Dubai restaurants will offer filtered tap water to customers from 2020

One of the things that makes Dubai's restuarant scene stand out from cities in Europe and the United States is that restaurants here do not offer free filtered water. But all that will be chnaging very soon. 

From 2020, Dubai restaurants have been advised to offer free tap water and according to new guidelines in the Dubai Food Code, landlords will be responsible for testing the quality of their tanks.

However, it will be up to the restaurants to make the decision whether to offer it for free or charge customers for it. 

“Whenever you go to restaurants or hotels, you will now be seeing drinking water regulations. If you want to have a cup of water, you will see you can get it from the tap or from the bottle and you just have to select which one,” sAmal Al Bedwawi, Head of the Drinking Water Control Unit at Dubai Municipality said to Gulf News.

This move is a bid by the Dubai government to reduce the city's dependence on single-use plastic.