Even as Budapest gets warmer with each passing day now, we can look forward to enjoying cool liquid relief with firehydrants that double as drinking fountains, which will gradually appear at a total of 43 points citywide during the sizzling season. We previously reported on this creative endeavor dreamed up by the locally based Ivócsap Projekt (aka the ReHydrant Project), utilizing a clever little device to turn ordinary hydrants into drinking fountains without compromising their original function. We can easily spot these temporary sipping stations by their blue attachments, but this map also shows each location.
The Municipality of Budapest, Budapest Waterworks, and BVA Nonprofit Ltd. will manage the 43 hydrants together as they are gradually added to hydrants found all around downtown. The ever-bustling area of Deák Ferenc Square will get six taps, and these are going to be first ones that we can use. The project was one of the winners of Design Terminál’s “Smart City Lab” competition, and this initiative will make life in Budapest a lot easier for everyone, as people will not have to rely on polluting plastic bottles to stay hydrated. As we can read at the official website, the drinking taps were created because of the lack of public drinking fountains. This simple innovation can turn any Hungarian hydrant into a drinking fountain within a few seconds – without detracting from their primary fire-safety function.
After pushing the button on the blue attachment on the fire-red hydrants, the tap will flow for 15 seconds. There’s only one point on it where the water spouts, and we can drink straight from it or fill our bottles. The device is environmentally friendly (by using it, we can reduce the amount of water bottles that end up in the garbage) and economical, as it closes itself. Thanks to this endeavor, we look forward to long summer days and nights out and about in the city feeling refreshed wherever we go!
