Could Toronto make drinking fountains accessible year-round? This engineering grad says yes

A group of engineering students says it's found a way to make drinking fountains available year-round in Toronto, and is calling on the city to pour out the funds to make that vision a reality.

The solution sprang from a University of Toronto class project on technology for global development, where five students were tasked with finding a way to make drinking fountains operational throughout the year.

Carmelle Chatterjee, a recent graduate of chemical engineering, was among them. She says wall-mounted fountains attached to buildings and community centres can be converted to make water fountains available in any season.

"While winterizing and making this possible in a cold and harsh Toronto climate may pose some difficulties, there definitely is the technical knowledge to overcome those issues," Chatterjee said.

Toronto has over 700 drinking water fountains across the city. The city could not verify how many of its water fountains are wall mounted, but the U of T students say in East York alone, about one in 20 are.

Standalone water fountains' pipes freeze throughout the winter. But if the pipes for wall-mountain fountains are properly insulated and secured with a freeze-resistant valve to accommodate harsh winter weather, they could be available to Torontonians all year, said Chatterjee.

Recently, city council approved a $2.8-million investment to open washrooms and drinking water fountains earlier in the spring and keep them open longer in the fall. Chatterjee wants to see a portion of that money to go toward converting at least some fountains for year-round use.

It's a move she says would bring Toronto in line with other cities that have made such an investment. Vancouver has all-season fountains and Edmonton has one, she said. With enough public support, Chatterjee says, the fountains could be reality in this city as well. 

"Everyone in Toronto will benefit from this. People who visit parks, people with kids, elderly people, those with accessibility needs, but especially the marginalized," Chatterjee said. "Having water access for them is really crucial and would actually fulfil their human right to water, which right now is not being met."

City says changes would be costly

Chatterjee says her group is calling for the city to retrofit 20 fountains.

She says Toronto spends about $2000 to $3000 per wall-mounted water fountain and up to $7500 on the high end. Each costs about $700 to $800 to operate each year. With those costs, the city would be able to afford to winterize at least 20 water fountains for year-round use within its $2.8-million budget, she argues.

In a statement, the city told CBC Toronto that the current infrastructure doesn't support year-round access and major changes to make that happen would be costly. 

Those changes include updating the plumbing to make sure it's below the frost line and installing a heat trace line — a sort of cable to maintain the temperature of pipes. Water would also have to run continuously to prevent freezing during the winter, it said.

The city also said the $2.8 million it allocated will also go toward winterizing bathrooms, not just fountains. Making fountains accessible year-round would require "a costing exercise and comprehensive review," it added. 

Challenging but possible, says industry voice

Robert MacLeod is a brand manager for Murdock, a manufacturer and supplier of bottle fillers and water fountains, at the distributor Dobbin Sales.

He says if the necessarily plumbing infrastructure is in place, existing wall-mounted fountains can be retrofitted. Without that, they might need to be replaced. 

A bottle filler and fountain combo could cost up to $10,000, including the cost of the fountain infrastructure and installation, he said. If just water and drain lines need to be changed, it can be cheaper.

While it's technically possible to have fountains year-round, there are specific factors to consider in a Toronto climate, he says.

Those considerations include the potential flash freezing of the aerator — a small end piece of the faucet, access to the water lines that drain, looking at the infrastructure on the inside of the wall and installing a freezer system model. Year-round fountains would also require more frequent maintenance. 

"A couple of potential failure points, but not anything catastrophic," MacLeod says. "The spirit of what they're trying to do, I think it's really great not accepting what we've always done as the answer."

David Meyer, the professor for the course, said he wanted students to understand that "most of the world's problems are not technical."

Still, students who have trained as engineers can have more credit on issues like this one because of their technical background, he says. 

"When my students write a report saying we could for sure do drinking water fountains in February, people are like, 'Oh, these are engineering students. They're probably right.'" 

For now, Chatterjee is hoping the city will see the importance of the year-round access.

"There is true demand for this," Chatterjee said. "City officials need to listen to the people... This is a Torontonian issue."