It's going to sound like I'm defending them in some way, which I'm really not because the whole thing is stupid, but they're not charging for the drinking fountain they're charging for the cold filtered water, which is going to incur some kind of power and maintenance cost that's while negligible at scale is beyond the norm. Room temperature tap water is still free here.

Sorry I really hate this line of thinking.

I also hate privatising costs for social services so we're in agreement on that....

... but no cost faced by the municipality is trivial. They correct taxes to pay for it. You can go to the meetings and have your say in how it's spent. More water fountains means more money.

If it were up to me we would increase taxes so we could have all the fountains.

I don’t think the thing costs only $2 to install? $2 price per liter of refrigeration on your water does not imply the the system costs $2

Refrigerated water fountains have been existing in parks, schools, libraries, and public buildings for decades with no on-demand cost to their end users. Our tax dollars paid for them easily and the cost is obviously trivial compared to everything else your local or state government spends money on.

There is no valid justification for this. It's just greed.