GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – More than 10,000 runners are registered for the Geneva Marathon for Unicef, three weeks before the 3-4 May event. And this year they’ll find there’s a difference: their all-critical water supply won’t come from plastic bottles but from mains water.

The SIG, which supplies Geneva’s water, has been on a campaign to drink tap water, which is clean, safe and tastes good in Geneva.

They’ve been selling water carafes as a marketing pitch and trying to get the city’s restaurants to shift from profitable bottled sales to free tap water. Ask for a carafe of water the next time you visit a Geneva restaurant.

This year, says the group on the marathon web site, the Drinking Water SIG teams “face the challenge of providing mains water to thousands of runners throughout the course. The Geneva Marathon is the first event in Switzerland to ensure the supply of tap water, avoiding the transportation and consumption of bottled water.”