In mid-November 2024, the chapter of Blue Communities in the Swiss canton of Zurich, together with new Blue Community partner DRINK & DONATE and ‘ZH2O züriwasser’, launched a pilot project called Blue Gastro, which involves restaurants and hotels in providing tap water and supporting water projects in the Global South.
Restaurants and hotels are invited to join Blue Gastro and to be listed and mapped by
- either by simply serving tap water in addition to or instead of bottled water
- or by going even one step further, joining our Blue Community partner Drink&Donate and funding water projects through the sale of tap water.
The price of water
The UN resolution on the human right to water speaks of «safe, clean, accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation for all». Ensuring this costs. So caring for water and water services, including sanitary services, also has monetary implications. Therefore, in most cases, access to drinking water and sanitation is subject to a tariff, but this tariff must not exclude people from the basic supply of clean and safe drinking water and of sanitation. In extreme cases, where a person has no money at all, the human right to water presupposes that access to water is also guaranteed free of charge.
And in a restaurant? You may not have to pay for the water, but it may still show up on your bill. Why is that? Restaurants and hotels have to cover their costs, from renting the premises to staff wages, electricity bills, taxes, etc. Many restaurants still provide free water and we appreciate that. But we also think it is fair for a restaurant to charge for the service. So the bill is not for tap water, but corresponds to the costs added to any other drink, be it a coffee, a Coke, or a beer. Fair enough, no?
