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Square Mile plans new drinking fountains to stop tourists buying bottles
Ruth Bloomfield24 Dec 2008
City chiefs are drawing up plans to install a network of drinking fountains in the Square Mile.
The first standpipe-style fountain is due to be installed close to St Paul's cathedral early in the new year to encourage workers and tourists to stop buying bottled water.
The Corporation of London will install more of the £7,000 fountains across the City if the scheme is a success.
Today, environmental groups said it was a victory for the Evening Standard's Water on Tap campaign and could reduce London's carbon footprint.
A Friends of the Earth spokesman said: "Anything that encourages Londoners and visitors to the capital to make the most of tap water is most welcome.
"Refilling a reusable bottle at a drinking fountain is an easy way for all of us to cut plastic and glass waste and reduce the size of our carbon footprint.
"Bottled water is often transported here over a long distance - adding to climate change emissions."
The Corporation of London said the new fountain would resemble a traditional standpipe but would still need to pass health and safety rules.
A spokesman said: "People can use it to fill up their bottles. Summers are getting hotter - 2008 was the 10th hottest year on record - and it means people can fill up with good clean Thames Water free and save some money."
The corporation is also bidding for funding to restore and repair its historic drinking fountains, including the Maternité in Royal Exchange, St Dunstan's in Fleet Street and the fountains on Blackfriars Bridge and in Finsbury Square, many of which have not been in working order for generations.
The Evening Standard has been leading the fight against bottles with its Water on Tap campaign, which has persuaded 3,000 London restaurants, clubs, pubs and bars to begin automatically offering customers tap water.
Britons drink three billion bottles of water every year, and half a billion of these are flown or shipped in from overseas, increasing carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to climate change.
Reader views (23)
The Victorian Fountains of Britain are lovely, and in many instances (sadly) inoperable. How did these beautiful edifaces, normally gifted benevolently, ever fall into such disrepair? As for bottled water...it was a stupid idea from the start. As was once pointed out - Evian is naive spelled backwards.
- Philip Nicholls, Oshawa, Canada, 11/12/2010 08:15
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I do wonder at the neurotic attitude of so many people in london. Do they really think bottled water has never been filtered, treated etc. but rather has been trickling through mountains for 1,000s of years untouched?
As for drinking fountains - they are just as safe as resoviours. Persons could wee on them, but letting the water run would deal with that anyhow. I have drunk from one of the last drinking fountains in london and never been ill, unlike my bottled water friend who forever feels poorly.
- Mr Danny Hardie, lewisham, 08/02/2009 22:52
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I am old enough to remember when these public drinking fountains were commonplace!
I can also remember a time when public toilets were plentiful! But, they still used to urinate everywhere else!
It's the nature of the beast,....so to speak!
My late dad used to say, and I quote! "Son,you can take the pig out of the gutter, but you can't take the gutter out of the pig"!
GERONIMO
- Geronimo, LONDON MIDDLESEX, 03/02/2009 00:46
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I am the Chef/Owner of a small Dining Room in Hammersmith and since we open the dining room we encourage our guest to ask for a jug of tap water rather than a bottle and almost 1 year down the line we have lunches were you can see only empty jugs on the table,
I think your it is a fantastic idea...just let people more aware of the enviromental problem and the response i am sure will be more that positive ..good going guys
- Piovesan Diego, hammersmith, 02/02/2009 21:25
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WHAT A FANTASTIC IDEA, NOT ONLY FOR THE U.K. BUT FOR THE WHOLE WORLD.... TO REALLY AND TRULY THINK WHAT WE ARE DOING TO IMPROVE OUR WONDERFUL WORLD......
- Mary (Davis) Madsen, Boston-Mass-USA (Paddington London), 28/01/2009 21:19
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It's not only London that needs new fountains - so do other parts of the UK, though I doubt very much whether my local Borough Council would consider it as they're always trying to find more ways to extract money out of us, rather than provide something that's free.
- Judith, King's Lynn, England, 27/01/2009 17:08
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Lovely idea if only we had a civilised population who wouldn't stick their empty fizzy drinks cans, hamburger wrappings, cigarette packets and every other detritus into them. Remember the drinking fountains in the parks? Ugh! Anyone who drank out of them - and this is then - would have been mad or blind or both.
- Judith C, London, England, 19/01/2009 17:17
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London and most other towns in the UK used to have public drinking fountains, most of which were built in Victorian times.
The best idea I have seen on my travels was the brass taps in the city of Rome, which had constantly-running (free) drinking water - much appreciated in the hot Summer.
The best part was that each tap had a hole drilled on the top of the spout. If you closed the 'down' spout with your finger, the water rose out of the top, making it easy to drink.
- Brian Slack, Hemel Hempstead, England, 14/01/2009 17:13
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We need water drinking fountains all over London - also more ornate fountains and more trees
- Sandi.Dunn, London, 12/01/2009 21:18
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Has anyone tried to find a toilet on the tube? One day you will be elderly and desperately looking for a loo. Boris Johnson is beginning to look like a public school twit with his silly ideas. He should get practical and get his hair cut.
- James, London UK, 09/01/2009 13:18
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They will only get used as urinals.
- Triffidqueen, Desk in London, 07/01/2009 14:00
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Sounds great to me, I will bring a gallon container next time i visit London.
- Stan White, leeds, 06/01/2009 08:42
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This is a sensible initiative - but you can be sure that whenever sensible initiatives are unveiled, loons like C Winnan will cry 'conspiracy theory!' The Londoners of old who were crying out for safe drinking water, and who had to drink beer instead to avoid getting sick, would be really impressed by your lack of appreciation! My concerns are related more to the inevitable after-effects of drinking the water - and the inability of those who have partaken to find a public toilet anywhere within the Square Mile!
- Lindsay, London, 05/01/2009 18:16
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No one in there right mind will trust drinking from it.
There are too many sick people living in London who will abuse it, by urinating on them among other things.
The water has to be in a bottle to be clean.
- Mr.S.Port, London, 04/01/2009 22:31
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a noble sentiment ... as long as the water tastes ok! When I lived in Camden I used to drink the tap water, no taste and no problem. Just hope City water lives up to expectations.
- Marianne, SW France, 31/12/2008 13:10
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I've heard two comments on the government encouraging people to drink tap water lately.....why are the government so keen to get people drinking tap water all of a sudden ? Are 'conspiracy theorists' right in believing that tap water contains substances that are harmful to us ?
- C Winnan, WGC England, 30/12/2008 11:19
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I often go to London as a tourist, I think it's a good idea to provide free water so long as the taste is acceptable. But in restaurants we could have the choice between tap water or mineral water.
- Samuel Podevin, Boulogne sur mer, France, 28/12/2008 17:55
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Good idea! If it was possible to drink London's tap water. It tastes horrible! Like sourced from a swimming pool.. I go for the bottled water.
- Mark, London, UK, 26/12/2008 00:04
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What!
The last 2 summers have been shocking! Where do these stats come from. Give me strength.
Any money would be far better spent on aspiring to the sort of transport networks countries like Japan has. We are far behind them. This is much likely to benefit tourists AND THE PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY LIVE IN LONDON. Remember them!
- Chris, Kent, 24/12/2008 14:15
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A good idea but it is pointless providing civilised public street items like drinking fountains in the UK these days, as a lot of people have no manners or are vandals, and will therefore soon make the fountains unusable.
- Jon Kent, Hertford. UK, 24/12/2008 14:15
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Great idea but 'elf and safety will kill it. Can't have thousand being poisoned or picking up communicable diseases from water fountains?
- Dave Davies, Basingstoke, 24/12/2008 14:00
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Very civilised. Please also open more free public loos to make the City more people friendly.
- Alan In Bow, London, 24/12/2008 11:51
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I wish someone would make the water drinkable in the area I live in, which is Blackheath/Lewisham. The water which comes from our cold water tap is so filthy, I won't even wash my teeth with it. It is cloudy grey, with black slimy blobs in it.
Maybe the Standard will do something to get this looked at?
- Peter Thurgood, London UK, 24/12/2008 11:40
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