At The Public Water Project, we’re campaigning to bring more water taps and fountains to public places within Auckland.  Why? We believe strongly in looking after the health of our country’s environment and of our people. We need to reduce the use of plastic bottles and decrease the consumption of sugary drinks.  

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Auckland Council's head of operational management Agnes McCormack said only 183, or 5 per cent, of Auckland's 3695 parks have drinking fountains. And of the 817 parks with playgrounds, only 16 per cent of them had drinking fountains within the vicinity, McCormack said. A poll on community website Neighbourly found that across 26 central Auckland neighbourhoods, 89 per cent of residents who took part said Auckland needed more drinking fountains while 11 per cent disagreed.

We believe free water must become more available

Auckland has some shocking statistics with respect to the level of facilities for people to access free water at fountains or taps around the city. Only 5% of Auckland’s parks have fountains and less than 16% of playgrounds have water fountains available for the children to drink from or refill bottles. We strongly believe that this needs to change, for the health of our children, our communities and our world.

Drink Water First

With almost 10 teaspoons of sugar in fizzy drinks, its super important to drink water and to have it readily available as a free option for our people.

Refill Your Bottles

Use refillable bottles and stop the use of plastic bottles. Kiwis use on average 168 plastic bottles a year that take up to 1000 years to decompose!

Keep Us Healthy

The benefits of drinking water will ensure healthy communities – why sell our water to companies to bottle and sell back to us?

My name is Lilah and I am 10 years old. Last year, I travelled to Europe with my family and in one city, I saw a big bank of water taps. At these taps, people were coming to fill up everything from little bottles to drink from to big bottles to store water in. Thirsty dogs were coming and drinking out of the trough at the bottom that held the left over water. Men and ladies from long exhausting bike rides and runs were coming to quench their thirst.I would like to bring this into Auckland for these reasons:

  1. It would help our community to be more healthy because less fortunate people could drink water instead of buying unhealthy and sugary drinks (which at the moment are really cheap).
  2. It will allow people to refill plastic bottles instead of them going to landfill or the ocean.
  3. It would help schools that want to be Water-Only schools because the children will have the chance to easily drink water outside of school and then it will become a good habit.

Lilah xx

Install Fountains

We are seeking donations to help fund this campaign and sponsorships to help fund the purchase and installation of multipurpose water fountains throughout Auckland’s high traffic areas.

Raise Awareness

We want our community to know where our water fountains are – and be proud of them! We will run art competitions with local schools to design the artwork to be printed on our fountains, with prizes for the winner and the winning school.

Change Behaviour

We want to encourage kids to drink water not sugary drinks, and will be offering environmentally friendly collectibles for them to collect when they drink from our fountains.