Disgruntled locals and tourists have for years complained about the lack of free drinking water in Belgium but a campaign is underway to change this.
Grassroots movement Free Tap Water in Belgium launched its new campaign on Wednesday to look at the environmental and economic impact of restaurants offering free tap water. Eateries will offer free tap water for a period of one month, without removing the bottled water option from their menu.
One Brussels restaurant Fermento Wine Bar on Chaussée d'Ixelles, near Place Flagey, has already accepted the challenge: from Wednesday 28 June, they are offering free tap water to their customers for four weeks. A restaurant in Flanders and one in Wallonia are also due to participate.
Wallonia's regional government had promised to put an end to charging customers for tap water in 2019. However, the regional government made a U-turn earlier this year and decided not to enforce the regulation after all – the main reason for this being that, for many in the hospitality industry, selling drinking water is a large source of income.
Through the campaign, Free Tap Water in Belgium hopes to demonstrate the benefits of offering drinking water free of charge and to inspire more restaurant owners across the country to do the same. The organisation's mission is to "help Belgian's environment by asking restaurants and cafés to offer complimentary tap water, and end the unnecessary use of plastic and glass water bottles."
They raise awareness about the ecological impact of bottled water via their Facebook page and have placed almost 1,000 places map and app. They convinced Brussels Airport and the Eurostar terminal in Brussels-Midi to install a water fountain. SNCB have also confirmed that they are working on installing water fountains in the 80 busiest train stations in Belgium by the end of 2023.
Belgium is very much behind the curve compared to other European countries such as France and the United Kingdom, where restaurants are required to offer drinking water free of charge. Many Belgian restaurant owners still refuse to offer the service.
This has resulted in Belgium having "one of the highest rates of bottled water consumption per capita in Europe" as people turn to single-use plastic bottles instead.
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"If we want to change the culture around drinking Belgium's excellent tap water, we need to start with restaurants. Restaurants sometimes imply that bottled water is superior, but it is only superior in cost. In every other respect, tap water is the answer, with almost no carbon footprint," said Free Tap Water in Belgium founder, Sarah Ehrlich.
"Even glass bottles have a much higher ecological impact than many people realise, because of the pollution during transportation and the energy-consuming sterilisation process."
