The dwindling number or complete absence of drinking water
fountains from cities both in the UK and abroad is a public source
of concern. It is leading to high consumption of bottled
water:
“It takes about a 1/4 litre of oil and 7 litres of water to
produce and transport 1 litre of bottled water. Then there’s
the disposal. Globally, we throw away 150 billion water bottles
every year. Line them up (nose to tail) and they’d stretch to
the moon and back…50 times! Very few are recycled. Most
bottles end up in landfills taking decades to decay. We believe
that drinking water shouldn’t hurt the planet. That means
more taps, more fountains and less bottled water.” http://www.findafountain.org/faq
(a website dedicated to the mapping of public drinking
fountains)
We need especially to encourage children to drink more water to
rehydrate:
“Running around a park may be good exercise for children, but
campaigners say its effects are negated by a lack of drinking
water. The Children's Food Campaign (CFC) says few parks have water
fountains, so children buy fizzy drinks to quench their thirst.
These often contain more calories than they have burned off, it
says.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8155616.stm
Bristol’s year as European Green Capital in 2015 could see
dozens of free drinking fountains supplying fresh water installed
around the city:
http://www.bristol247.com/2014/06/02/bristol-green-capital-where-would-you-place-free-drinking-fountains-86432/
London’s drinking water fountains and places to fill up for free are mapped: http://londonist.com/2011/06/londons-drinking-fountains-mapped.php
Further afield, here’s New York City’s 2012
“pilot project” to install 100 beautiful drinking water
fountains across the city:
http://pilot-projects.org/pdf/100Fountains_Proposal_Book_2012-09-17_Web.pdf
(New York calculated that 3 % of its waste disposal bill,
equivalent to $37 million a year, could be attributed to plastic
bottles which were bought due to the absence of public drinking
water fountains).
There are drinking water fountains all over
New Zealand, here’s a link to a map of Wellington’s
fountains:
http://wellington.govt.nz/services/environment-and-waste/water/wellingtons-water-supply/drinking-fountains
This ePetition ran from 15/07/2014 to 05/11/2014 and has now finished.
97 people signed this ePetition.