A private operator here is carrying out a council service.
Move town, change company
A different municipality usually means a different operator, tariff, billing cycle and way of managing your contract.
Who supplies water in your Spanish city
The company, how it is owned, where to put the bill in your name, and whether you can expect to be dealt with in English. We could not find this anywhere in English, so we built it.
| City or area | Water company | How it is run | English | Contact |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barcelona |  Aigües de BarcelonaAigües de Barcelona | Part public, part privateVeolia with the Barcelona Metropolitan Area and Criteria | English confirmed | Change the bill name +34 935 219 777 |
| Madrid |  Canal de Isabel IICanal de Isabel II | Publicly ownedOwned by the Community of Madrid and its municipalities | English website only | Change the bill name |
| Valencia |  EMIVASAEMIVASA | Part public, part privateValencia City Council with Global Omnium | English website only | Change the bill name |
| Málaga |  EMASAEMASA | Run by the councilOwned by Málaga City Council | No English service published | Change the bill name |
| Alicante |  Aguas de AlicanteAguas de Alicante | Part public, part privateAlicante City Council and Hidraqua, half each | English website only | Change the bill name |
| Seville and its metropolitan towns |  EMASESAEMASESA | Publicly ownedOwned by the municipalities it serves | No English service published | Change the bill name |
| Palma de Mallorca |  EMAYAEMAYA | Publicly ownedWholly owned by Palma City Council | No English service published | Change the bill name |
| Torrevieja |  AGAMEDAGAMED | Part public, part privateTorrevieja City Council with Hidraqua | English website only | Change the bill name |
| Marbella and the western Costa del Sol |  HidraliaHidralia | Council service, private operatorCouncil service run by Hidralia under contract | English website only | Change the bill name |
| Murcia |  EMUASAEMUASA | Part public, part privateMurcia City Council with Veolia | English website only | Change the bill name |
| Las Palmas de Gran Canaria |  EMALSAEMALSA | Part public, part privateCouncil-owned alongside private shareholders | No English service published | Change the bill name |
| Bilbao and much of Bizkaia |  Consorcio de Aguas Bilbao BizkaiaConsorcio de Aguas Bilbao Bizkaia | Publicly ownedA consortium of the councils it serves | No English service published | Change the bill name |
| Zaragoza |  Zaragoza City CouncilZaragoza City Council | Run by the councilThe council runs the service itself | No English service published | Change the bill name |
Barcelona is the only company in the table that publishes a commitment to serve customers in English, so if you are counting on sorting out a disputed meter reading in English elsewhere, plan for it not being possible. We are still confirming the official routes for Benidorm, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Ibiza Town. Menorca is deliberately absent: it has no single island-wide water company, and supply is arranged municipality by municipality.
Chlorine, limescale and the desalination question
Most complaints about Spanish tap water are about taste or scale, not safety.
Chlorine
Something has to keep the water safe between the treatment plant and your tap, and that something is usually chlorine. A swimming pool smell is evidence of treatment working, not of contamination. Leaving a jug uncovered in the fridge takes the edge off it.
Hardness
Dissolved calcium and magnesium. It furs up kettles and shower screens and can change the taste, but it is not a health problem. Hardness scales also disagree with each other, so look at the number, its units, which network it came from and when it was measured, rather than the label.
Desalinated seawater
On the islands and parts of the coast, some of the supply started as seawater. The salts come out, then minerals and disinfectant go back in. Treated properly it is not less safe, but the lower mineral content and the blending can change how it tastes.
A sudden change
Ask a neighbour whether theirs changed too, check your water company and council for notices, then check the latest results for your supply zone. Cloudiness that clears from the bottom of the glass upwards is almost always trapped air.
Do you need a filter?
Work out what you are treating first. We do not sell any of this and we get nothing if you buy it, which is more than most pages answering this question can say.
| Your problem | What helps | What it will not do |
|---|---|---|
| It tastes of chlorine | A carbon jug or tap filter, kept clean | It will not soften water or remove nitrate, and a filter nobody maintains makes things worse |
| Limescale everywhere | A softener plumbed into the house | It is not a general water treatment, and it needs salt and regular attention |
| A confirmed contaminant, or very salty water | Reverse osmosis, matched to the specific problem | It needs maintenance and wastes several litres for every litre it produces |
| There is an official notice on your supply | Follow exactly what the notice says | Do not assume a domestic filter makes the water safe |
Just moved in? Choose your route
The water is usually already connected, so the job is moving the contract out of the previous occupant's name and into yours. You can do that yourself, or hand it to us.
We deal with them for you
We contact your local water company and get the bill moved into your name, in English.
- Works whether the water is running or has been switched off
- Free, and we earn no commission on water
- We will offer to check your other bills, which is how we make our money
Leo and our team handle the Spanish side of it
Water city by city
Tap water in Barcelona
Aigües de Barcelona
The one water company in Spain we can confirm deals with customers in English.
Tap water in Madrid
Canal de Isabel II
Well rated by locals, and why we will not quote you a hardness number.
Tap water in Mallorca
EMAYA (Palma)
Hard, desalinated in part, and different by zone and season.
Tap water in Alicante
Aguas de Alicante
Safe to drink. Plenty of homes here have no water contract of their own.
Tap water in Málaga
EMASA
Softer than its reputation, because the whole supply goes through reverse osmosis.
Tap water in Seville
EMASESA
Fine to drink, but the paperwork to get the bill in your name is heavier than most.
Tap water in Valencia
EMIVASA
One of the few water companies whose form expects a non-Spanish bank account.
Water is the easy one. The rest of the house is the work.
We move the water bill into your name for free, then help you sort electricity and internet in English, where choosing well actually saves you money.
Common questions about water in Spain
Still have questions?
About this content
Written by
Head of Operations at Settlewell
Linus moved from Sweden to Málaga in 2021 and set his own home up here, so most of this he has already done the hard way once. Before Settlewell he spent years at Workwide, the cross-border recruiter that has helped over 10,000 people into jobs abroad, latterly as its Head of Recruitment and Operations. He speaks Spanish, lives in Málaga with his partner, and spends his days on the phone to Spanish providers.
Reviewed by Simon Nilsson, Founder & CEOLast reviewed
Where this comes from
Written from Spanish law, the national drinking water database and each water company's own published information. Water quality and drought status change, so the official links below will always be more current than we are.
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