Is Tap Water Safe to Drink in Montenegro? Who Checks It, When to Boil It, What Happened in Rožaje and How Much Cheaper It Is Than Bottled Water (2026)
Water from public supplies in Montenegro is chlorinated and tested regularly, and when there is a risk the water utility and the Institute of Public Health publish a warning. When water turbidity rises above 1 NTU, the Institute advises children, pregnant women, older people and people with weakened immunity to boil their water for 5 minutes or drink bottled water, and above 6 NTU it advises everyone to do so. The problem is often not the network but the building's own plumbing: in Rožaje in September 2026 bacteria were found in the premises of some businesses, while the Institute confirmed at eight locations in town that the mains water was safe.
If you suspect old or damaged plumbing in your flat or house, you can send a free request on Glatko, without an account, to plumbers in Podgorica. Below: who checks the water, when to boil it, what happened in Rožaje, what the new law brings, what a water test costs and how a litre from the tap compares with bottled water.
What people search for
On 25 September 2026 Google completed voda za piće (drinking water) with podgorica, and voda za pice podgorica with danas (today), nije za pice (not drinkable) and vodovod podgorica (Podgorica water utility); its first suggestion for ispravnost vode (water safety) was u crnoj gori (in Montenegro). In English people search for tap water montenegro and is tap water safe in montenegro, and in Russian whether tap water in Montenegro is drinkable. According to Google Keyword Planner, voda za piće was searched between 10 and 100 times a month in Montenegro, in Serbian, from September 2025 to August 2026.
Who checks the water
Water supply companies are responsible for the safety of the water they deliver; according to the Institute of Public Health, they must also inform the public when there is a problem. The Podgorica water utility says its laboratory samples water from all parts of the city, including residential and business buildings and public fountains, and tests physico-chemical and microbiological parameters in an accredited laboratory. The systems are under health and inspection supervision, and the government publishes the rules in its Rulebook on the health safety of water.
At the end of August 2026 Parliament passed the Law on Ensuring Safe Water for Human Consumption, which brings Montenegro into line with EU directive 2020/2184. According to the Ministry of Health, the law introduces risk assessment and management from the source to the tap, including risk assessment of in-house plumbing, requires utilities to publish information on water quality regularly and, when quality does not comply, to tell consumers about the risk, its cause and the measures taken.
When to boil the water
The most common reason for a warning is turbidity, for example after heavy rain. In its advice on water turbidity the Institute of Public Health says:
- Below 1 NTU: the water is of adequate quality.
- Above 1 NTU: children, pregnant women, older people and people with weakened immune systems should boil the water or use a safe alternative, such as bottled water.
- Above 6 NTU: everyone should use a safe alternative for drinking.
- How to boil it: let the water settle first, then boil the clear part; mains water for 5 minutes, water from a well or local spring for at least 10 minutes. Boiled water should also be used for brushing teeth, washing fruit and vegetables and making ice.
- Showering: bathing and showering are fine, but children should not drink the water while bathing.
A notice from the Podgorica water utility of 19 January 2023 shows how this works in practice: after heavy rainfall the water from the Mareza source was slightly turbid, so the advice to boil water applied only to the neighbourhoods supplied from that source, with a note that chlorination was normal, at 0.39 to 0.4 milligrams of chlorine per litre.
Rožaje, September 2026: a problem inside buildings
On 17 September 2026 the Institute of Public Health told Radio Television Rožaje that some samples had shown microbiological non-compliance and advised not to use the water for drinking, cooking or personal hygiene until its safety was confirmed; repeat test results could take up to 72 hours. Two days later, on 19 September, the Institute's main report from eight locations in town showed that the water from the town supply was safe, and the contamination had earlier been recorded inside the premises of some businesses.
The lesson is practical: water can be safe where it enters a building and unsafe at the tap because of the plumbing, a tank or a pump set inside the building. The owner is responsible for water in their own tank or well; what tanks, pump sets and vessels cost is covered in our guide to pump sets and water tanks.
What a water test costs
The Podgorica water utility's laboratory also tests water for private individuals, under its price decision of 20 May 2024. How we choose and label price sources is explained on our page on how we measure prices.
| Service | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Basic test of chlorinated water(sample) | €64.46 | with an opinion |
| Basic test of raw water, rapid tests(sample) | €82.83 | wells and springs |
| Basic microbiological test(sample) | €25.61 | with an opinion |
| Escherichia coli(sample) | €6.15 | |
| Turbidity(sample) | €2.62 | |
| Sampling in Podgorica(sample) | €15 | outside the city plus €0.40 per km |
Source: DOO Vodovod i kanalizacija Podgorica, decision no. 01-078/24-13209/1 of 20.05.2024, article 7, prices per sample, read on 25.09.2026. After article 8 the decision states that the prices exclude VAT.
Tap or bottled water
In 2026 a cubic metre of water in Podgorica, including wastewater removal and treatment, costs €0.8009, or about €0.0008 per litre. The cheapest bottled water in the Voli webshop on 25 September 2026 was Suza in a 6 litre bottle for €1.29, about €0.215 per litre, so a litre from the bottle cost about 270 times more. A family of four who drink 240 litres a month pay about €0.19 for tap water and €51.60 for 6 litre bottles of Suza. If the taste of chlorine or limescale bothers you, prices of filter jugs, under-sink filters and osmosis are in our guide to water filters. What a cubic metre of water will cost in 2027 at 19 water utilities and when a utility may cut off the water is explained by Fijaka in its guide to water prices.
Who can help
Old galvanised pipes, a dirty roof tank or a pump set that has not been cleaned for a long time are jobs for a plumber. On 25 September 2026 Glatko had ten verified plumbers, six in Podgorica. Of the 25 requests the platform received between 24 April and 28 June 2026, three concerned plumbing in Budva, a leak under a sink, a tap repair and a faulty water meter, and none concerned water quality. How to choose a tradesperson is covered in our guide to plumbers in Podgorica.
What we did not measure
We had no data on the share of compliant samples by municipality: the Institute publishes it in its statistical yearbook, but the latest on its website is for 2021, and the links to the yearbooks did not work on 25 September 2026. We did not measure water hardness by city or the quality of bottled water.
Frequently asked questions
The Podgorica water utility chlorinates the water and samples it from all parts of the city. When there is a risk, such as turbidity after rain, it announces which neighbourhoods the advice to boil water applies to.