Clean water access is a right, not a privilege.
OpenTap is a free, open-source platform that makes it easy for anyone to report broken public water fountains — and holds cities accountable for fixing them.
The problem
Public drinking water fountains across the country are broken, disappearing, and in some cases delivering water contaminated with lead. There is no federal requirement to test or maintain them, no unified way for citizens to report problems, and no accountability mechanism to ensure repairs happen.
The people who suffer most are those who can least afford bottled water: people experiencing homelessness, children in underfunded schools, outdoor workers, and low-income communities.
How OpenTap works
Report
See a broken fountain? Report it in under 60 seconds via our website, text message, or by scanning a QR code.
Track
Every report appears on the public map and is tracked through a lifecycle: reported, acknowledged, in progress, resolved.
Fix
Cities get free dashboards to manage repairs. If they don't respond, the report escalates and becomes visible to journalists and council members.
What makes us different
Every fountain-finder app before us focused on discovery: “find a fountain near you.” OpenTap focuses on accountability: “this fountain is broken, who is responsible, and how long has it been broken?” Discovery apps die when data goes stale. Accountability platforms stay alive because there's always something to report and always pressure to fix it.
Our commitments
Free forever
No ads, no paid features, no premium tiers. OpenTap is a public good, not a product.
Open source
All code is public on GitHub under the MIT license. Anyone can contribute, audit, or fork it.
Open data
All fountain and report data is available via our public API. Journalists, researchers, and developers can build on it.
Your data is yours
We never sell data, share it with advertisers, or monetize user information in any way.
Get involved
OpenTap is built by volunteers who believe clean water access shouldn't depend on your zip code. Whether you're a developer, designer, civic tech advocate, or just someone who cares — there's a way to help.