There’s water, water everywhere on Governors Island — but hardly a drop to drink.
On Memorial Day weekend, vendors in the 172-acre island’s new park space ran out of water bottles and people were forced to buy diet soda, park advocates say.
There were out-of-order signs on fountains and spray showers, and signs warning not to drink water from the rest rooms.
That’s because the former military base doesn’t have a drinkable water system. In 2010, city officials planned for a $4.5-million project to route water to the island.
The cost climbed to $15 million in 2013, when planners began building the water pipe under Brooklyn’s Buttermilk Channel.
Elizabeth Rapuano, of the Trust for Governors Island, said the system should be completed by the end of the summer — ending a decades-long drought.
Rapuano denied that vendors ran out of water bottles. Visitors can get bottles from one of seven vending machines or 12 food carts, she said. They can also fill up bottles from a tap at the Manhattan and Brooklyn ferry landings.
But Geoffrey Croft of NYC Park Advocates said he was at Governors Island’s new 30-acre park when vendors went dry.
“It’s a public safety issue,” Croft said. “We’re happy that it’s finally being addressed but wish this would have been completed a while ago.”