Visitors to Floriade will have access to free, fresh drinking water at this year’s event as part of efforts to encourage more Canberrans to make water their drink of choice and reduce waste from plastic bottles, Chief Minister, Katy Gallagher and Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, Shane Rattenbury, announced today.
“The ACT Government is working hard to make water the drink of choice across many different environments in the ACT including public schools and in city thoroughfares like Garema Place to reduce the temptation for people to purchase sugary drinks which we know are bad for an individual’s health,” the Chief Minister said.
“Floriade is a popular outdoor event and I pleased to see that visitors to the flower display will be able to easily refill their water bottles with water rather than choose a less healthy option to rehydrate.”
“Tap water is a convenient and healthy alternative to purchasing sugary drinks at events, and reusing your own drink bottle helps to reduce the amount of disposable plastic bottles that go to landfill,” said Mr Rattenbury.
“Event goers are encouraged to bring their own refillable bottles from home or grab one of the free reusable bottles available from the Information Marquee and fill up at any of the six portable refill stations around the Floriade site.
“This is part of an initiative out of the ACT Labor-Greens Parliamentary Agreement, to install drinking fountains with refill taps in public places across Canberra in an effort to reduce the use of disposable bottles and increase water consumption.
“The ACT Government is committed to improving the access and availability of water at public events as part of the Towards Zero Growth – Healthy Weight Action Plan and will have stations in place at many future events, such as next year’s Multicultural Festival.
The community is also able to hire the portable water refill stations used at Floriade, for their own event for free. There are 12 units available and they can be hired through ACT Health and ACTSmart. For more information on the hiring portable water refill stations please contact Canberra Connect on 13 22 81 or www.canberraconnect.act.gov.au.
Mr Rattenbury said the portable water refill stations initiative complements a current project to install 30 drinking/refill stations in key public locations such as town centres, sporting fields, and parks.
“Five drinking fountains with refill stations have been installed already and work is currently underway at Calwell District Playing Field. The new fountains are due to all be installed by May 2015.
“A full list of the drinking fountain locations can be found at www.tams.act.gov.au.
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