# Are public water fountains a strictly American thing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 19, 2012, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-public-water-fountains-a-strictly-american-thing/638232 "2012-10-19T15:42:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Vicullum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/6de8d8/32.png) [@Vicullum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vicullum)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2012, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-public-water-fountains-a-strictly-american-thing/638232/61 "2012-10-21T23:38:26Z")
> [@Teacake](#): > > Speaking for the UK, have a look at [this](http://cdn.environment-agency.gov.uk/geho1208bpas-e-e.pdf) Environment Agency report (warning - it’s a PDF). Sample sentence: “When we take population density into account (Figure 4a), we actually have less water per person in South East England than many hotter, drier countries such as Morocco and Egypt.” I know most Americans think of England as a rainy little place which couldn’t possibly be short of water, but if that information about the UK is wrong, maybe the misconception that other countries are also “stingy” could be wrong too. I travel from DFW International Airport, one of the [busiest](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World's_busiest_airports_by_passenger_traffic) airports in the world. Last year the state it was located in experienced its [driest](http://i.imwx.com/web/news/2012/february/stu-dm-013112-600x345.jpg) period on record. Nearly every summer their are strict calls for water rationing, but in recent years it has been especially bad. Yet you still wouldn’t have any problem finding a drinking fountain in DFW airport. If Texas of all places can manage this, I don’t see why any European travel hub couldn’t. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-public-water-fountains-a-strictly-american-thing/638232/62 "2012-10-22T00:03:25Z")
Or Southern California, which imports most of its water. Or on the opposite sides, European countries with no water problems. Or Las Vegas, but I’d avoid drinking their foul tap water. ---
**Author:** ![JpnDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@JpnDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JpnDude)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-public-water-fountains-a-strictly-american-thing/638232/63 "2012-10-22T01:20:04Z")
In Tokyo, there are drinking fountains in most public buildings, train stations and city parks. ---
**Author:** ![Imasquare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Imasquare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imasquare)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-public-water-fountains-a-strictly-american-thing/638232/64 "2012-10-22T01:51:57Z")
> [@Cinnamon\_Imp](#): > > They just seem unhygienic to me, if you mean the ones I’m thinking of. Putting your mouth where tons of other stranger’s mouths have been? And might have spat on? Euh. I’ll just buy a can of juice instead, thanks. Not just spat on - they’re about the right height for someone to use as a urinal. And you can be sure that in a large city there will be plenty of people nasty enough to do that. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-public-water-fountains-a-strictly-american-thing/638232/65 "2012-10-22T03:58:35Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Incidentally, is it actually true that drinking fountains are common in public buildings _throughout_ the USA? I know they are common in California, but that is a hot, dry place, where people easily get thirsty and dehydrated. I would not have thought that there would be anything like the same degree of need for them in places like Wisconsin, or Maine, for instance (as, indeed, there is nothing like the same degree of need for them in cool, damp Britain). I’m in Connecticut, and there are three in the Sears store where I work - one by the employees’ loos, one by the public loos and one on the loading dock. Don’t know if the other anchor stores in the mall have them, but I’m pretty sure there’s one by the public loos near the food court. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-public-water-fountains-a-strictly-american-thing/638232/66 "2012-10-22T06:04:41Z")
> [@Cinnamon\_Imp](#): > > The water that touches your lips/mouth but doesn’t get swallowed, falls back onto the nozzle and bowl area though, right? I’m picturing people’s saliva washing back down, and bacteria breeding happily in the puddles till the next person comes along and switches the flow on. Not in the [typical design](http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumblarge_532/1282534263E04NFU.jpg). Those bubblers that shoot straight up, maybe. I’ve used water fountains my entire life (primarily in the Southwest) and never been sick as a result of one. It’s hard to imagine them being dangerous and unhygienic. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-public-water-fountains-a-strictly-american-thing/638232/67 "2012-10-22T08:37:01Z")
> [@Kiyoshi](#): > > I’ve never seen a drinking fountain in the UK. The idea makes me feel a bit sick, actually. Imagine all the nasty things people could have been using it for. Not hygienic at all. There’s a working one in the park opposite my house in East London. And seeing the missing links that inhabit that park at night, no way in hell would I ever use that water fountain. ---
**Author:** ![furdmort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@furdmort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furdmort)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-public-water-fountains-a-strictly-american-thing/638232/68 "2012-10-22T08:49:51Z")
> [@harmonicamoon](#): > > America makes (via treatment plants) all the water suitable for consumption. But a very small portion is actually consumed. Most is used flushing toilets, washing, etc. In many foreign countries the potable water might be filtered and treated with chlorine but is not suitable for drinking. Bottled water is available for drinking. > **Which do you think is more cost effective?** A very good question, considering that piped drinking water here in Germany is on the order of one euro for 1000 liters, delivered right to my water fawcett - whereas bottled water that I have to drive to the store and buy costs around 50 Cents per liter. Looks to me like piping and treating all the water is cheaper by a factor of 2000. ---
**Author:** ![Teacake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Teacake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teacake)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-public-water-fountains-a-strictly-american-thing/638232/69 "2012-10-22T18:37:30Z")
> [@Vicullum](#): > > I travel from DFW International Airport, one of the [busiest](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World's_busiest_airports_by_passenger_traffic) airports in the world. Last year the state it was located in experienced its [driest](http://i.imwx.com/web/news/2012/february/stu-dm-013112-600x345.jpg) period on record. Nearly every summer their are strict calls for water rationing, but in recent years it has been especially bad. > > Yet you still wouldn’t have any problem finding a drinking fountain in DFW airport. If Texas of all places can manage this, I don’t see why any European travel hub couldn’t. Not necessarily couldn’t, so much as choose not to. I offered that report in response to someone who was suggesting that the cost/availability of water couldn’t be an issue in Europe. Whatever. Like I said before, how wonderful that the greatest country in the world can give away “free” water at all times and all places. Maybe other nations choose not to, prioritising other things perhaps; maybe some of us (including me) are just not very observant and don’t often notice water fountains, especially if they don’t look the way we expect them to. However I still find your characterisation of everywhere that isn’t America as “stingy” to invite the return judgement that everywhere else is actually just less wasteful and entitled. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-public-water-fountains-a-strictly-american-thing/638232/70 "2012-10-22T19:35:02Z")
> [@Condescending\_Robot](#): > > Does the fact that the US fought a [long and still-taught political battle](http://www.pattyhume.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/black-and-colored-drinking-water1.jpg) over access to water fountains perhaps indicate a reluctance to omit them from new buildings as compared to countries where they have no such connotations? See? In the good old days America was so rich we could afford two fountains per building. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-public-water-fountains-a-strictly-american-thing/638232/71 "2012-10-22T19:50:06Z")
> [@Cinnamon\_Imp](#): > > The water that touches your lips/mouth but doesn’t get swallowed, falls back onto the nozzle and bowl area though, right? I’m picturing people’s saliva washing back down, and bacteria breeding happily in the puddles till the next person comes along and switches the flow on. Are you under the impression that the water is somehow recycled, and pumped back round again? No, once it has been anywhere near where anyone’s mouth might be, it is down the drain and into the sewer. Anyway, most bacteria are quite fussy about the temperature range they like to live in, so any that will breed in your mouth probably won’t breed, and many will soon die, in cold water. There are exceptions, but people with them in their mouth are probably too dead to have been drinking in the fountain before you. ---
**Author:** ![Szlater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Szlater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Szlater)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-public-water-fountains-a-strictly-american-thing/638232/72 "2012-10-22T20:05:03Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Are you under the impression that the water is somehow recycled, and pumped back round again? No, once it has been anywhere near where anyone’s mouth might be, it is down the drain and into the sewer. > > Anyway, most bacteria are quite fussy about the temperature range they like to live in, so any that will breed in your mouth probably won’t breed, and many will soon die, in cold water. There are exceptions, but people with them in their mouth are probably too dead to have been drinking in the fountain before you. You would think the council would clear away that pile of bodies round the water fountain! Unless the fountains are in a dark corner, the sun would also probably do a good job keeping anything nasty at bay, even in London. The only thing I can think might be a problem is if there is a considerable build up of limescale, it could provide safe harbour to some protozoa or bacteria. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-public-water-fountains-a-strictly-american-thing/638232/73 "2012-10-22T20:13:10Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Are you under the impression that the water is somehow recycled, and pumped back round again? No, once it has been anywhere near where anyone’s mouth might be, it is down the drain and into the sewer. > > Anyway, most bacteria are quite fussy about the temperature range they like to live in, so any that will breed in your mouth probably won’t breed, and many will soon die, in cold water. There are exceptions, but people with them in their mouth are probably too dead to have been drinking in the fountain before you. And if it’s the splashback that bothers him, you can just direct it to rinse the nozzle. Yes, it _could_ have spit on it, just like someone _could_ pee in them. I _could_ wipe my feces on the elevator buttons at everyone’s work. But I don’t, and it is unlikely that this happens or one could get sick. If OCD is the issue, then I can somewhat sympathize, but public fountains are probably more sanitary than your kitchen sink. Those recycling towel machines in bathrooms bother me, though. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-public-water-fountains-a-strictly-american-thing/638232/74 "2012-10-22T21:45:27Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Incidentally, is it actually true that drinking fountains are common in public buildings _throughout_ the USA? I know they are common in California, but that is a hot, dry place, where people easily get thirsty and dehydrated. I would not have thought that there would be anything like the same degree of need for them in places like Wisconsin, or Maine, for instance (as, indeed, there is nothing like the same degree of need for them in cool, damp Britain). Yes, public water fountains are generally available in most public and office buildings across America, not just the hot states, but everywhere. This is because access to clean water was one of those Victorian sanitation projects undertaken to fight cholera and other diseases that were discovered to be due to poor sanitation, like pissing in the streets and dumping sewage into the same river/lake where water was taken for drinking. So public water fountains are fairly ingrained in our culture, and I suspect they are legally mandated, but I’m not positive on that. Public water fountains are not particularly wasteful, because unlike those fountain things from Italy, they are use on demand. The water is not streamed until you press the button. The used water that is not drunk goes down the drain to the sewage pipe. Yes there is some, but not free running water the whole time. > [@Cinnamon\_Imp](#): > > The water that touches your lips/mouth but doesn’t get swallowed, falls back onto the nozzle and bowl area though, right? I’m picturing people’s saliva washing back down, and bacteria breeding happily in the puddles till the next person comes along and switches the flow on. The stream exits the nozzle and makes an arc in the air. You drink from the top of the arc, or if the stream is misadjusted, somewhere in the upward region, but not directly over or on the nozzle. No mouth contact with nozzle, no splashback falling on nozzle. The unused water that makes mouth contact goes down the drain. ---
**Author:** ![Szlater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Szlater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Szlater)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-public-water-fountains-a-strictly-american-thing/638232/75 "2012-10-22T21:57:34Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > This is because access to clean water was one of those Victorian sanitation projects undertaken to fight cholera and other diseases that were discovered to be due to poor sanitation, like pissing in the streets and dumping sewage into the same river/lake where water was taken for drinking. So public water fountains are fairly ingrained in our culture, and I suspect they are legally mandated, but I’m not positive on that. Thanks to Dr John Snow and his new fangled epidemiology. Although the 1854 Broad Street cholera epidemic, by which Snow made his name and great contribution, was sourced to a contaminated public water pump. ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-public-water-fountains-a-strictly-american-thing/638232/76 "2012-10-22T22:49:25Z")
I just wanted to confirm that there are public drinking fountains in New Zealand, too. More in parks than on city streets. IFAIK, no outbreaks of disease have been linked to them here. They seem to be all the type where you drink from the stream of water, no physical contact. Thanks for all the great info and pics. Love the London locator link. ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2012, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-public-water-fountains-a-strictly-american-thing/638232/77 "2012-10-23T00:12:47Z")
> [@Thylacine](#): > > They are around in Melbourne AU but the actual city ones seem to run through a process before hitting the streets as it tastes far more chloriney than the stuff out of the tap. The ones in suburban parks etc. seem to be the usual great tap water we have here. I sent your query to a friend of mine who happens to have worked for Melbourne Water for many years. She says there’s no difference between the tap water in city drinking fountains and the tap water pumped to houses and suburban parks. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2012, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-public-water-fountains-a-strictly-american-thing/638232/78 "2012-10-23T00:20:45Z")
I have seen less than five public drinking fountains in my entire time in Trinidad, the only one I can specifically remember was in some government office building in Port Of Spain. When I first came here I’d ask say some mall kiosk worker where the drinking fountain was, get a puzzled look and ask where the water fountain is and get told that mall didn’t have a fountain(as in to throw coins in). People were baffled by the concept. EDIT:Oh wait I can remember another one! There is one at the Emperor Valley Zoo, chilled too. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2012, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-public-water-fountains-a-strictly-american-thing/638232/79 "2012-10-23T00:26:17Z")
> [@Kiyoshi](#): > > I’ve never seen a drinking fountain in the UK. The idea makes me feel a bit sick, actually. Imagine all the nasty things people could have been using it for. Not hygienic at all. Like what? As someone pointed out earlier, the water comes out in an arced stream and your lips never make contact with any part of the fountain. Do you have any evidence that the water fountains in the U.S. are generally filthy? ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2012, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-public-water-fountains-a-strictly-american-thing/638232/80 "2012-10-23T00:34:02Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > Like what? Sit down and push the button and enjoy the free public enema machine? 😛 Seriously if some of the posters in this thread are THAT paranoid well, go watch a skit called ass pennies. Here is your change sir…:eek: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-public-water-fountains-a-strictly-american-thing/638232.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-public-water-fountains-a-strictly-american-thing/638232.md?page=5)