Drinking fountains shortage 'bad for child health'

Children's Food Campaign finds 11% of parks have fountain, and claims children turning to sugary drinks as a result

Erected by philanthropists in the 19th century to improve the nation's health and give thirsty workers an alternative to ale, public drinking fountains used to be a common feature of cities.

But now their numbers have dwindled to such a degree that campaigners fear children are turning to tooth-rotting sugary drinks instead of drinking water.

Researchers for the Children's Food Campaign, part of the Sustain alliance, say just 11% of 140 parks visited had a drinking fountain; of those only two-thirds had fountains that were working and just eight had all their fountains in operation. Yet the survey found a majority of people happy to use drinking fountains.

Starting a campaign for drinking water in all public green spaces, the group says fountains are crucial in encouraging people to buy fewer bottles of mineral water, and for reducing waste plastic and carbon emissions from transporting water.

Backed by Friends of the Earth, the BMA, and the National Union of Teachers, the group is calling on local authorities to install and repair fountains.

The group's Christine Haigh said: "Health professionals say water is the best thing for children to drink yet we make it hard by failing to provide fountains in parks. Drinking fountains are a cheap, easy way of improving public health … the Victorians were way ahead of us on this."

Christine Blower, general secretary of the NUT, said: "It is tragic that even in the handful of parks that have drinking fountains so few are actually working, meaning that children can turn to expensive and unhealthy sugary drinks."Friends of the Earth's executive director, Andy Atkins, said: "Refilling a re-usable bottle at a drinking fountain is an easy way for all of us to minimise waste and cut our carbon footprints."

In London, the Metropolitan Free Drinking Fountain Association paved the way with water provision in 1859 erecting a public drinking fountain at the boundary wall of St Sepulchre's church on Snow Hill. As philanthropists saw the importance of the work and began to contribute funds, fountains sprang up around the city, and within 11 years there were 140. Later the temperance movement put up many of the fountains near pubs.

Peter Brown, chair of the Fountain Society, put the demise of fountains down to the cost of their maintenance and a mistaken belief, begun when bottled water first arrived about 20 years ago, that drinking water was less safe. Both these notions had to be overcome as climate change became an increasingly pressing issue, he said. "The Victorians had it absolutely right. The obvious answer is to have more drinking fountains."

source: guardian