Organisations are calling for restaurants, cafes and bars, to readily serve tap water for customers.

Organisations are calling on restaurants, cafes and bars to serve customers tap water as a matter of course rather than only offer expensive branded bottled versions – a glass of which can work out as the equivalent of paying £1,500 for a pint of beer.

Thames Water has joined forces with the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, to launch London on Tap, a campaign to promote tap water and encourage eateries to serve it to customers. The Consumer Council for Water, an independent organisation that represents consumers in England and Wales, has also called for such an initiative.

According to the Council, tap water in England and Wales is among the best in the world and only costs around one tenth of a penny per litre. However, some restaurants and bars rarely serve tap water unless specifically asked to do so by the customer, and Thames Water has found that one in five people are “slightly nervous” or “too scared” to ask for it.

The Council also mentioned the environmental concerns that bottled water raises. It quotes figures from the Earth Policy Institute that reveal 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year, and that each bottle can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade.

One of the aims of London on Tap is to reduce the climate change carbon emissions associated with the production, storage, transportation and disposal of water bottles. Ken Livingstone said of the initiative: “My message is very simple: don’t be embarrassed to ask for tap water when you eat out. You will save money and help save the planet. By drinking less bottled water, we can cut the climate change carbon emissions coming from its production and transportation, and cut the problem of disposing of used bottles. Choosing tap water is cheaper and a perfectly acceptable alternative to bottled water, and it will help to protect the environment.”

Thames Water recently carried out a taste test to see whether consumers could taste the difference between bottled and tap water. Click here to read ICM’s news article about the results.