City re-opens all but one of its public drinking fountains

THE City of Greater Geelong has re-opened all but one of its public drinking fountains after an independent testing and analysis program.

The Department of Health and Human Services has advised that 166 of the 167 city-owned public drinking fountains are safe to use.

The sole drinking fountain to be closed is located at Aldershot Reserve in St Albans Park, which showed levels of potential concern to health if large amounts of water were regularly consumed.

The department advised that people do not need to be concerned if they have consumed water from the city’s fountains, as drinking water fountains are not a primary source of drinking water.

The drinking fountains will be recommissioned over a two-week period. This will involve a process of reconnecting water supply and flushing each fountain for a period of five minutes.

The advice also suggests it is generally good practice to flush public drinking water fountains for about 30 seconds before drinking to draw fresh water to the outlet.

The city has advised that water supplied by Barwon Water is completely safe to drink, as this is not an issue related to the quality of water being supplied but with the public drinking fountain infrastructure.

“The city has continued to take a conservative and precautionary approach to the reopening of the drinking fountains, ensuring public safety has been protected at all times,” acting director of planning and development Joanne Van Slageren said.

“We want to assure the community that they should feel confident that an extremely thorough investigation process has been followed, and they can resume drinking from the city’s public drinking fountains safely.”

The department has prepared a Community Update, available at geelongaustralia.com.au, confirming that the majority of Geelong’s drinking fountains do not present any health concern.