Number of drinking fountains has skyrocketed

The number of public drinking water dispensers in Berlin has risen sharply in recent years.

There are now 224 drinking fountains in use in Berlin, Berliner Wasserbetriebe announced in response to an inquiry. The state of Berlin has been funding the installation and maintenance of drinking fountains since 2018, when there were only 45 drinking fountains in the entire city.

Continuous water flow into the drinking fountain

The first water dispensers were installed in the 1980s and were originally intended for flushing the mains. The fountains run permanently. According to the water companies, the flow rate has already been reduced: "Just 0.02 percent of Berlin's annual drinking water consumption runs through all drinking fountains," said the water companies. According to the water companies, the constant flow is intended to prevent water from standing in the pipes for too long, heating up and becoming contaminated. The wells are cleaned every two weeks, or weekly if necessary, and samples are taken every four weeks to ensure the water quality.

Refill initiative: stores fill bottles with tap water free of charge

In some cases, there are already wells where run-off water is used to irrigate street trees, for example. However, there are only "a handful", as it was said. They are located on Fischerinsel, in Mauerpark and in Spandau on the Schifffahrtsufer. There is often a lack of space and the additional underground construction work has to be carried out by the respective district authorities. In addition to public drinking water dispensers, there are initiatives such as Refill: stores with a Refill sticker, including supermarkets, pharmacies and bookshops, fill tap water into bottles brought in free of charge.