The Price of Water Vienna

Vienna can boast the world’s best tap water. But is that a reason to charge for a glass of it at a restaurant?

An acquaintance of this columnist just posted a message on Facebook, and it wasn’t friendly. He wrote that, having dined that evening at a pizzeria in central Vienna, when settling the bill, he was enraged to find he had been charged €1.30 for a quarter-litre of tap water.

For a while now a small but increasingly bitter struggle has been building, not just in Vienna but across the country, over the value of water. The crux of the disagreement: should restaurants be allowed to charge for bog-standard tap water? It being perfectly normal custom to do so in other countries, particularly in regions with a strong dependence on tourism, increasing numbers of Austrian gastronomic outlets have begun charging for tap water if it is ordered by customers. Otherwise, they say, people would only ever drink free water. And because serving water, even straight from the tap, still accounts for valuable working hours, which have to be paid for somehow. Hmmm. Convinced? No, and neither are the Viennese.

Unlike in other places, water in Vienna is more than just a colourless liquid with a mildly chlorinated odour that appears like magic out of the tap. Firstly, Vienna’s water does not smell of chlorine, because it is arguably the finest water to flow out of the taps of city apartments anywhere in the world: Styrian spring water, no less, pumped directly into the capital through a pipeline specially built in 1873 and which supplies Vienna with fresh, clean and cold water to this day. Vienna’s tap water is so pure and of such quality that anyone caught drinking water out of a bottle in the Austrian capital is likely to be looked at by passers-by as if they are soft in the head. After all, why pay good money for something, haul it home and generate yet another hyper-annoying container when you can access an endless supply of the same stuff-a high-quality, environmentally-friendly version, no less-simply by turning the tap in your kitchen? (OK, tap water isn’t fizzy, I grant you. But that’s as far as it goes.)

 

With all the exhibitions opening nowadays, Istanbul is becoming a veritable art city’

“I Chose Art”

When asked what means one can use for political action, German artist Joseph Beuys replied, “I chose art. ’’Now, an exhibition, ‘Joseph Beuys and His Students’, at the Sakip Sabana Museum (SSM) explains a lot. You have to take time to read all the panels if you want to understand… Accompanying Beuys in the exhibition, which brings together close to 350 drawings, photographs and prints, are his students, Peter Angermann, Lothar Baumgarten, Walter Dahn, Felix Droese, Imi Giese, Imi Knoebel, Katharina Sieverding and Norbert Tadeusz. Through 1 November.

“This Is Not A Retrospective!”

‘Site’ is not a retrospective even though it covers Sarkis’s 50-year career as an artist. The artist is royally annoyed if anybody says this. Hallmark of the exhibition, curated by Levent Qalikoglu, Chief Curator of Istanbul Modern, are materials that are open-ended, multi-layered and stubbornly unfinished… as well as Sarkis’s constantly re-created installations, works he has saved up and breathed life into over the years, the costumes, the sculptures, the stained glass and the neons… Head for Istanbul Modem to see this exhibition, which the artist is continuously renewing. Through 10 October.

When it comes to government bonds, on the other hand, the returns are less interesting. Mathias Bauer, head of Raiffeisen Capital Management: “Government bonds have long been classified as a safe haven for investment, but corporate papers are now preferable on risk grounds.” This is why Austria’s money experts in general are advising investors to alter their strategies. Franz Witt-Dorring, Head of UBS Austria: “Investors should not commit to any government bonds with a term longer than seven years, since such papers could come under pressure in the next 12 to 24 months.” Erste Bank expert Hollinger went on: “Investors should be reducing the average remaining term of their fixed-interest bonds held in security deposits. They should also consider shifting their fixed-interest securities into floaters.”

Private Banking Manager Ohswald: “Share funds which actively hedge the interest rate risk offer good opportunities. Investors should avoid funds which only display one index, however.”