The humble office water fountain is giving drinking fountains in general a bad name. It appears the office water fountain is the number one gathering spot for staff to slack off, swap stories about their weekend and to gossip about their co workers.

You know how it all works, you go to fill up your water bottle of cup and you spot Kerry from Accounts walking towards the fountain, oh no, you think, I can’t handle another conversation about her dogs and how wonderful they are right now.

But before you can make a break for it she’s bailed you up as she slowly reaches to fill up her dog shaped cup. She’s telling you about Schnookie and Pookie and how they won a prize at the dog fair on the weekend, she then moves on to tell you about a strange dream she had the other night about how they became the first dogs to win first place in two consecutive years…you slowly start to drift in and out of consiousness.

It’s possible to avoid situations like this at work, you could always ask Kerry to wear a bell around her neck so you can hear her coming, however that idea might not go down so well amongst your co workers so the best advice would be to always keep your guard whilst at the water fountain.  This can be tricky as you don’t want to get water everywhere while you’re filling up and you also don’t want to be looking over your shoulder all the time to see who’s coming. The best thing to do is to listen, listen carefully for footsteps and as they get closer start finishing up on your refill and make a break for it before it’s too late!

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If you work in a school, office or public premise you should and most probably do, have access to clean drinking water at all times. Most of the time your water supply will just be from your kitchen taps though which can be a pain as it’s not always the right temperature and probably still has small amounts of chlorie and other nasties that haven’t been filtered out.

This is why you should ensure your place of work installs drinking fountains. Drinking fountains can provide all workers with clean, cool,  purified drinking water at the touch of a button. If you don’t already have drinking fountains, you should find out from your place of work who is in charge of ordering such items.

If you want to take the task on of finding a water fountain company that will come and install the fountains, you can put your mind at ease knowing that DrinkingWaterFountains.co.uk will take care of everything for you from installation to maintanence to filter changes. It’s a one stop shop for all your drinking fountain needs.

We also offer a free trial if you’d like to get to know how our fountains work and to see how they can fit in with your work environment. Available to rent or purchase, we offer a variety of different fountains to best suit your needs. Floor standing and wall mounted, indoor and outdoor, you can be sure to find the right fountain for you at the right price.

Please call us today on 0845 500 4455 for further information or for your free trial.

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Our good friend Ollie was recently seen dressing up as a drinking fountain and wandering around Kings Cross station, shamelessly bearing all in a silver spandex suit and asking for kindly commuters to put a few pennies in his bucket to help raise money for a volunteer trip to South Africa. Once in South Africa, Ollie will be involved with helping build houses and much needed pumps, so that the village in which he will be posted can access clean water supplies. He says of the experience: “We take for granted the fact that we, our friends and our children have clean water on tap, excuse the pun, that we have coolers in our offices and drinking fountains in our playgrounds. I want to do something useful and make a difference to communities who may not have the resources to make the change for themselves. The spandex suit I just enjoy wearing from time to time. Would you like to try a sip from my pump?”. No, we’re fine, thanks Ollie. We’ll leave that sort of thing to the communities you’ll be visiting.
Ollie was joined by a giant water bottle, several muscley men in high-vis jackets, and a complete tool set. The London rush hour crowd dug deep, and the boys’ fundraising efforts were not in vain. We will let you know how they get on!

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INCREASING DRINKABLE WATER SUPPLY IN THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES

Having a clean drinkable water supply is something every human on the planet should have access to. Water is essential to our survival and everyday life, without it our health would diminish significantly. However, many countries in the third world still do not have access to clean drinking water.

Fortunate nations such as the United Kingdom and the United States have trade associations who govern the safety of their country’s drinking water supply. Luckily for the developing countries, these associations sometimes delve into supporting and encouraging the developing countries with the progression of their drinking water supply.

Last year, the Drinking Fountain Association (DFA) donated money to a village in Zambia to assist in the education of hygiene and install a drinking water well, and provide sanitisation equipment. The village never had access to a drinking water well prior to this, in the past the children would have to walk for more than two hours to collect water from a small unclean waterway. Zambia was chosen as it was rated 165th out of 177 countries in the Human Development Index. The lack of access to clean water and sanitation, coupled with disease has left more than half of Zambian children with severe illnesses and malnutrition. After the donation from the DFA children can now bathe safely and regularly in clean water as well as grow nutritious crops with the clean water from the well.

It’s important to remember there are people in the world who need help from more fortunate countries, especially in the area of clean water supply. Drinking Water Fountains is aware of the help that is required and will be working on a plan to support developing nations in the near future.

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THE DRINKING FOUNTAIN ASSOCIATION

One of our aims when we established DrinkingWaterFountains.co.uk was to also look to the history of drinking water fountains within the UK and further afield.

Research was done and one of the most interesting entities in the industy is the drinking fountains association - www.drinkingfountains.org. The content below is taken directly from the associations website and we encourage readers to look in depth at the site.

“The objectives of the Association are to promote the provision of drinking water for people and animals in the United Kingdom and Overseas and the preservation of the Association’s archive materials, artefacts, drinking fountains, cattle troughs and other installations.”

When the Association was set up in London in 1859 it was against a background of a filthy river Thames full of untreated sewage, rubbish and effluent from factories, water borne cholera, but most importantly inadequate free drinking water. An article in Punch magazine at the time of the Great Exhibition in 1851 said ‘Whoever can produce in London a glass of water fit to drink will contribute the best and most universally useful article in the whole exhibition’.

Then in 1858 a paper read to the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science on the work being done to improve sanitary arrangements provoked much nation interest, and Samuel Gurney M.P rapidly took up its comments. He set up the Metropolitan Free Drinking Fountain Association (as it was then called) in 1859. Prince Albert wrote conveying his deep interest in the objects of the Association. Others giving their support included the Archbishop of Canterbury and a number of other prominent people.

So it was the first fountain was unveiled, on 21 April 1859, at the boundary wall of St.Sepulchre’s church, Snow Hill before a large enthusiastic crowd. (In fact it was recorded for posterity in an engraving, which appeared in the Illustrated London News as shown below).

Now approaching its 150th year the Association has provided over 4,000 drinking fountains, nearly 1,000 cattle troughs and 40 water wells overseas since 1859.

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