Venice Urges Tourists To Ditch Plastic Water Bottles And Use Drinking Fountains

Venice is asking tourists to use its public fountains instead of buying single-use plastic water bottles.

Millions of tourists visit the Italian city yearly while the resident population stands at under 50,000. This means that tourism is responsible for nearly 40% of the city’s waste in some seasons.

Authorities are looking for ways to reduce the impact of tourism on the environment. The city has launched a campaign to encourage visitors to use the city’s drinking fountains to cut back on plastic waste.

As pandemic travel restrictions have been scrapped, visitor numbers to Venice have almost returned to pre-COVID levels.

The city has released a map of drinking water fountains in the historic center to limit plastic waste production.

Single-use plastic bottles are often discarded in the streets by tourists and pollute the city’s canals.

The map of the city’s 126 safe drinking water fountains hopes to remind visitors that clean water is easily accessible in all areas of the historic center. In most zones, there is a fountain nearly every 100 meters.

Some drinking fountains are also of historical importance and are decorated with sculptures and reliefs.

The map also plots the 60 fountains located on other islands in the lagoon. Created by water distribution company Veritas, it is accessible via an app as well as on its website. Visitors just need to activate their GPS to discover the route to the nearest water source.