It will be the restaurants’ choice whether they charge for it or not…

In a bid to cut down on plastic usage and make dining out more affordable, all Dubai restaurants and hotels will have to offer filtered tap water to guests from 2020.

According to The National, Dubai Municipality made the announcement as part of updates to the Dubai Food Code, which will be released in 2020.

The head of Dubai Municipality’s drinking water control unit, Amal Albedwawi, confirmed the news on Monday November 11, saying, “from next year, whenever you visit a hotel or restaurant you can select whether to have bottled water or filtered tap water.”

Restaurants will be able to decide individually whether they charge customers for the filtered tap water, and indeed how much they charge.

The Dubai Municipality official highlighted that while they had not set any specific rules around whether restaurants could charge for tap water, she didn’t think it would be.

“In most places around the world tap water is not chargeable so if it’s not a global trend I don’t think it will be sold here either,” Ms Albedwawi said.

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The Food Code was first introduced by Dubai Municipality in 2013, and was designed to provide guidelines for food safety to restaurants and hotels in the city.

Although the Dubai Food Code is not federal law, the new rule on offering tap water in restaurants as laid out in the Code could lead to a law being written.

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