Thame Gets a Public Drinking Water Fountain

On Monday 19 August, Thame Town Council unveiled a shiny new, blue, public drinking water fountain at the Thame Town Hall. News of the much anticipated water station spread quickly on social media with the Council’s posts receiving almost 1,000 “likes” and over 60 comments in support of the new addition.

Councillor Helena Richards, a member of the Council’s Environment and Assets Committee said, ‘Thame Green Living Plan has an action to install public water stations, so it’s great to start delivery of this action which has been welcomed online by Thame.’

Cllr Richards highlighted some of the benefits of installing public water stations:

• During hot weather, hydration is a very important part of staying well, so we hope residents, visitors and employees in Thame will make use of free water refills to stay well hydrated.
• By encouraging residents and visitors to refill their own bottles, we hope to cut down on plastic waste from single use plastic. Although plastic bottles can be put in green waste, only 30% of plastic actually gets recycled.
• We hope that by offering water refills this will save residents the expense of buying water or soft drinks when they buy take-away meals in Thame – a small help towards the cost of living, and
• We hope that free water availability will help discourage the purchase and consumption of sugary drinks, which we know contribute to the obesity crisis.