Can You Drink Tap Water in Da Nang? What the Official Tests Say (2026)

No official source found here says Da Nang tap water is safe to drink straight from the tap. The national water-quality regulation, QCVN 01-1:2024/BYT, covers treated water for daily-life use but does not apply to water drunk directly from the tap. Dawaco's lab report dated 24 September 2026 found every tested parameter at Cầu Đỏ plant within limits.

On 24 September 2026, Dawaco’s own laboratory tested treated water from Cầu Đỏ water plant, sampled on 3 September 2026, and recorded turbidity of 0.55 NTU, pH of 7.12, free residual chlorine of 0.54 mg/l, total coliform under 1 CFU/100ml and E. coli under 1 CFU/100ml — every tested parameter meeting the limit set by Thông tư 52/2024/TT-BYT. That is the most recent published water-quality result for Da Nang’s tap water this research found. Here is what that standard actually covers, who checks it, and what it does not tell you.

What the regulation actually covers

The national regulation QCVN 01-1:2024/BYT, issued with Thông tư 52/2024/TT-BYT, sets the limit values for the quality parameters of clean water used for daily-life purposes. It defines “clean water used for daily-life purposes” as water that has been treated and has guaranteed quality, meeting the requirements for eating/drinking and hygiene use.

But the regulation does not apply to water drunk directly from the tap, to bottled natural mineral water or bottled drinking water sold for refreshment, or to water produced by water-filter jugs or water filtration systems.

Thông tư 52/2024/TT-BYT took effect on 1 July 2025, when the previous regulation, Thông tư 41/2018/TT-BYT, and its later amendment, Thông tư 26/2021/TT-BYT, ceased to have effect. Provincial People’s Committees must align their own local water-quality regulation with this national one no later than 31 December 2027; until then, a province that already had its own local regulation before the circular took effect may keep applying it, or apply the new national regulation instead.

Da Nang had its own local regulation on clean-water quality, issued by the city People’s Committee on 7 August 2024, and the former Quảng Nam province had one issued on 25 December 2023. In June 2026 the city’s Department of Health published a draft decision to repeal both and asked for comments before 29 June 2026.

Who supplies Da Nang’s tap water

The test above came from Công ty CP Cấp nước Đà Nẵng (Dawaco), whose head office is at 57 Xô Viết Nghệ Tĩnh, Đà Nẵng, phone (0236) 3697.737, and whose customer-care hotline is 1900 2345 22.

Most residents of the former Quảng Nam area, now part of merged Đà Nẵng, instead get their clean water from Công ty CP Cấp thoát nước Quảng Nam (Qnawaco), whose head office is at 86-88 Phan Bội Châu, Bàn Thạch ward, Đà Nẵng, and whose customer-care hotline is 1900 1552.

Who monitors the water, and how often

The provincial Center for Disease Control is responsible for periodic and ad hoc external checks (ngoại kiểm), plus inspection and monitoring, of every water supplier in its area with a design capacity of 1,000 m3 a day or more. That external check must happen at least once a year.

Separately, the water supplier itself runs an internal check (nội kiểm): every Group A water-quality parameter must be tested at least once a month.

Results get published on two different timelines. The water supplier must publish its own internal-check results on its own website within 3 working days of getting them, or post a notice at its head-office gate for at least 20 days if it has no website. Within 5 working days of an external check’s results being available, the checking body must notify the supplier in writing, publish the results on the checking body’s own website, and inform the supplier’s superior management agency, if any. Within each province, the Department of Health (Sở Y tế) takes the lead in disseminating, implementing, guiding, inspecting and monitoring how the circular is carried out.

Recent water-quality incidents: saltwater intrusion

Da Nang’s raw-water intake has had repeated saltwater-intrusion problems. From 2 April 2024, salinity at the intake regularly exceeded 300 mg/l, which forced Dawaco to raise the intake gates, stop drawing water directly from the Cẩm Lệ river, and switch to drawing entirely from the An Trạch anti-salinity pumping station.

By 29 June 2026, the Da Nang Water Supply System Operation Management Center reported 90 consecutive days of saltwater contamination of the raw-water source since the start of that year, which forced Cầu Đỏ plant to draw water from the An Trạch pumping station instead. Cẩm Lệ river water could not be used at that time because its salinity exceeded 100 mg/l. At times, the intake had to stop drawing water directly from the Cầu Đỏ river because salinity was more than 10 times the permitted limit.

The national regulation still does not apply to water drunk directly from the tap.

For a related everyday-health question in the same city, see Da Nang air quality. More health and safety topics for expats and visitors are in the health section.

Not confirmed: No official statement from Dawaco, Qnawaco, the city of Da Nang or the Ministry of Health, for or against drinking Da Nang tap water directly from the tap without boiling or filtering, was found in this research. Given the regulation's own scope exclusion for water drunk directly from the tap, the most honest reading is that no official source addresses this directly — but this could be a real silence or simply a gap in this research's search coverage, and it is not confirmed either way. Whether the draft decision repealing Da Nang's and the former Quảng Nam's local water regulations has been signed was not found. No page where CDC Đà Nẵng publishes its own external-check (ngoại kiểm) results for Dawaco or Qnawaco was found on its site or the Department of Health's site.

General information checked against the sources listed above, not legal advice for your situation. Rules and office practice change; confirm with the immigration office or a licensed adviser before you act. See how guides are checked.

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