Central Highlands Water has asked people in Ballarat to Choose Tap instead of bottled water. 

The water authority has enlisted Steve Moneghetti, along with many of the city’s most popular hotels, restaurants and cafes, to promote tap water from the region’s catchments as a healthy and environmentally friendly alternative to bottled water. 

Outlets participating in Choose Tap will be provided blue decanter bottles free of charge in which to offer patrons tap water, while portable drink fountains will be a feature of CHW’s Choose Tap Cafe at next month’s Begonia Festival in the Ballarat Botanical Gardens.

Central Highlands Water chairman Jeremy Johnson said drinking tap water was better for the environment.

“This is our way of promoting the benefits of tap water,” he said.

“We are proud of the quality of our water and as part of our program we are offering free blue glass bottles for tap water.”

Hospitality outlets already committed to the program include Cafe Europa, the Golden City Hotel, the Boat Shed, Oscar’s, the Lake View, Sails on the Lake, the Olive Grove, the Western Hotel and others.

CHW customer and community general manager Paul Clark said at the program’s launch on Wednesday: “Australians consume 370 million bottles of water in plastic bottles each year. That’s a lot of landfill.

“Bottled water is also more expensive. You could fill a single bottle with tap water for a whole year for the same amount of money as one bottle of bottled water.”

CHW has also released several fruit-drink recipes for consumers to experiment with when drinking tap water.

Mr Moneghetti, who is a Choose Tap ambassador, mixed up a strawberry basil blast on Wednesday.

“Some people might find plain water a bit bland, so a bit of fruit can spice things up,” he said.