Plastic rubbish in India is a real problem. Plastic lasts for centuries, doesn’t rot and is inedible. Burning it at best smells bad and adds to the green house effect, at worst is lethal. In short plastic cannot be easily disposed of. Plastic waste requires special disposal facilities which much of India does not have. A lot of plastic trash ends up dumped.

Steralised Water Machines

So it is really good to see water bottle refill kiosks appearing at train and bus stations. As they sound, they refill your bottle with cool, safe water for a few rupees.

Water Refill Places

Here is some specific information for towns I have visited. Some of it is rather old now and may be out of date.

Please add any refill schemes you know of in the comments below.

 Arambol

Go to Double Dutch Restaurant and get your water bottle refilled with safe, clean filtered water for a fraction of the cost –  saving money and the environment.

Kaza

The good folk atecosphere Kaza will  refill your water bottle with steralised water for free though they would like you to leave a donation.

Leh

Boiled, filtered water refills can be got from the Woman’s Alliance, Ladakh Ecological Development Group LEDeG, Dzomsa and some other places. You can pick up a map from LEDeG showing all of them or download it here.

Dzomsa. This shop refills your water bottle with boiled filtered water. They have shops on Old Fort Road and Main Street and maybe one more (though they are not all open out of season).

Rajasthan Jhodpur

Refill your water bottle from the water cooler in the square by the clock tower. It tastes good, is indeed cool and there is no charge. We treated ours with our steripen water treatment system – see the end of the post for details.

Udaipur

Has refill kiosks at the train and bus station.

Varanasi 

There is a water refill kiosk at the Train station. In the streets, shops will refill your bottle from water dispensers. Tastes fine but those of you with suspicious natures might want to steripen it too.

MORE

No refill place? Sterilise your own water.

When travelling in far flung places we will not buy water in plastic bottles. NO its just wrong. Instead we sterilize our own using a Steripen. The easiest way to make safe pleasant tasting water.

EVEN More

For other water refill points the world over check our big list
More plastic-free travel posts? Try the index
And of course….. how to back pack plastic free