When tap water costs

If you are thirsty, you can always obtain clean drinking water from your own tap – this is a matter of course for us. This valuable resource is handled differently in restaurants in the city of Zug, however, as a survey of ten restaurants shows. While you have to pay for tap water in certain places, other places are more accommodating.

“Hahnenwasser” (tap water) is even shown on the menu in the branches of the Bossard bakery. "The water itself is basically free, but we charge for the service," it states, alongside the price of CHF 2 per three decilitres of tap water. Stefan Meier, the chef at the Rathauskeller, understands this argument well: "It is not about the water, but the service that has to be paid for." After all, the water had to be served, and the glass and carafe have to be washed afterwards.

The same view is held in the Parkhotel, in the Bären and in the Brandenberg. In these restaurants, guests receive a glass of tap water for free with wine or coffee. If water from the tap is the only drink, it will be charged, however. Julia Haase, Head of Gastronomy at the Parkhotel, points out that the service costs for the staff have to be paid, at CHF 1.50 per glass. There appear to have been few, or no complaints about this in all three restaurants.

The topic is handled differently in the Schiff restaurant. Tap water has always been served free of charge by host Erich Barth. It’s an opportunity to show generosity, says Barth. "Most of the guests not only consume tap water, they also eat something." Barth has also noticed a decline in the demand for tap water in recent months. He suspects that this may have a connection with the recent discussions about pesticide pollution in water. Tap water in the Restaurant Henry’s on the ground floor of the Uptown skyscraper is also free of charge. Chef Lara Bächi says: "If a guest wants to drink tap water, which he could draw himself, he shouldn't have to pay for it." There has never been a case in which a guest only consumed tap water.

Should guests pay for tap water or not? The non-profit organization “Water for Water” (WfW) offers a sustainable solution to this debate. Catering establishments charge a fee for tap water, which is passed on to “Water for water”, and is used 100 percent for drinking water projects in Zambia and Mozambique.

Only ordering a glass of tap water in a restaurant is rare in Zug's gastronomy.

Confiserie Speck was the first restaurant in Zug to become a partner of “Water for Water” in 2012 - with three branches. Speck asks for three francs per glass of tap water, which then goes to the organization after the VAT deduction, explains owner Walter Speck. “It’s an ecologically sensible solution. The income from beverages is important for restaurateur, of course, but foregoing this part of our sales is our social commitment.”

Matthias Hegglin from the Au Premier restaurant in the City Hotel Ochsen Zug also speaks of a “good thing”. “When I started as a restaurateur 30 years ago, almost no guest drank tap water. But that has changed.” Nowadays, there are always guests who order tap water and hope that it will be free of charge. “Since we became partners of ‘Water for Water’, people have been happy to pay for water from the tap. We are thereby also supporting a good cause,” says Hegglin.

The Intermezzo restaurant in the city of Zug is also a partner of WfW. The commitment to “Water for Water” is shown on the menu. This has been very well received, says restaurant manager Benedikt Prenzel, and branded or bottled water is no longer requested very often. “We notice that many guests swap their mineral water for tap water in order to make a contribution. If our guests come to realise what our tap water is really worth, our participation in the project will have paid off.”

Ten catering businesses in Zug are partners of “Water for water”

The Lucerne non-profit organization “Water for Water”, WfW for short, was founded in 2012, and promotes the consumption of tap water in Switzerland, as well as supporting projects for clean drinking water in Africa. "With the WfW concept, restaurateurs give tap water a value, and thereby assume a global responsibility," explains co-founder Lior Etter. There are still almost a billion people worldwide without access to clean drinking water, while there is a lack of awareness of the valuable resource in Switzerland. In addition to the Classic Concept, in which restaurateurs sell tap water and donate all their tap water revenue, WfW has also developed a ‘Green Concept’. Partners do not sell any ‘branded’ water, but only serve tap water, and usually donate around 10% of the water revenue to WfW. "Tap water has an eco-balance that is up to 1,000 times better than bottled water," says Etter.

Ten catering establishments in the canton of Zug are involved with WfW: in the city, these are the Ochsen au Premier restaurant, the Intermezzo, the Restaurant Theater Casino and three branches of the Speck confectionery (Alpen-, Baarerstrasse, Metalli). The Lido and “a propos Catering” in Walchwil, the Restaurant Raten in Oberägeri and the “Sihlmätteli” in Menzingen are WfW partners. Of these, only the “Sihlmätteli” is a Green Partner, with all the other Zug companies being involved as Classic Partners.

Further information on “Water for Water” is available on www.wfw.ch.