Providing fresh, free drinking water to our communities one fountain at a time.
Drinking fountains are key indicators of cultural attitudes about the public good: whether we care only for ourselves and our families or whether we pool our resources and work together to bring benefits to the entire community. And drinking water access is perhaps the most poignant way to understand where civilizations through the ages fall on this spectrum. Human bodies are 65% water—should we treat access to the very building block of life as a human right or as a commodity to be packaged and sold to those who can afford to pay? Good drinking fountains exemplify treating water, and by extension, ourselves and our communities, with dignity and respect. As a metaphor for social responsibility, the seemingly lowly drinking fountain shows the best or worst of a society: it can function as a window into a community’s most fundamental values.
You can be a drinking fountain champion and install one in your front yard today, giving your neighbors fresh water as they jog, helping neighborhood kids avoid sodas and sugar, cutting back on wasteful plastic bottles, giving a little boost to people passing by, and providing a little local landmark.
Providing free, fresh water can have a huge impact on your neighborhood. It can help to:
Support community health
Combat extreme heat events
Reduce plastic pollution
Improve hydration
Bring a parade of neighborhood dogs
Green the landscape
Provide water for local wildlife and pollinators
Create a place for play
Improve equitable access to water
Build community
Ready to build your own neighborhood drinking fountain? Click here for a materials list and full assembly instructiuons!
