I know of some families that also boil the botellon water. So they buy water from botellon -> filter using brita -> boil the water.
Boiling the water is the safest way to remove pathogens from the dangers list, but leaves little to see for chemicals and other particles present.
The correct process should be to boil the water first and then filter it for chemical and particles.
People assume that water from pipes in first world countries with relatively modern or top of the line services are 100% safe to drink with no problems. That's a myth!
Most of the problems derived of gastrointestinal afflictions can be traced back to the kitchen and faucet. More so in those first world water supply networks where people are uncommon to use filters or boil their drinking water at all.
Water is deemed safe to drink when the law mandated levels are within a certain threshold, not because it's crystal clear as filtered water!
They're deemed safe when the maximum allowed contaminants and other types of weird stuff is below the amount that can make you and your family sick. But that maximum allowed is a joke, since it can be changed even by one rusty and oxidized coupling in the line to your faucet. Or even worst, a pipe that was contaminated by virtue of a leak in the wrong place.
By all means, it's safer and healthier to have a bath in the river than in your tub!
We use water from the public pipes to fill our cisterns or tinacos, most use a pre-filter to clear out most stuff from that reserve to the water tank/pump line. Others use a staged set of in line filters you can buy in your local Ochoa Hardware and last very long.
For drinking water in the DR? You can boil it, filtered it, sunny side up or however you like, but never untreated from the pipe!
