New York City is among few major metropolitan hubs without any free drinking water requirements for clubs or restaurants. In the world’s wealthiest city and premier nightlife destination, with enviable access to the Catskills and Delaware Watersheds, guests often must fill empty bottles at bathroom sinks (or drink straight from the faucet), pay steep prices for bottled water, or wait in long lines just to stay hydrated.

Even worse: New York City does not require free drinking water at outdoor events, either, regardless of the time of year and crowd sizes.

At the same time, as New York City health officials long acknowledged, a specific cluster of several neighborhoods bare the ultimate brunt of sewage backups, extreme heat, and lack of access to clean drinking water or cooling facilities. These neighborhoods are exclusively in high-poverty or very-high-poverty areas.

As a result, each year since 2022, New York City has seen more deaths, hospitalizations, ER admissions, EMS calls, and state healthcare expenditures for dehydration and heat-illness.

This isn’t a matter of water supply (or lack thereof); it’s a matter of access and the absence of clean drinking water where and when it’s scarce due to environmental & economic factors.

In 2019, NYC’s Department of Environmental Protection launched “Water On The Go”, a city-funded mobile water stations program for outdoor events (including NYC Open Streets) and pass through underserved, heat-vulnerable areas. While the program was widely supported and praised, it discontinued due to COVID-19. Let’s bring it back.

Water is life’s essence; and New Yorkers deserve easy access to it no matter were they are.

That’s why, to this end, the Drink Some Water Act proposes:

Requiring indoor nightlife and entertainment establishments to construct and maintain drinking water stations which are:

• Easily accessible (including ADA compliant)
• Strategically placed
• Adequately supplied
• At no additional cost to guests
• Separated from bar area
• Adherent to sanitation and safety guidelines

Amending drinking fountain-to-person ratio from 1:500, to 1:125-150 patrons, OR a minimum of 2 stations at a single venue (whichever number is higher);

• Total quantity of potable drinking water on-premises required, determined by number of guests (expected, capacity, tickets sold) multiplied by minimum amount of water for each guest (ex: 6-8oz per-guest, 12-16oz);

Requiring outdoor events/ assembly spaces to arrange for and provide mobile water stations which are:

• Operated or rented from NYCDEP-vetted private companies & services;
• Held to the same accessibility and maintenance regulations as indoor water stations;

Appropriating $400,000 to purchase 5 mobile hydration services vehicles to be maintained and operated through the NYCDEP which can be rented by event promoters at little-to-no cost.

And, using those vehicles, re-launching the 2019 Department of Environmental Protection’s “Water-On-The-Go” mobile water station program for communities vulnerable to extreme heat, drought, sewage backups, and water pollution.

• The New York City DEP shall also create mass awareness campaigns to promote these services, as well for as risks of dehydration and heat-related illness.
• DEP should continuously research areas of need for mobile hydration services, particularly in lower-income areas, throughout the months of May – September.

For the Drink Some water Act’s full text, click here.