Inhabitants and visitors to Vienna are up in arms over a move by restaurant owners to charge for tap water. Objectors feel that to charge for tap water amounts to cultural sacrilege in a city where fresh tap water, fed by Alpine springs, is seen as a birthright and part of the Vienna experience. For the time being, payment for the tap water is voluntary and 11 restaurants are participating in a charity campaign to raise funds for water-starved Sierra Leone. However, the businesses keep half the water fee for themselves and prominent restaurateurs are now lobbying for a compulsory tap water charge. Many Viennese suspect that the Sierra Leone charity campaign coming at the same time as industry calls for a tap water charge are not a coincidence and have vowed to resist. One inhabitant, Marinko Medic, says that to charge for tap water would be absolutely outrageous as far as Im concerned. Another, Doris Roitner, calls the idea unacceptable and waitress Caroline Wehner believes that a free glass of water with an order should routinely be part of good service in Vienna. The charity running the Sierra Leone project says the idea is partly to strengthen awareness for the incalculable value of clean water in a city where taps are fed by Alpine streams and rivers. However, participating restaurants keep half of 2 euros per litre price. Restaurateur Bernt Querfeld says People used to drink four mugs of beer. Now they drink three and a glass of water. Water is free for now but I cannot tell you whether it will stay that way for long.