Offering safe, accessible, and free drinking water in venues means a better-hydrated population who can reduce their reliance on single-use plastic bottles.
Regulations across the world differ, meaning not every restaurant is legally obliged to provide water for free. As public opinion evolves and the world seeks to combat a rising tide of plastic pollution, it could pay to know the legal requirements for restaurants in different countries when it comes to supplying free tap water for drinking.
While most restaurants in Australia will happily offer you a glass of water “on the house,” ask for the same in parts of Europe, and you could hear that it’s just not possible. Moreover, few consumers know when they have a legal right to request a glass.
Whether you’re a restaurant owner or customer, it’s crucial you know if venues in your region are obliged by law to offer drinking water without charge.
Regional Regulations on Free Drinking Water
Australia
The rules vary across the country despite Australia’s Liquor Regulation 2002 requirement that licensed venues to serve “cold drinking water” to patrons on request. Whether the water is free or “served at a reasonable cost” can vary depending on the premises. Hotels, nightclubs, bars, and casinos must ensure free drinking water is available at all hours that liquor is available for sale. If alcohol is not available for purchase at certain times, then the license holder may be exempt from the regulation during those hours.
Under Western Australia law, premises must offer “fresh water from a jug at the bar, from dispensers located near the bar, or by some other form of readily-accessible point”; the water must be “clean, and refreshed regularly.” Victoria law states that licensed venues must offer “adequate facilities for free drinking water.” However, if a venue cannot access a main water supply and the lack of drinking water won’t lead to alcohol-related harm, then the venue is exempt from the law.
New South Wales regulation merely asks that licensed venues offer free drinking water to “stop people from becoming intoxicated.”
Europe
In February 2018, the EU Commission reviewed the Drinking Water Directive that mandates certain establishments in Europe are obliged, by law, to offer free drinking water to customers. The Europeans suggest that requiring restaurants to serve water could save households more than 600 million euros on bottled water costs alone. Further, access to free drinking water could help citizens use fewer plastic bottles, reducing the “25 million tonnes of plastic waste” currently produced by Europeans each year.
The directive states that all Europeans should have access to a clean supply of drinking water. This means setting up drinking water fountains in public spaces, but it also suggests “encouraging public venues and restaurants” to provide access to free water on-site. But what does “encourage” mean in practice?
In England, Wales, and Scotland, it means that licensed venues must offer free drinking water on request. Any establishment selling alcohol — from clubs and bars to restaurants and cinemas — has a legal obligation to provide drinking water free of charge. In Ireland, however, no such law exists, and so customers must buy water instead. The same applies to all UK venues that don’t sell alcohol; they don’t have to offer water for free, either.
In the Netherlands, there’s no law mandating restaurants provide free drinking water. This has given rise to a petition calling for “tap water everywhere, please,” which gathered over 100,000 signatures to stop restaurants from denying customers a basic need.
To date, the European Union has passed no laws requiring establishments in its member countries to provide free tap water. The owners of European restaurants and other establishments can choose whether they provide it or not.
United States
In the United States, there are no national laws requiring restaurants serve free drinking water to customers. but some communities do have local laws calling on businesses to provide water. Most restaurants throughout the country do extend the courtesy of complimentary drinking water. But in water-scarce states like California, you won’t get water unless you ask for it: The water conservation rules introduced in 2015 ban servers from serving water unless a customer makes a request.
In many parts of the world, authorities stipulate that if an establishment is licensed to serve alcohol, it must offer free drinking water. In the U.S., that’s not the case — so, while responsible bartenders should help patrons stay hydrated as they consume alcohol, no law says that they have a legal obligation to do so.
Around the Rest of the World
Americans, Europeans, and Australians are fortunate in the quality of drinking water they get to enjoy from the municipal supplies. Elsewhere in the world, people aren’t so lucky, meaning access to free drinking water is rarely taken for granted. In Singapore, restaurants can’t always guarantee a supply is hygienic enough for human consumption, leaving them unable to offer it to customers.
In countries where water is scarce, the question of free drinking water transcends regulation. Cape Town, South Africa, came close to running out of water in 2018, and restaurants now refer back to the crisis when they refuse to serve free tap water to customers. They suggest patrons often don’t drink it, and the waste makes the crisis worse. With no regulation forcing unlicensed restaurants to provide free drinking water, customers have no legal standing to argue otherwise.
Feature image by Daniel Albany from Pixabay
About the Author
Sidrah Ahmad is a writer and marketing coordinator at Waterlogic, an international provider of office water dispensers, and has contributed to many blogs on environmental and health issues such as improper waste disposal, the use of single use plastics, and water pollution. She is passionate about health research, medical discoveries, and environmental news.