Southwark commits to 50 drinking fountains

There are currently 40 drinking water fountains across the London borough, and Southwark Council has committed to ensuring there are 50 by 2022. These will be spread across the borough so that there is at least one in each ward. It came as part of the Fairer future promises to reduce the number of single use plastic bottles and the Healthy Weight strategy and Food Security plan which also supported public drinking fountains as an alternative to sugary drinks, and creating better access to free healthy options.

It is vital that we all reduce the amount of single-use plastic that we use and carrying a reusable water bottle and/or a coffee cup is a small change that everyone can start with. I hope that these new fountains will encourage more people to ditch single-use plastics, and I hope that more businesses will start to proactively offer free drinking water refills as well.

Cllr Richard Livingstone, Southwark Council Cabinet Member for Environment, Transport and the Climate Emergency

SUGAR SMART is a campaign run by Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming. SUGAR SMART is one of the featured campaigns in the UK's Sustainable Food Cities Network.

Sustain and City to Sea have teamed up to launch The 50 Fountains Campaign and organisations around the UK to call on local areas to provide 50 working public drinking fountains to help prevent plastic pollution and tackle child obesity.