The Town of Niverville is now offering free water bottle refills through the Blue W campaign.

Blue W is a mapped database of shops, cafes, and public facilities where people can refill their reusable water bottles with town water for free.

Angela Janz is the Recreation Programmer for Niverville. She says Southern Health encouraged the town to join the program in an effort to promote healthy living and town council approved the plan.

“The Town of Niverville decided to be a part of this program because it was something that was promoting municipal tap water. It is providing another service for people within our community as well as visitors to our community that perhaps just need to fill a water bottle and it is also contributing to the elimination of waste such as plastic bottles."

Evan Pilkington is the Managing Director for BlueW.org. He says they currently have 27,000 locations in their database and they hope to at least triple that number this year. He notes not only does it give people more options, it can also reduce waste.

"It is an everyday way to simply avoid single-use plastics. It is a very simple way to proceed, if you have a reusable water bottle then you have a choice, you don’t necessarily need to create more waste and it is also a functional way to save money as well. I think it is just an efficient way to live."

Janz says this initiative should also benefit those coming through the community on the Crow Wing Trail.

"We have people that use the trail and are coming and making a little stop in our community. Perhaps they just want to fill their water bottles, stop for a bite to eat, this is just another option for them to come into businesses and while they may be filling a water bottle at no charge, there are other benefits to that business and potential revenues."

Janz says the town office is currently the only location in Niverville that is participating in Blue W but they will be inviting local businesses who are on town water to join as well. Locations that offer these water refilling services will have a large Blue W sticker in their window going forward.