How many times have you been out with an empty Sport Berkey Portable Water Filter but unable to find a working drinking fountain to fill it? A new collaboration between the Pacific Institute and Google may come to the rescue with the Android Smartphone App WeTap.

Bottled Water & the Demise of the Public Drinking Fountain

"The average American now drinks nearly 30 gallons of commercial bottled water per year, up from 1 gallon in 1980, creating plastic waste and wasting energy. One of the reasons for this explosive growth in the sales of bottled water is the disappearance of public drinking water fountains,” explained Pacific Institute Director Dr. Peter Gleick in a press release. The demise of the public drinking fountain and our reliance on bottled water go hand in hand, explains Gleick. The institute's collaboration with the worlds largest search engine and technology company is about launching a drinking fountain renaissance. WeTap enables Android smartphone users to find a working water fountain when they want one, report problems, and identify previously unknown fountains for other users.

WeTap App Maps Public Drinking Water Fountains World Wide

No Android phone? No problem. Check out the Google Maps version.
View FountainTest2 in a larger map And, if you happen to be a iPhone app developer interested in some pro-bono work, Gleick would love to hear from you.

wetap water fountain app

Call for Public Water and Drinking Fountain Renaissance

"Last summer I was walking through the French Quarter of New Orleans. It was a hot, steamy summer day and I was thirsty, so I looked for a water fountain. After several blocks of searching, I realized that while there is a bar on every corner, there are no drinking fountains in sight," relates EPA's Nancy Stoner on the agency's blog Greenversations. "It’s time to reinvigorate and celebrate our public water system and the clean, safe drinking water we have. It’s time to bring back the water fountain." While the free app WeTap is available in Google's Android Marketplace, it is still in beta testing. Google and the Pacific Institute are looking for volunteers around the world to map locations of public drinking fountains for the app's database. Testers need an Android-capable smartphone, a Gmail account, and a Picasa account, to upload images of the drinking fountains they report.

Berkey Solutions for Clean, Safe Water on the Go

The 22 Oz Sport Berkey Portable Water Filter is durable, made from safe non-leaching LDPE #4 that is BPA-Free, and offers a convenient and portable filtration system using medical grade technology. The Go Berkey Kit combines a single 1-quart Black Berkey Filter system, great for travel or even keeping at the office, with a Sport Berkey for hiking, camping, or in times of emergency.