A PUBLIC water tap has been unveiled on the streets of Glasgow to keep shoppers hydrated this Christmas.

Scottish Water’s latest Top up Tap, the first in the city, was opened on Buchanan Street on Tuesday, offering the people of Glasgow access to fresh, clean drinking water at the push of a button.

TV personality Jennifer Reoch took a break from picking up presents to be the first to fill her reusable bottle on the Style Mile, located at St Vincent Place junction.

The latest hi-tech unit is the third to be installed since Scottish Water announced its intention to create a network of 30 across the country.

Scottish Water’s Peter Farrer said: “We know our customers want access to places where they can top up with high-quality drinking water when on the move.

Through the creation of this network, and with the support of businesses across Scotland, we hope to effect this change and help people save money, boost their health and help reduce waste in the environment.”

The creation of this network forms part of Scottish Water’s ‘Your Water Your Life’ drive to encourage people to carry a bottle and refill on the go, for the benefit of their health, their pocket and the planet.

The unit, which is connected to the mains water supply and inspected regularly, digitally tracks water usage, helping record both cost and plastic savings.

Council leader Susan Aitken welcomed the switch on, announcing that introduce further Top up Taps could be added in the future.

She added: “We all need to keep hydrated but unfortunately as a city we throw away over 350,000 plastic bottles each day as we try to quench our thirst.

“Having a Top-Up Tap means you can still refresh while on the move, but will also assist the effort to end our reliance on single-use plastic bottles.”