I am the kind of person who hates to pay to buy a small bottle of water and increase waste. I always carry a bottle of water with me and refill it whenever possible. However, I notice that the public drinking water fountains at most of the rest areas, malls and other public locations in United States do not work properly or do not work at all.

Nonfunctional drinking water fountains appear so systematic that I think they are kept nonfunctional under some scam. It may be that the companies which sell bottled water make sure that these fountains do not work so they can sell more and more of their bottled water. I have taken road trips more than 1000 mile long in a stretch and I rarely found a good water fountain even at State Welcome Centers. If they work, they take forever to fill a small water bottle, or the flow is so small that you cannot fill bottle completely.

I went to San Francisco Center (Westfield Mall), and the water fountain there was not working at all. This place as its name suggests is the center of major activities in San Francisco, and always has lots of tourists in its vicinity. Nonfunctional water fountain at such a major location do need an explanation. I found the water fountain at Mall of America, Minneapolis not working properly either. At Squires Student Center, Virginia Tech, the water fountain at the most prime location is real bad. The water comes out of it, but neither can you drink it nor can you fill it because the flow is small. That fountain has been broken for at least last five years, and I have complained couple of times about it.

The other place where I saw poor drinking water fountain was in an Amusement Park, Great America in Santa Clara, CA.

I think there must be some kind of inquiry to find out if this is really a scam, or at least these water fountains must be repaired for people who want to use these fountains. Did you see a non functional water fountain at a place you didn't expect? Do comment about that.