法国巴黎公共供水公司于本周二在巴黎东部的一个公园推出了该市首个公共饮水机，可免费无限量为市民提供气泡水，希望由此减少瓶装水的消费及其对环境的污染。据介绍，公共饮水机中的水有加气、未加气、冰镇及常温等不同选择，以满足市民的不同需求。巴黎公共供水系统的水一半来自于160公里以外的地下泉，另一半则是来自于塞纳河和马恩河，经过过滤和净化处理后均可安全饮用。供水公司的发言人表示，推出公共饮水机就是为了提升巴黎自来水的形象，告诉人们巴黎的自来水是绝对安全的，而且这样的饮用方式很环保，不需要包装，不会产生垃圾，对环境没有污染。他同时指出，如果该公共饮水机受到普遍欢迎，今后还会推广到其他人群密集的公共场所。法国是全球第八大瓶装水消费国。2009年，法国人消耗瓶装水产生的废物有26.2万吨。

Eco-conscious Parisians can now get their sparkling water free and in unlimited supply at a new public drinking fountain installed by city authorities, which aims to wean consumers off bottled water and onto tap.(Agencies)

Eco-conscious Parisians can now get their sparkling water free and in unlimited supply at a new public drinking fountain installed by city authorities, which aims to wean consumers off bottled water and onto tap.

Unveiled on Tuesday in the Jardin de Reuilly park in the east of the city by publicly owned water company Eau de Paris, the fountain injects carbon dioxide into regular tap water to make it bubbly, and chills it before delivering it to consumers.

Separate faucets also provide a still version of the beverage, both refrigerated and unrefrigerated, and again pumped directly from the city's own public water supply

"Our aim is to boost the image of Paris tap water," said Philippe Burguiere, spokesman for Eau de Paris.

"We want to show that we're proud of it, that it's totally safe, and that it's ecological as there's no oil involved, no waste and no packaging," he said.

The French are the world's eighth biggest consumers of bottled water, downing an average of 128 litres (28 Imp gallons) each of the still or sparkling beverage in 2009, according to statistics from the Earth Policy Institute.

That generated over 262,000 tonnes of plastic waste, while just making the bottles consumed close to 4.5 million barrels of crude oil equivalent.

According to Burguiere, in Paris at least, there's absolutely no need for consumers to buy bottled water.

Half of the city's public water supply comes directly from underground springs located up to 160 km (99.42 miles) away. The other half is pumped from the rivers Seine and Marne then filtered, treated and tested to make it safe for consumption.

For lovers of sparkling water, however, switching to the tap version will still mean a trek to the public park rather than picking up a six-pack from the supermarket, and there's no guarantee that consumers will prove willing.

"This is a first, so we're going to watch how Parisians react and whether there's an uptake. Then we might gradually install others in the busiest parks," said Burguiere.

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(Agencies)

Vocabulary:

wean...off: Slowly stop a dependency on something, 逐渐放弃...

（中国日报网英语点津 Helen 编辑）