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Sometimes, old ideas are the best ideas. The humble water fountain has gone out of fashion. It should come back.
Ottawa City Council’s planning and environment committee was considering stopping the sales of bottled water in city buildings. Ultimately, the committee decided to keep selling the bottles. A staff report argued that bottled water isn’t a health hazard, and is very convenient.
An outright moratorium on the sale of bottles would be expensive, as it would cost about $2 million to install water fountains in all city facilities. Only 597 of the city’s 1,033 facilities have fountains now.
Still, it makes sense to start phasing in more fountains and phasing out bottles. Bottled water is incredibly wasteful. All that plastic must be recycled or sent to landfill. We’ve also got to consider the energy use and pollution that goes into manufacturing and transporting the water.
In city buildings, staff can use reusable glasses or stainless steel containers instead of disposable bottles. For visitors, water fountains are the environmentally friendly choice.
Water fountains are valuable public infrastructure, and have been since the ancients built their cities. They can be clean, safe and beautiful places to stand and chat. Once they’re installed, they only cost about $850 a year each to run. That’s a small cost for improving our public spaces and easing the burden on our environment.
The committee stopped short of an outright ban, but wants staff to come up with a strategy to reduce the consumption of bottled water in city facilities. That’s a reasonable course.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2007