Offside
Last week, Ghent’s city council achieved a nearly unheard-of unanimous decision when it approved a proposal by councillor Matthias Storme (N-VA) to promote the provision of free tap water for customers in restaurants and pubs.
Offside: the waterfront
The food service industry here, Storme argues, is too worried they might lose a sale if a customer gets a free glass of water instead of having to pay for the bottled stuff. He appears not to be wrong on that count. “Anyone who offers free water will find a way to make the customer pay all the same,” promised a spokesperson for the sector federation, Horeca Vlaanderen. “Free is an illusion.”
“We won’t be doing it,” the owner of Café René, a Belgo-French restaurant in the centre of Ghent, reported in De Morgen. “In France you get free tapwater, but you pay €5 for a cola. Our cola costs €2.10. If you want water, you have to pay for it. How else am I going to pay my staff?"
According to Storme, free tap water is not only hospitable, the actual H2O itself is healthier than bottled water and has a daintier environmental footprint.
As far as Stéphanie Lippens, who runs a brasserie in the central Sint-Baafsplein, is concerned, customers won’t be impressed. They’ll continue to order bottled water “because they think it tastes better,” she forecast.
