Are there drinking fountains in europe

I would feel just as surprised if I went outside of Europe and someone told me I must not drink from a certain fountain, just as you would when you see tons of people drinking from fountains everywhere.

Fountains in Europe are actually very common, and I believe there are 3 types of water you can run into, while drinking from them.

You could come across normal water, just like the one you would drink home. It has been filtered by the city's household water suppliers. The other kind is spring water - coming from the mountains, though in most cases fountains are built at the site where a spring is rushing out locally. It is safe to drink, non-filtered natural water. The third kind is also very common for me, since I come from Bulgaria, though not as common everywhere in Europe - mineral springs.

Just as normal springs, fountains are build around the place where such a spring would emerge, but it is actual mineral-rich water you can drink for free! The only article I could find about this in English is this rather short one. We do however have huge mineral fountains in a few cities where there are above the average by water debit mineral springs. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top.

Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Is it safe to drink the water from the fountains found all over the older parts of Rome? Ask Question. Asked 1 year, 11 months ago. Active 1 year, 11 months ago. Viewed 14k times. Improve this question. Mark Mayo k 95 95 gold badges silver badges bronze badges. In most of Europe you can assume water is drinkable except if it explicitly states that it is not.

In italian drinkable is potabile so an indication of non potabile means that it is not drinkable. Bottled still water can be more expensive than beer. If European restaurant patrons don't drink tap water, why would anyone install water fountains? Europeans, who are notorious water connoisseurs, generally pay to drink bottled water with their meals — for taste, not health. At restaurants, your server just can't understand why you wouldn't want good bottled water to go with your good food.

Didn't someone on the forum not long ago mention that there was a law passed in one of the countries prohibiting restaurants from serving tap water? A collusion between politicians, lobbyists, and the bottled water industry, was the stated cause. Well, I once posted that a restsurant in Munich told us it was against the law for them to serve tap water The only American style drinking fountain I have seen in Frankfurt is in Terminal 2 at the airport.

Frankfurt had the first wastewater treatment plant in Germany, if not in Europe, built in Located on the far west side of the city, the sewage water would slowly flow through sand and then canals over a period of days so that the sediment would sink to the bottom.

The clean water would then flow back out to the river. The canals would be drained, men would scrape out the crud which would then be dried in fields and often burned. Fun job, eh? I got to tour this place last month and it is fascinating. Restaurants like to lie that they aren't allowed to serve tap water, but this is a decision from management.

Some places do serve you though and they get my repeat business. For Berlin links to both accesses to free drinking water are available on a website. You are on the right track. Your observation is quite accurate. Public water fountains are rare throughout Europe. I always chuckle when I see RS stating,. Most of Europe is flowing with great tap water, often available in fountains around towns and cities. By reusing a plastic water bottle or bringing your own refillable water bottle, you not only save money, but also avoid consuming bunches of plastic and reduce demand for water that's shipped overland in trucks and trains.

It makes me wonder - where are Britain's water philanthropists of today? Perhaps the British feel their country is generally not hot enough to require public drinking fountains, but personally, I find visiting museums and theatres to be thirsty work. I was quite apoplectic the last time I attended the National Theatre in London - we came out at intermission quite parched, but of course there were no water fountains, and the pitchers of water put out by the bar quickly succumbed to the scrum of thirsty concert goers.

I went to the toilet to try to fill my water bottle, but as is invariably the case in British public toilets, the tap water was so scaldingly hot I could barely wash my hands, much less drink it.

Airports are also bad at providing water to their customers, which seems very mean, considering we can't take full water bottles through due to security regulations.

Though I did manage to find a fountain at Stansted airport before our flight to Germany. I sometimes think that if they ever changed the British naturalisation process and included an additional requirement of community service to the citizenship test, I would get involved in a campaign to improve public access to potable water. Perhaps starting with the scalding water in public toilets, which seems hazardous as well as being inconvenient. I understand health officials believe that hot water is necessary to wash hands properly, but I wonder how many people are doing only a perfunctory wash or eschewing washing altogether to avoid burning their hands.

In any case, due to the prevalence of separate taps for hot and cold water in Britain, most people are probably washing their hands in cold water at home anyway. Of course, if British sinks were built like American and European ones, with both cold and hot water running from the same tap, you could chose your preferred temperature. But the British seem impervious to reason or change on this issue , so they are probably best left to their own devices.

Legionella and chlorate levels will be added to the list of criteria for determining water safety, and new obligations will be put on mains water suppliers. The EU also wants to standardise products used in pipe and tank manufacturing to reduce pollution. This article is more than 3 years old. Directive seeks better access to safe drinking water to reduce use of throw-away containers.